RO/DI solenoid issue

olaggie01 · Apr 18, 2013

Hi,
I have an RO/DI solenoid tied into my RO/DI unit which opens (NC solenoid) when the lower switch is activated and closes when the upper switch is activated. I am having trouble with the installation and I'm wondering if I have my wires crossed. Any help is appreciated.

Solenoid

Switches

Relay inside power box

Wires into the solenoid are as follows:

Red coming into box on bottom is from the lower switch, Green coming into box is upper switch. Then there is a power (black, white, green). And white/black leading to the solenoid.

AZDesertRat · Apr 18, 2013

www.aquahub.com has some written directions on their website for DIY float switch kits.
Its kind of hard to tell how your two switches are wired in the photos. I know with my Spectrapure LLC-SVC solenoid kit, one leg of one float leads to the other float in series then back to the relay so the floats are not wired parallel. Here is the owners manual but it doesn't show wiring details very well.
http://spectrapure.com/manuals/LLC-MANUAL.pdf

Jawbone flats · Apr 18, 2013

I don't understand the purpose of the lower float switch ?

the Solenoid only has two wires going to it red and black

I am guessing the other device is a relay and some light that is on when the solenoid is activated.

a simple solution would be to abandon the lower float switch and just use the upper switch to operate your solenoid.

A. The Positive power from your power source would go on A and also on one leg of the float switch.

B. The Other side of your Float Switch would go on B.

C. The Positive lead of your solenoid would wire to C.

D. The Negative power from your power source would go on D and also would attach to the negative side of the Solenoid

in this example B and C are the Switch part of the relay.... when switched or energized it will close or make contact between A and D

this is assuming the relay is wired in Normally Open fashion and the float switch is Set in the Normally Closed Fashion.

when the water level is low the relay will stay closed because you are applying power to the Switch portion of the relay and once water reaches the upper float the float opens and stops electricity from flowing to the switch part of the relay. which of course will cause the relay to Open

you could also wire your Light to C and D if you want the light to come on when the solenoid does..

Jawbone flats · Apr 18, 2013

Jawbone flats said:
in this example B and C are the Switch part of the relay.... when switched or energized it will close or make contact between A and D

is written wrong and should read

in this example B and D are the Switch part of the relay.... when switched or energized it will close or make contact between A and C

sorry I hit enter and did not proof read

AZDesertRat · Apr 19, 2013

The two solenoids are to reduce the effects of TDS creep inherent with one switch of float valve. The RO/DI starts when the lower swich drops and stops when the upper switch is raised. Mine is the same, set about a foot apart in a 23 gallon Rubbermaid can so it calculates out to 11 gallons per cycle and no short cycling which is tough on a RO/DI system.