Electric valves?

Is power consumption a problem? If so, there are many solenoid valves that open when energized. You can get them at an RV store, many people use them on dual fuel RVs.

Buddy,

Go to your local hardware store and get a yard sprinkler timer. It has a nice valve inside it that is obviously rated to handle regular residential water pressure and is a reasonable price. Most of them even run off battery power.

--Steve

"Thread Ender" wrote

residential

That's what I was going to suggest. I have one made by Rainbow (I think) that will open and close the valve >1000 times using only a pair of AA's. It uses a small motor and reduction drive gears to rotate the valve 90 degrees in about 4-5 seconds. The biggest problem is that you can't turn it on and off as fast as a solenoid type valve (like from a washing machine or dishwasher), but it only consumes power when it's changing states.

"Anthony Fremont"

Oops, I thought wrong. It's made by Melnor and it's a "Model 102". Amazing battery life.

You might look at the valves used to control yard sprinkler systems.

(i read other comments as well)

I'm looking for something that can be set between fully off and fully on. Ie, I could hook up a servo or DC motor or ?? and set the valve to be 25% open, or fully open, etc.

Think compression valve, like adjusting the flow of water out of your sink.

--buddy

You could connect a servo, but the valve would need to be easy to turn and be limited to ~180 deg rotation for closed to open.

For water, solenoid-operated sprinkler valves and washing machine valves are easily available.

If you need more than on/off, one option is to use several solenoid valves with different flow restrictors and appropriate plumbing.

Motorized zone valves for heating systems are available.

John Nagle

A Spike in a hollow Tube... "Needle Valve", is another one! Like an automobile carburetter mixture control valve. Some Bicycle valves are like this, maybe possible to modify one for a cheap alternative. But Valves are as simple as Windscreen wipers yet pose as many problems (specially after use).

----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley Clarke

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