Looking for an automatic air relief valve

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peterl1365

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LifeTime Supporter
Mar 28, 2007
279
Murrieta, CA
Pool Size
13000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
I have a Pentair Clean and Clear Plus cartridge filter. It has a manual air relief valve.

The system tends to suck in air whenever the Hayward Navigator climbs the walls and reaches the water surface.

I'd like to get a valve that automatically releases the air, but not the water. It seems like Jandy filters have such a valve.

Anyone know where I can buy this valve? Will a Jandy replacement valve fit onto my Pentair (Pac-Fab) filter?

Thanks.
 
Pete,

I am able to reduce flow (suction) to my cleaner so it falls off the wall before it gets to the top and starts "slurping" Don't know if you can restrict your flow or if that would even work for the Navigator. It does work fairly well for me......cleaner runs a little slower, however.
 
It's pricey, but it seems to me that anything with standard pipe threads can be made to work.

How about something like this?
yhst-35824186955410_2261_663648694
 
hmmm very interesting but pricey as you mentioned. Would probably have to find a way to adapt it to the 1/2" (or less) threaded female connection on top of the Pentair. Will this stay sealed when there is no air to bleed?
 
tommytuna said:
hmmm very interesting but pricey as you mentioned. Would probably have to find a way to adapt it to the 1/2" (or less) threaded female connection on top of the Pentair. Will this stay sealed when there is no air to bleed?
Click to expand...
If the tank is full, yes. There's a float in it. If the filter drains down somehow when the pump is off, then it will let air in and it all will drain out.
 
Found another company called ARI -http://www.arivalves.com/products/water-supply/item/s-050-automatic-air-release-valve-segev

They seem to make a model with a check valve which prevents air entry. Can't seem to find pricing info but will contact the company on monday
 
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Looks like the radiant heating industry has a whole set of these auto release valves to automatically bleed air. Seems to be $10-20 items so i'm going to give one a try (instead of pressure gauge) to see what happens. If it works, I may rig up a tee so I can keep the pressure gauge.

WOndering if these cheaper units would work - http://www.pexsupply.com/Watts-0590719- ... nt-Feature

THink I could replace the pressure gauge with one of these?
 
So I went to home depot and bought - http://www.homedepot.ca/product/maid-o- ... ale/969598

I took out the pressure gauge and replaced it with this $8 device (+ a 1/8 -> 1/4 brass reducer). It definitely lets air out when the pump starts up and doesn't seem to leak. A few days later and I'm not sure if the salt is corroding the brass as there is still air buildup in the tank when I release manually? Maybe not enough pressure built up for it to release? I'm trying to find one made of plastic... The $150 Hayward seems like the Cadillac but it is a 3/4" setup and super expensive.
 

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tommytuna said:
Anybody know what the thread type/size is on the Pentair relief valve http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.5030240894648708&pid=1.7 - It doesn't look like standard NPT threading - threads look wider apart? I was going to screw in a short plastic riser and create a "T" with one side being my auto bleed valve and the other side containing the Pentair release + pressure gauge.
Click to expand...

I would have to double-check, but I believe that it is a standard thread. Probably 1/4 NPT. I'm pretty sure that it will accept any pressure gauges with a stand fitting.

It should be a fairly simple matter to install a tee and a couple of elbows so that you can use the auto-relief and the gauge simultaneously

That said, I've found over the years that the pressure relief wasn't necessary. If I get air trapped in the filter, it eventually gets sucked out and returned to the pool. The key thing is to make sure that you periodically run the pump at high speed to generate enough pressure (for me, it's around 20 psi) that the air gets pushed down the central PVC pipe inside the filter tank. That pipe is basically a snorkel that reaches to the top of the tank.

There was a time when I ran my pump at the lowest speeds possible. I think I had it as low as 900 rpm for slow filtering and 1900 rpm for surface skimming. Once I increased the skimming speed to around 2300 rpm, I never had any problems with air accumulation. I run the skimming speed about 40-60 minutes per day, depending on the season.
 
I just checked my filter. I didn't take it all the way apart, but I'm 99% certain that the port on the top of the Pentair relief valve is a female 1/4-NPT. You've probably already figured that out, but I thought I'd post it here for the next person that comes across this thread.
 
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