WaterWar.net

Started working on drawing various valves found in stock water blasters.
Based on the above sample image, are there any valve types that should be added?

What I plan to do is to provide more information on how each of these valves operate and give a sense of how water flow is affected in a general sense. No current idea on how long it will take both to create all the illustrations and create the accompanying write-up. As there are a good number of valve types to discuss, I may end up creating a base article first, then add in more images and information as time permits.

As an aside, the Max-D valve was rather difficult to draw well and it'll be even more "fun" trying to illustrate how it actually functions.

Animated Max-D diagram (complete with a simulation of the noises they make), go! =p

Anyway, the pull valve diagram is a bit lacking in disambiguation and detail. How does the pin seal from the back? The sealing piston on the front should cover up the hole entirely. The rest of the valves look pretty good.

CA99 wrote:Anyway, the pull valve diagram is a bit lacking in disambiguation and detail. How does the pin seal from the back? The sealing piston on the front should cover up the hole entirely. The rest of the valves look pretty good.

The plug on the front of the piston closes the hole (no gaps), but I illustrated some tubing in front where the rectangular bump is. As for the rear-side seal, I now realize I'm missing an internal spring and can add a little more detail for the gasket around the pin. Thanks for pointing that out!

Is there any way we can import these into CAD for designs? lol

marauder wrote:Is there any way we can import these into CAD for designs? lol

Glad you like the diagrams, but while I might be able to export the Illustrator art for something compatible for CAD programs, since these are only 2D and not really to scale, their usefulness would be somewhat limited.

Not only are they 2D, I highly doubt that iSoaker tried to dimension any part of them accurately lol.

You disappoint me isoaker.

For what it's worth, the triggers are actually to scale, but the rest of the valve parts are not.

Well then, you are at least partially forgiven. In all seriousness though, these will be great for instructional purposes. In the future we'll be able to use 3D scanners to put different parts into CAD. There's still so much about stock internals that we have yet to learn. In theory you should be able to make predictions about pump volume, flow and other factors based on the size of the parts used.

OK, so first off... what water gun uses a ball bearing valve?
Second, your pull valve diagram is wrong. The spring goes after the hinge on the rod.
Here's an overly detailed crappy drawing that I whipped up in a few minutes: (with the valve open)

Or something like that. *EDIT* Yes, this is a Super Soaker CPS style pull valve.

@soakinader: Nice sketch! You're right; I had the spring on the wrong side and omitted the internal spring. I've created an improved illustration already based on CA99's comments above, but your sketch covers it well.

As for the ball-bearing valve, most small squirt guns (think Water Warriors Kwik Grip XLs) use them since they are cheap and easy to make. Not the best of valves, particularly once tubing inner diameter passes a certain size, but for small trigger-based blasters, they're perfect.

Edit: pull valves on the newer Water Warriors water blasters don't have a spring on the back side of the pin.

Finally getting around to putting these articles together. While only a brief overview article is up, I intend to have more in-depth explanations online over the coming weeks.

Soak on!

We've needed an article about this for a while. Just wondering though how much we know about which blasters use ball bearing check valves, spring based check valves, and pressure relief valves. I'd like to see a list.

Off topic, (sorry) Isoaker you need to put links to this and the pressurization technology overviews you did earlier this year in the tech section of the sight.

@marauder: hmmm... could try adding in such information to reviews, but some would be unconfirmed/guessing if no one has actually opened a particular model. For some models, I'm still not 100% sure about the exact nature of the valve (e.g. the Super Soaker 50 - are those spring-based one-way valves or some sort of rubber-gasket-type valve?)

@the oncoming storm: good point; added, but will improve how things look in due time

I didn't mean that you should change reviews to add that information, but I was wondering if someone could provide some information on which blasters use which valves. That information could be left here and or in a comment on the article.

marauder wrote:I didn't mean that you should change reviews to add that information, but I was wondering if someone could provide some information on which blasters use which valves. That information could be left here and or in a comment on the article.

Gotta think bigger, d00d!

While we could make a list here, it'll get buried after awhile. If it goes up onto people's review pages, not only will we encourage others to share findings on water blasters that don't have confirmed information yet, it also can get others thinking about the importance of valve types relative to blaster performance. The main difficulty I see for myself, though, is that the database driving iSoaker.com isn't the best design which would make it difficult to deal with any case where a particular model has more than one type of nozzle valve (one work-around is to associate the valve with the nozzle, but that would mean that the info would be replicated for blasters using nozzle selectors, so that's not optimal either).