SHARPIE Cycle Stop

In this video I want to show you about a little valve that I've discovered that makes quite

a difference in my water well system. This is a picture of a well

That's the casing and a cap. That's the ground level. Somewhere down below is the water level

The idea with a pump system is to bring that water up and to the surface so that you can

use it. I'm drawing a submersible pump here, but the system works with most other kinds of water

pumps too. The submersible sits below the water level and it drives water up through a pipe that

eventually comes up into your home. There are all kinds of fittings in there too, and there will be some kind of a pressure

gauge as well. That lets you monitor what pressure the system is operating at

Now as the water comes up the pipes, it's monitored by a pressure switch, which decides

when the pump needs to be running and when it needs to be shut off, depending on the

pressure of the system. There's also going to be some kind of a tank

Some are large, but some can only be quite small too, as I'm going to show you in a minute

The tank is connected to the pipes that provide water for your house

Taps, showers, toilets, things like that. Let's just say the pressure is low and the pressure switch has energized the pump and

water starts flowing in the tank. Pressure will rise to some preset level

The pressure switch will sense that and shut the pump off. Now as you use water, the pressure is going to decline to some lower level

The switch will turn the pump on and have more water come into the tank

So water pressure will always be rising and falling, rising and falling as you use water

and as the pump replenishes it. That's kind of one of the problems with this sort of a setup

All that on and off stuff is bad for pumps. Pumps are much better off if they just run constantly

Then there's the problem of rising and falling water pressure at your taps, which is kind

of annoying. The situation gets even worse when you have a smaller tank

Smaller tank has a smaller capacity, so it's going to be filling and emptying much more

often and that's going to be hard on your pump. That's where a little piece of hardware called the cycle stop valve comes in

It solves the problem of rising and falling water pressures and it also greatly reduces

the cycling on and off of pumps. I was looking for a way to solve this problem because I wanted to install a small tank in

my home and that's how I discovered this unit. That's the cycle stop valve right there

This is the pressure tank. Notice how small it is. It can be very small with this system

And that's the pressure switch I was telling you about. This is the incoming water line

Water flows through this white pipe, through the valve, and then onto the house

So in practice, the value of the cycle stop valve is that it holds water pressure at your

taps and fixtures at a constant 50 pounds per square inch. The pump runs continuously and the idea comes from a guy that you see here

His name is Kerry Austin. He's from Lubbock, Texas. And 25 years ago, he patented his idea for a small mechanical valve to keep water pressure

constant in pump systems. He sells these valves all across the world, so it doesn't really matter where you live

Let me show you a little more closely how the valve works

This is the incoming water pipe coming from your pump. This is the cycle stop valve body

Now down below is where the tank could be mounted. I'm drawing it smaller than it would be in real life just to give you an idea and so

you can see what I'm up to. And this is the pipe leading from the valve to your home

Water comes in here and the flow of water is regulated by what goes on in the cycle

stop valve itself. This is the adjustment bolt up top that allows you to vary the pressure at which it operates

So water comes in and it goes out at a constant pressure all the time you're using water

Let's take a scenario and we'll look at things between 30 and 50 psi

So you've got water pressure in your tank. That pressure drops because you've used it and the pump comes on

Water is going to flow in, but the cycle stop valve is going to create some back pressure

throttling the action of the pump. The idea is to maintain that constant 50 psi of output

Now that happens no matter how little water you use, as long as you're using at least

one gallon per minute. And it keeps on working up to 25 gallons per minute in the case of the model of the valve

that I have. This is especially valuable if you want to have a small tank that doesn't take up too

much room. You're going to get the constant water pressure and your pump is not going to be going on

and off. Other advantages of the valve include a lower amperage draw

The pump's just going to use fewer amps of power. And of course you're going to get a longer life for the pump as well

So let me show you how this works in real life. Turn the water on and the pressure drops to the point where the pressure switch turns on

The pump is delivering water into the tank. But instead of going up to that 60 psi, which is what this system is set to switch off at

you get a constant 50 psi of water as long as that tap is running

The valve was easy to install. So far I haven't found any drawbacks of the system

It's just been working great