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SCWD's aren't useles


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  • 2 months later...

Jason:

 

Not that mod exactly, but something similar. I cut the intake part off and glued in a 1 1/4" female adapter. My results were mixed.

Pros:

1) much more flow b/c of 1 1/4" pvc coming in instead of 3/4" barbed fitting

2) easy to take apart and clean

 

Cons:

1) No longer worked in a low flow application (like my frag tank)

2) still got stuck a lot (caveats: at the time I had a lot of hair algae in the tank and I don't like to use sponge filters on pump intakes, so there was probably too much debris going through it)

 

Other:

1) much slower switching time

The increased diameter of the intake means lower velocity of the water as it passes by the little prop thing that causes the flow to switch from one side to the other. With approx 1000gph going through, I think it was switching every 15 seconds or so if I remember right.

 

I ended up taking it off because with the way I had it set up, even when it worked there was too much concentrated flow and I was blowing the sand off the bottom at one end of my tank and blasting the flesh off of corals at the others. I tried putting a couple of locline "Y" fittings on the outlets, but was never able to get them to stay. Plus it still got stuck often enough that it was just a pain in the neck. I tried it again recently when I set up a frag tank but without a lot of flow the prop doesn't turn at all so it doesn't switch.

 

If you are going out to BRK this weekend I might be able to bring it by if you are interested in taking a look.

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Guest NSC

Rascal I am interested in seeing your mod please bring it to the social!

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so say if you port the inlet to 3/4 inch and outlets to 1/2 inch. As long as you run around the reccomended gph (1300 ish) you should be fine?

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where can i buy the proper weldon for this application and what weldon number is it?>

 

The SCWD is ABS so you are looking for ABS to PVC. I used Weld-On 16 because it was the only one I had. It worked well in this application because it is so thick it covered up a lot of the imperfections in my cut.

 

I will bring it to the social if I can convince my wife that we should go. With Johnny's deal on Reef Crystal's I'd say the odds look good at this point.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Bump as to not lose this thread, I will be trying out this mod, making it 1" in and 1" out with the cap top for easy access. Just to see how it goes

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Sooo since no one else was brave enough... I took the plunge, I hope this is a project I actually finish...

 

Started with one perfectly good SCWD

n209700230_30653690_9956.jpg

 

and... haxor!

 

n209700230_30653691_252.jpg

n209700230_30653692_561.jpg

n209700230_30653693_847.jpg

 

n209700230_30653694_1137.jpg

 

What should I use to glue the PCV to the scwd... anyone? I don't have a clue?

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Guest NSC

Cutting it a little close to neccesary mechanics my man! Weldon weldon weldon!!!! Skip the cpvc, judging by the flow thread you want max. flow so here is my suggestion. I read somewhere you are running all this through a manifold, plus whatever head loss and every 90 degree elbow eats 50gph. Run the strongest pump(within SCWD limits) you can otherwise all the fatter pipes, mods and the like mean little, it won't make it to the tank. I made the mistake of plumbing my unmodded SCWD to all 3/4 PVC on the output side, plus I will have all things considered 6' head loss pump to tanks 4' to SCWD plus at least 4 elbows each side, HOB a la Melev style. My thoughts on pump for a my own 55, Mag 12 or 9.5 w/eductors....with ball valves of course....just in case.

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Cutting it a little close to neccesary mechanics my man! Weldon weldon weldon!!!! Skip the cpvc, judging by the flow thread you want max. flow so here is my suggestion. I read somewhere you are running all this through a manifold, plus whatever head loss and every 90 degree elbow eats 50gph. Run the strongest pump(within SCWD limits) you can otherwise all the fatter pipes, mods and the like mean little, it won't make it to the tank. I made the mistake of plumbing my unmodded SCWD to all 3/4 PVC on the output side, plus I will have all things considered 6' head loss pump to tanks 4' to SCWD plus at least 4 elbows each side, HOB a la Melev style. My thoughts on pump for a my own 55, Mag 12 or 9.5 w/eductors....with ball valves of course....just in case.

 

You'll have to see the set up. Also I'm blowing the scwd out to a whole 1" and in the entire manifold that the scwd will run there are count them 0 90's how... thats my secret... well until I post the pics. It's pretty simple actually. I plan to run a full 1200 to 1400 gph though the scwd.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So i under took the project.... I'll actually finish this one.

 

WARNING: These pics are just R&D pics, this first mod/design failed, I've since redone and now have a working desing, but I'm going to show my progress.

