New 1" SCWD review

[DaveS]

I got the new SCWD today so I figured I'd start this thread since a few people seemed interested in it. First of all, I haven't installed it yet so my "review" can only go so far right now. Basically I took it out of the box, played with it some, took it apart etc. I should preface this by saying that I'm not a SCWD modder so the innards of it are new to me. The old ones were $45 and sealed so if they broke, I just bought a new one. Wasn't worth trying to put it back together and praying it didn't blow up and leak 20 gallons of water on my floor. Please keep this in mind if some of my comments are obvious or ideas are old. I haven't followed any of the SCWD modding threads around.

 

Anyways, here's my initial comments:

 

1) it's BIG! This thing is huge compared to the old ones. It's more than 7" tall. Basically, it's about the size of a bottle of ol' .45. Or, slightly smaller than a 1/2 gallon milk carton.

 

2) It's easy to open and should be easy to clean/repair. The inside mechanical gears are removable. There's actually just to small swing tabs that hold the gear/gate assembly in the body. Once you move them aside the assembly comes right now. You can also take the assembly apart down to the individual little gears. In theory, this means that if some tiny gear breaks, you won't need to spend $90 for a new unit but you can just replace the bad part.

 

3) Reading the manual it mentions being able to get additional drive assemblies to change the switching speed. That should be an interesting option for these units.

 

Given the size of these units I think that it changes how they are likely to be used. Whereas the older units were sometimes put inside the tank or dedicated to a few outputs like a Wavy Seas or Sea Swirl are, this size unit is likely to be located elsewhere. I think it is more likely to become hard plumbed into the core of the system like an Ocean Motions would be. I'm not making comparisons in performance to these products, just expressing that I think the size and design of the unit would lend itself to being more "core" to the system plumbing.

 

This actually causes problems for my setup given how my plumbing is set up. I'd like it to be right after my return pump and before all the existing T's but that could put it before my UV and chiller. I'm not sure those devices are good to have on a switched flow path. If you are interested or have ideas, please check out my other thread about plumbing ideas: http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?s=&a...st&p=181886

 

I'll post more after I figure out how I'm going to put this monster in.

[guppychao]

post some pics would be great!!

[BeltwayBandit]

WOW, after what 2-3 years of saying these were in the works they are finally out! I had 3 scwds on my old tank and loved them.

[steveoutlaw]

I just got mine as well and can't believe how big it is. Unfortunately I don't think that it will fit into my system!