Blumat auto watering

[laylow]

 

[laughingmoon]

Thanks for the diagram! I was tempted to draw one myself.

So to be clear, no vent line needed in a loop design?

 

[wisco61]

Its not needed but it would add another layer of safety.

The most important thing with these is to have your res high enough to get good pressure, and keep it at the same fullness to prevent changes in pressure which lead to very bad things.

 

[dansbuds]

What are you guys using to clean the salts build up in your lines ? i'm just running maxibloom &protekt through the lines & top feeding anything else needed like KB .

was thinking of dripclean ... is this good enough or would you recommend something else ? thanx guys ... lovin the blumats !!!!!!



growem green & stay safe ...Dans

 

[laughingmoon]

is it a change in pressure that causes problems, or a reduction?

The reason I ask is regarding the ability to go on vacation with a 5 gal res. If I keep it high enough, can I safely go down to, say, 1 gal?

 

[wisco61]

is it a change in pressure that causes problems, or a reduction?

The reason I ask is regarding the ability to go on vacation with a 5 gal res. If I keep it high enough, can I safely go down to, say, 1 gal?

With the way they work, changes in pressure cause problems. I'll use imaginary numbers here, but they should still illustrate the point.

A bucket with 4 gallons in it puts out 10 psi of pressure. You dial in your blumats for that pressure. The hoses are pinched just the right amount for that 10 psi.

When the bucket gets down to 2 gallons, its only putting out 5 psi of pressure. The hoses are still pinched according to 10 psi, but with only 5 psi coming, there isn't enough force to get any water through.

Now, if you adjust the blumats to drip properly at the 5 psi, the next time you top off the res and get back to 10 psi, the hoses aren't pinched enough and you get a run away blumat.

Long story short, they need a constant incoming pressure or they won't stay dialed in.

Did that make any sense?

 

[laughingmoon]

Yes, it most certainly did. Thank you.

Do we have a good idea of what psi range the blumats function properly at?

 

[wisco61]

The pressure reducer they sell is set at 1 bar, which is 14.5 psi, so I'd guess that is ideal. They can work at lower pressures, but there seems to be more problems with runaways the lower in pressure you go.

 

[laughingmoon]

Good point. My hope was to use a HD 5gal homer bucket for a res. Love to know the formula for psi at the bottom of that, dependent on water levels.

 

[wisco61]

Its quite a bit of difference and I had no end of troubles trying to use just a 5 gal bucket. Think of it this way, 3 gals of water weighs like 25 pounds, and with a bucket being the shape it is, that causes quite the pressure change.

If you don't want to have any kind of pump topping off the raised res, I would consider something like a 13 gal rubbermaid so the drop in water volume doesn't cause such a drop in water level.

But now I just have a 5 gal bucket hanging from the ceiling and I feed it with a very small pump from another res below. The hanging bucket has an overflow tube that goes back down to the bottom res so its always at the same water level and is keeping the water and drip clean circulating.

 

[rives]

The pressure change is as a result of the elevation change from the level of the water dropping, not the weight of the water. For every foot of elevation (head pressure), you gain .433 psi. For instance, if the water surface in your 5 gallon bucket is 1 foot above your blumats, you will have .433 psi. If you take that same bucket of water and elevate it to where the surface level is 10 feet above the blumats, you will have 4.33 psi. I use an aquarium auto-fill circuit that keeps my water level within a band about 2" high, and have had good luck.

 

[heady blunts]

OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHhhhhhh it's measured from the top.

that makes so much sense!

thanks guys!

 

[laughingmoon]

As wisco pointed out, the pressure reducer works it down to 1 bar. So the question remains, how high do I need to have my homer res, and how much leeway do I get with water levels so the blumats dont dry or overflow?

 

[rives]

I think that the higher that you can get it, the better off you are. To achieve 1 bar with elevation, you are going to need over 30', which would be difficult to achieve unless you are growing in a grain silo. My reservoirs are installed about 3' above the blumats, and I have had reasonable results - meaning a runaway about once per crop. My setup has a drain, but it is still a pain in the ass.

 

[nattynattygurrl]

Got some of these laying around somewhere...Got them last year, when prepping for a short trip, but never ended up needing to use them...Maybe we ought to at the very least reconsider giving them a try... ....Festies approach!

 

[sunnydog]

Pressure reducer

Pressure reducer

Against my previous advice, I am installing the B/M pressure reducer in my system.
I'll report back soon.
I've had it for a long time now, just haven't gotten around to it.

 

[laylow]

So whats the verdict on a final pot size of 3 gallon and how many Blumats you are using or should i be going for the maxi's?

Love the recirc idea Wisco...

So if i was to have a similar setup with a 100 gallon tank feeding a 5 gallon bucket with a recirculating over flow typ setup would i need the reducer to keep things in check in the 5 gal bucket that then feeds the blumats??

 

[heady blunts]

So whats the verdict on a final pot size of 3 gallon and how many Blumats you are using or should i be going for the maxi's?

no need for maxi's in a 3gal. i use 1 regular blumat per #3 smart pot. works like a charm

So if i was to have a similar setup with a 100 gallon tank feeding a 5 gallon bucket with a recirculating over flow typ setup would i need the reducer to keep things in check in the 5 gal bucket that then feeds the blumats??

no the pressure reducer is only to replace a reservoir. it screws on to your hose faucet. it does not require gravity to function.

Got some of these laying around somewhere...Got them last year, when prepping for a short trip, but never ended up needing to use them...Maybe we ought to at the very least reconsider giving them a try... ....Festies approach!

natty you gotta try em! i love mine

As wisco pointed out, the pressure reducer works it down to 1 bar. So the question remains, how high do I need to have my homer res, and how much leeway do I get with water levels so the blumats dont dry or overflow?

blumat recommends that for every 10 meters of feed line you use, you need to raise the reservoir 1 meter above the sensors. so if you have a big ass room and you loop the bastards around the whole thing and it takes 60 feet of line, then you'll want your res 6' above the tops of your containers.

 

[snoopytime]

So, 15psi is optimum . . and every foot gives you around 1/2 a PSI. So if someone was 'rockin' with gravity, they would have it around 10 feet high in a big ceiling grow room.

10 feet is like 5 psi . . so cant we just make a decent pump with a loop of 1/2" always on with an adjustable valve at the end returning a small amount of water to the res? And even a liquid pressure guage so you could adjust the relief valve at the end of the loop to maintain a say 5 psi or so.

 

[laughingmoon]

So, 15psi is optimum . . and every foot gives you around 1/2 a PSI. So if someone was 'rockin' with gravity, they would have it around 10 feet high in a big ceiling grow room.

10 feet is like 5 psi . . so cant we just make a decent pump with a loop of 1/2" always on with an adjustable valve at the end returning a small amount of water to the res? And even a liquid pressure guage so you could adjust the relief valve at the end of the loop to maintain a say 5 psi or so.

blumat recommends that for every 10 meters of feed line you use, you need to raise the reservoir 1 meter above the sensors. so if you have a big ass room and you loop the bastards around the whole thing and it takes 60 feet of line, then you'll want your res 6' above the tops of your containers.

I'm getting conflicting info here, sorta.