Watering System with balled-tube from the bottles?

[amon]

Well, drinking valves sold for US$15 each over here, so I thought I'd try making one out of old bottles. I took out the stainless steel tube with balls from them and fastened them to PVC tubes just like Mark did with his system.

I thought for the balls to stop the water from flowing out was a completely sealed air-tight system, just like that inside a water bottle. So I put a few shut off valves on the water tank and sealed all the conectors with silicone. But still when I opened the valve from the tank to the system, water still shoots out from the side of the balls.

Anyone got any ideas?

What if I fill the water tank all the way to the top or use something to suck the air out of the water tank, to make a vacumn, would that work?

[littleindiangirl]

Well, drinking valves sold for US$15 each over here, so I thought I'd try making one out of old bottles. I took out the stainless steel tube with balls from them and fastened them to PVC tubes just like Mark did with his system.

I thought for the balls to stop the water from flowing out was a completely sealed air-tight system, just like that inside a water bottle. So I put a few shut off valves on the water tank and sealed all the conectors with silicone. But still when I opened the valve from the tank to the system, water still shoots out from the side of the balls.

Anyone got any ideas?

What if I fill the water tank all the way to the top or use something to suck the air out of the water tank, to make a vacumn, would that work?

The water coming out of the nozzles (if they are all perfectly working) is the pressure stabilizing to create that vacuum, just like in a water bottle.

Sounds like too much hassle....

I'm not sure where your trying to buy the water sippers from, mine were not that expensive!
http://reptilebasics.com/Rodent-Bird...p-1-c-268.html

[amon]

I'm in Hong Kong and there's only one place we can find that sell them and are really expensive.

I saw there's something called pressure regulator, does anyone know how that works? Can it be DIY?

[littleindiangirl]

It's probably no help, but Edstrom is international, and you may be able to have them shipped over.


I'm no help with the jimmy rigged water nozzles, I'm not that creative.

[amon]

Thanks and yep, that would be my last resort, to have them ship over to me.

I'm going to try a couple more things, if any works, I'll post it up. If not, I'll have to pull out the old visa.

[Chandler reptiles]

A sealed system would work in theory, if you were to take a large water jug (the kind from a camp store with the tap already installed) you should be able to hook up a few just to test it without spending a bunch of money since you already have the water tubes.

If you try it let me know how it works out.

[amon]

I heard there're some water bottles with springs to hold the ball in place. I'm going to try this.

And I just tested that a sealed PVC tube works with one nozzle. not sure what would happen when the whole thing is hooked up with multiple ones.

[JeffFlanagan]

Those balls will only work on a sealed bottle. For a gravity feed system you need valves. google "drinking valve"

[Chandler reptiles]

I should clarify that I meant the plastic ones that go flat when empty not the cooler ones...

[amon]

OK, just tried all the possible method to make the system air-tight, and the result is:


NONONONONONONONONONONONO WAAAAAAAAY

I finally realized and concluded that because I tried to use multiple ball zipping tubes. In a normal bottle, when water starts flowing into the tube, the air in the tube pushes some water out through the balls to make it air-tight.

But in my multiple tubes, as soon as one ball start dripping, that brings in air, and one lead to another, so more and more air goes in.

So this goes to teach all you students out there: learn as much as you can while in school. If I did, I probably would know why it wouldn't work beforehand, instead of having to learn from bad experience.