 

Reemed the output holes wider

n209700230_30663924_7335.jpg

 

Did some very hard dremmeling to match the coutours of the SCWD body

n209700230_30663925_7668.jpg

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n209700230_30663931_9485.jpg

 

Glueing it all together (remember this did not work, so don't copy)

 

n209700230_30663929_8874.jpg

 

Dremmeling on the bottom of the scwd (input)

n209700230_30663930_9172.jpg

 

All glued together

n209700230_30663932_9794.jpg

 

It didn't work at all, well the bottom one held very well, so I got frustrated and dremmeled the H-E-double hocky sticks out of it

Result

n209700230_30663933_105.jpg

 

Hmmm new idea for scwd body... because I can't leave anything stock. Plus the top part is a treaded clean out cap which will allow me access to the inside of the scwd to clean out the gearning incase it jams AND WILL ALLOW ME TO USE THE SCWD TO PRIME THE CLOSE LOOP SYSTEM, I can just dump water in to the system via the scwd :wig: I felt smartish.

 

Check this out, the 2" PVC has the same inside diameter as the original scwd, so it works out great the door fits nearly flush inside the 2 inch joiner :clap:

n209700230_30663935_724.jpg

 

Since the bottom glue had held I was just going to glue the rest of the scwd body in like this, again this failed, the injected pvc cement melted the abs plastic of the scwd body

n209700230_30663936_1035.jpg

 

I'll post the finished actual working product later with break down photos to share (check mexicanjavafish's thread for a preview), and will be doing testing tonight.

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What no one interested in this project... I actually finished it and tested it. It works

 

Well it works at around 500 gph flow, I want to run 1300 gph though it just to see if it will handle.

 

The threaded part at the top is for a clean out cap, self explanitory I think but I can take a picture with it on there if it will help. The cap will allow the use of the scwd as an outlet to prime the whole system, as well as allow access to clean out any debris that could potentially clog it.

 

n209700230_30666893_323.jpg

 

n209700230_30666895_974.jpg

 

 

n209700230_30666892_9961.jpg

 

n209700230_30666894_680.jpg

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Guest NSC

There is a couple of us interested, but jumping back and forth between this thread and your girls is exhausting! J/K I hope it works with higher flow and I'm curious to see what the switching time will be through it. To tell you the truth looking at your mod I am wondering why the manufacturer constructed it so flimsy, perhaps its not the housing but the planetary gears that are the issue? Anyhow I hope it works for you and mine is still laying on my floor next to the tank waiting to see what its fate will be.

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OK here are the test results

 

mag 9.5 (In theory 950 gph pump) at 3.5 feet of head the scwd had a switch rate of 15 seconds, roughly 4/5 to 1/5 of water comming out of each side of the tee at full switch the 1/5 can be attributed to the fact that the door didn't fit completely snug to the inside of the pvc, however you get virtually the same with a regular scwd, I have an unchopped one sitting around also.

 

I do have one single issue, there is a very very very slow leak between the clean out cap and the threads. I'm using 3 - 4 layers of teflon tape. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

If some one is willing to donate old broken scwds (depending on what the problem is) or new(ish) working ones in the name of research I will see if it isn't feesable to put much higher volumes of water though these devices, and I'm willing to give the scwd back at what it cost me to do the mod. Some where around $15

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Well, I have read your project but have no clue what the device is for or what SCWD stands for.

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Guest NSC

switching current water director, its a wave maker, when ran by a pump it pushes water from one side to the other.

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Fantastic work Jason. I have two thatI want to mod. I want to open the little buggers to 1" and run them off a 1.5" Y on a closed loop with a Sequence Dart. Maybe about 1,400 gph on each?

 

Would running the 1" intake closer to the little propeller thing make it switch faster?

 

Do you have a parts & tools list you would recomend?

 

Your the man.

 

Dave

Edited by rdavidw
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If you're willing to make the trip down here i can show you the scwd and I have a dart for sale too. I can also give you some supplies for the project.

 

Here is a total list of what I used:

SCWD

1" pvc

3/4 "pvc

1/2 "pvc

2" threaded clean out with cap pvc

2" joiner pvc

2" to 1.5" bushing

1.5" to 1" bushing

 

Solvents used:

Weldon 16

PVC cement (clear)

Purple PVC primer

Handibond super glue

 

 

Tools used:

Dremel

Sand paper

Drill

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