Today I completed the backyard test of the Johnson Ultra Ballast pump and the 1 Irritrol 700 Series Valve with and without the internal spring installed. I have incorporated the results of these tests into the previous posted test data.
To conduct these tests I utilized the following:
- Swimming pool (unrestricted water source)
- 12 vdc Lawn & Garden Battery with 160 cold cranking amps from Pep Boys
- Jabsco Ballast Puppy Advertised @ 11 GPM or 660 GPH
- Johnson Ultra Ballast Pump Advertised @ 13.7 GPM or 822 GPH
- Mayfair 1000 aerator pump Advertised @ 16.66 GPM or 1000 GPH
- Tsunami 1200 aerator pump Advertised @ 20 GPM or 1200 GPH
- 1 Orbit Jar Top Valve with the internal spring installed
- 1 Orbit Jar Top Valve without the internal spring installed
- 1 brass 12 vdc valve
- 1 Irritrol 700 Series Valve with the internal spring installed
- 1 Irritrol 700 Series Valve without the internal spring installed
- 1.25 OD x 1 ID vinyl hose (no kinks)
- 3 orange Home Depot 5-gallon buckets measured at 1-gallon increments
- Stop watch set to countdown 1 minute with alarm
Each setup was tested three separate times to validate the accuracy of the test and the test was not begun until a maximum stream of water had commenced. The Unrestricted Test was measured with a 3 section of 1.25 OD x 1 ID vinyl hose from the pool to the pump and a 3 section of 1.25 OD x 1 ID vinyl hose from the pump to the 5 gallon bucket without a valve attached. Each of the pumps and valves were new out of the box.
Here are the results for the Jabsco Ballast Puppy pump:
Advertised @ 11 GPM or 660 GPH
Unrestricted Test: 11.5 GPM or 690 GPH
1 Orbit Jar Top Valve with internal spring: 8.0 GPM or 480 GPH
1 Orbit Jar Top Valve without internal spring: 9.5 GPM or 570 GPH
1 brass 12 vdc valve: 10.0 GPM or 600 GPH
1 Irritrol 700 Series Valve with the internal spring installed: 9.0 GPM or 540 GPH
1 Irritrol 700 Series Valve without the internal spring installed: 9.5 GPM or 570 GPH
Here are the results for the Johnson Ultra Ballast pump:
Advertised @ 13.7 GPM or 822 GPH
Unrestricted Test: 13.5 GPM or 810 GPH
1 Orbit Jar Top Valve with internal spring: 9.5 GPM or 570 GPH
1 Orbit Jar Top Valve without internal spring: 12.25 GPM or 735 GPH
1 brass 12 vdc valve: 12.5 GPM or 750 GPH
1 Irritrol 700 Series Valve with the internal spring installed: 12.25 GPM or 735 GPH
1 Irritrol 700 Series Valve without the internal spring installed: 12.5 GPM or 750 GPH
Here are the results for the Mayfair 1000 aerator pump:
Advertised @ 16.66 GPM or 1000 GPH
Unrestricted Test: 10 GPM or 600 GPH
1 Orbit Jar Top Valve with internal spring: 3 GPM or 180 GPH
1 Orbit Jar Top Valve without internal spring: 6.5 GPM or 390 GPH
Ύ brass 12 vdc valve: 6.5 GPM or 390 GPH
1 brass 12 vdc valve: 7.5 GPM or 450 GPH
1 Irritrol 700 Series Valve with the internal spring installed: 5.75 GPM or 345 GPH
1 Irritrol 700 Series Valve without the internal spring installed: 7.75 GPM or 465 GPH
Here are results for the Tsunami 1200 aerator pump:
Advertised @ 20.0 GPM or 1200 GPH
Unrestricted Test: 13 GPM or 780 GPH
1 Orbit Jar Top Valve with internal spring: 3 GPM or 180 GP
1 Orbit Jar Top Valve without internal spring: 6.5 GPM or 390 GPH
Ύ brass 12 vdc valve: 6.5 GPM or 390 GPH
1 brass 12 vdc valve: 7.5 GPM or 450 GPH
1 Irritrol 700 Series Valve with the internal spring installed: 6.25 GPM or 375 GPH
1 Irritrol 700 Series Valve without the internal spring installed: 9.5 GPM or 570 GPH
The height of the 5-gallon bucket utilized was 14.5 inches, but I held the hose slightly above the bucket at approximately 18 inches. Why is this important? For those not familiar with aerator type pumps; aerator type pumps such as the Tsunami 1200 and the Mayfair 1000 move high volumes of water, but at a very low pressure. A pumps max flow is rated at what is referred to as Open Flow or inlet-to-outlet, nothing attached. Anytime an aerator pump has to push water upward there is going to be a significant drop in max flow rate as can be seen with the Tsunami pump which had a tested flow rate of 13 GPM or 780 GPH at 18 inches vertical. Here is a link to the Rule 1100 aerator pump which advertises a flow rate of 18.33 GPM or 1100 GPH, but according to the chart at 3.35 it flows 13.17 GPM or 790 GPH (a significant drop)
http://www.rule-indu...emdoc134791.pdf
My first concern with removing the internal spring from the 1 Orbit Jar Top Valve and the 1 Irritrol 700 Series Valve was that with no power applied to the valve (valve closed) that there may be a possibility of the inlet pressure unseating the diaphragm and allowing water to pass through the valve. The 1 Orbit Jar Top Valve without the internal spring installed remained closed and no water passed through, but the 1 Irritrol 700 Series Valve without the internal spring installed initially allowed water to pass through for about 3 seconds and then reseated itself and no additional water passed through. For those wondering, the Jabsco Ballast Puppy pump came with the green colored impeller installed and the battery was recharged between test sets.
As can be seen from the test data, removing the internal spring from the 1 Orbit Jar Top Valve and the 1 Irritrol 700 Series Valve had a significant affect on water flow (way to go CenturionSkier!). It also appears from the test that when utilizing either of these two aerator pumps that the diaphragm type valves will have a significant impact on max flow rate. Incorporating a valve also had an impact on the max flow rate of the impeller pumps, but to a lesser degree due to the increased pressure of the impeller type pumps.
As Bigshow pointed out, we can probably expect to get a slight increase in output from these pumps if they are being feed 14 vdc from the boats electrical system.
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