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Bobby Smith
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Conundrum time, would love your guys inputs. orders from pex supply above $300 get free shipping, the 35 gallon tank is 259.95 + $44.14 shipping = $304.09 http://www.pexsupply.com/Amtrol-147N130-THERM-X-TROL-ST-60V-Expansion-Tank-34-Gallon-Volume
The also have some relief valves and regulators that I'm not sure would work in the system but if they do could bump me up past the $300 needed for free shipping.
Relief: http://www.pexsupply.com/Relief-Valves-313000
Regulator: http://www.pexsupply.com/Pressure-Valves-221000
If none of those work then I may be best off going for this 44 gallon for $324.95 that qualifies for free shipping by itself. http://www.pexsupply.com/Amtrol-147N131-THERM-X-TROL-ST-80V-Expansion-Tank-44-Gallon-Volume Thoughts?
Personally, I'd go with the 44 gallon (but there's certainly nothing wrong with the 34 gallon and I'm already jealous :worried) - your pump will cycle MUCH less often (about once every day or two) if and when you get totally dialed with your feedings.
That being said, I also have this pressure valve from Watts, so you're gonna need one of these (required in any automatic setup, even though I have two pressure switches that would need to fail for this to come into play):
http://www.pexsupply.com/Watts-0371271-1-2-530C-Poppet-Style-Relief-Valve-3569000-p
I typed all the shit below in red, but after giving it some more thought, I'm wondering if there might be some value in having a constant PSI for every misting cycle.........of course calculations and whatnot would be easier........still not sold one way or the other.
All of the below in red is how I felt before giving it some more thought (although I'm still on the fence):
As far as the pressure regulator goes, I don't see the benefit/need for that if you're getting a pump and a pressure switch...........since tanks that can handle above 150PSI are almost nil around these parts (and it took a shitload of looking to find those that can handle 150PSI), the pressure switch/pump combo takes the place of a pressure switch in an "automated" setup.
Could I add a pressure switch so that my system always fires at 100PSI instead of fluctuating from 100-125PSI? Of course I could........but I really don't see the requirement in it - would my pump cycle a little less because everything is averaging 100PSI and not averaging 112.5PSI? Yeah, but higher pressures give us smaller droplets.................
If we had pumps (automatic, remember John, we're lazy Americans) and tanks that could handle being charged to 300PSI, then yeah, a pressure regulator would be the shit..........but since I'm (we're) pretty much maxing the systems out as we are, it's just something extra that could fail, IMO.