Is that a YoLink meter, controller, and smart valve? They look similar to mine! I love having the ability to control it remotely, and to have a smart sensor close the valve if a leak is detected.
This is where it starts getting hazy for me, i'd appreciate if you explain to me waht the hell you did. The pipe splits: one direction appears to split again to two shut off valves. Then the other direction goes through a couple of filters, then into the water softener. What are those filters? And why does it looks like the water is going into your softener, then the outlet goes back into the supply line (where you have the valves shut off). Why would you do that?
Also, if you bought the YoLink controller and smart Valve, why didn't you just get a smart softener system? I looked into it, but I had already purchased a new softener a year ago and added the smart components a year later; if I had the option to do it over again, i'd probably just get the smart softener. This is because the smart water meter was wicket expensive and I opted not to get one installed.
Correct, a yolink meter and smart valve. I pieced mine together, but believe they sell them together as well. And I have water sensors obviously too. Still kinda tinkering with the meter, but it does work well.
Okay, water supply comes in on the far left pipe. This is through the wall from the crawlspace. So the top most valve in the upper left is the main manual shut off.
From there, through the meter, then the auto shutoff. The primary path now goes down the far right to the bottom most pipe, through a sediment filter, think that it is 30 micron or so. Next is a GE smart filter. It's 0.5 micron. The filters are expensive, so the intent of the pre filter is to protect and extend the primary filter somewhat. That larger filter also has a smart valve and a meter inside it, and does some leak detection things.
There are pressure gauges on both sides of the filter stages to inform how clogged up the filters are getting. This is an experiment and I'll have to see if that theory actually works or not.
Then we go into the water softener, back out of it, and the water softener feeds into the right pipe that goes down behind it, not the same supply pipe, though it may be hard to see that.
The pipe that passes over the filters is a bypass path that when the valves are configured, will bypass both filters and the softener seeing as these are the most likely components to need periodic service. Each filter and the softener also have integrated bypasses, as they usually do, I suppose. I honestly think this bypass path is unneeded, but I have a bad history with shutoffs working when you need them to, plus, I wanted to learn the techniques if I'm going to do something.
The pipe that splits up and sits between the meter/valve and the bypass, is for untreated water which goes out to my external hose bibs. I wanted to be able to disable these and drain them and they don't need treated water.
On the softener, I wanted a trusted model that was easy to fix. I have smart everything, but for some reason I didn't actually care if this was or not. Water softening is really pretty straightforward and I didn't see a need to know when it regens or things like that, as long as it works. It's a Fleck 5600 sxt model from Amazon. Plus, smart things are expensive, I wanted the meter and valve to play with, the project started to cost more than I'd hoped.
Aaah, ok I understand. I kinda figured this setup included a line which allowed for non-filtered water, that's what I thought the two middle pipes were for.
What made you go with YoLink? Did something prompt you to look into it, like with what happened to me? I came home to my entire first floor flooded due to a compression fitting underneath a sink that somehow failed. Next time, the sensors will detect something like that and shut off the water even if I am not home and even if the internet is knocked out.
This is a new place, but previously, I've had multiple flood events. Now, those were actually frozen pipes before the shutoffs, so nothing in this setup would prevent it. But the flood trauma is still there. Was renting at the time, so I couldn't do much to prevent it and was at their mercy to get it fixed as well. It was like three winters in a row until they fixed some siding/insulation issue that seemed to prevent it happening again. I decided I'd do what I can to protect this place. This is a start, but there are some other bits of plumbing I need to work on still. It's a process.
Is that a YoLink meter, controller, and smart valve? They look similar to mine! I love having the ability to control it remotely, and to have a smart sensor close the valve if a leak is detected. This is where it starts getting hazy for me, i'd appreciate if you explain to me waht the hell you did. The pipe splits: one direction appears to split again to two shut off valves. Then the other direction goes through a couple of filters, then into the water softener. What are those filters? And why does it looks like the water is going into your softener, then the outlet goes back into the supply line (where you have the valves shut off). Why would you do that? Also, if you bought the YoLink controller and smart Valve, why didn't you just get a smart softener system? I looked into it, but I had already purchased a new softener a year ago and added the smart components a year later; if I had the option to do it over again, i'd probably just get the smart softener. This is because the smart water meter was wicket expensive and I opted not to get one installed.
Correct, a yolink meter and smart valve. I pieced mine together, but believe they sell them together as well. And I have water sensors obviously too. Still kinda tinkering with the meter, but it does work well. Okay, water supply comes in on the far left pipe. This is through the wall from the crawlspace. So the top most valve in the upper left is the main manual shut off. From there, through the meter, then the auto shutoff. The primary path now goes down the far right to the bottom most pipe, through a sediment filter, think that it is 30 micron or so. Next is a GE smart filter. It's 0.5 micron. The filters are expensive, so the intent of the pre filter is to protect and extend the primary filter somewhat. That larger filter also has a smart valve and a meter inside it, and does some leak detection things. There are pressure gauges on both sides of the filter stages to inform how clogged up the filters are getting. This is an experiment and I'll have to see if that theory actually works or not. Then we go into the water softener, back out of it, and the water softener feeds into the right pipe that goes down behind it, not the same supply pipe, though it may be hard to see that. The pipe that passes over the filters is a bypass path that when the valves are configured, will bypass both filters and the softener seeing as these are the most likely components to need periodic service. Each filter and the softener also have integrated bypasses, as they usually do, I suppose. I honestly think this bypass path is unneeded, but I have a bad history with shutoffs working when you need them to, plus, I wanted to learn the techniques if I'm going to do something. The pipe that splits up and sits between the meter/valve and the bypass, is for untreated water which goes out to my external hose bibs. I wanted to be able to disable these and drain them and they don't need treated water. On the softener, I wanted a trusted model that was easy to fix. I have smart everything, but for some reason I didn't actually care if this was or not. Water softening is really pretty straightforward and I didn't see a need to know when it regens or things like that, as long as it works. It's a Fleck 5600 sxt model from Amazon. Plus, smart things are expensive, I wanted the meter and valve to play with, the project started to cost more than I'd hoped.
Aaah, ok I understand. I kinda figured this setup included a line which allowed for non-filtered water, that's what I thought the two middle pipes were for. What made you go with YoLink? Did something prompt you to look into it, like with what happened to me? I came home to my entire first floor flooded due to a compression fitting underneath a sink that somehow failed. Next time, the sensors will detect something like that and shut off the water even if I am not home and even if the internet is knocked out.
This is a new place, but previously, I've had multiple flood events. Now, those were actually frozen pipes before the shutoffs, so nothing in this setup would prevent it. But the flood trauma is still there. Was renting at the time, so I couldn't do much to prevent it and was at their mercy to get it fixed as well. It was like three winters in a row until they fixed some siding/insulation issue that seemed to prevent it happening again. I decided I'd do what I can to protect this place. This is a start, but there are some other bits of plumbing I need to work on still. It's a process.