ATK PMUP siphon break doesn't break siphon

[kinetic]

After getting my ATK setup with my Apex Jr. controller, I finally let the PMUP run. It worked great, and the PMUP stopped. I kept seeing a trickle of water come through though. At first I thought it was just emptying out some excess. But after 10 minutes, my second sensor was covered and I got an alert.

I looked and sure enough, still trickling a bit of water. So I pulled the PMUP out of the water in the reservoir, and put it back in. Sure enough, the water stopped trickling (siphon).

I have a siphon break installed. It's above the ATO reservoir water level. When filling, I didn't really notice water coming out of it. Maybe the hole is too small?

[rkpetersen]

When your pmup turns on, the siphon break included with the ATK should make a squirting sound and then water should stream down fairly briskly back into your reservoir. Make sure you don't have the siphon break installed upside down. The hole probably isn't too small but it needs to be pointing down and back.

[kinetic]

When your pmup turns on, the siphon break valve included with the ATK should make a squirting sound and then water should stream down fairly briskly back into your reservoir. Make sure you don't have the siphon break valve installed upside down. The hole probably isn't too small but it needs to be pointing down and back.

Hey thanks for the quick reply. I dont' see any arrows for the valve. Where can I see it? My eyesight is pretty good, yet I don't see much going on.

[rkpetersen]

The hole is angled, it doesn't just extend straight in to the plastic. Use a flashlight to look at it closely. The angle has to point down so the water is forced down when the pmup is running, not up.

Or, you could just try it the other way and see if it works.

If that's not the problem, then it could be that your siphon break is clogged. Do you use kalk? I don't think the current version of the ATK has a good track record with kalk.

[kinetic]

The hole is angled, it doesn't just extend straight in to the plastic. Use a flashlight to look at it closely. The angle has to point down so the water is forced down when the pmup is running, not up.

If that's not the problem, then it could be that your siphon break is clogged. Do you use kalk? I don't think the current version of the ATK has a good track record with kalk.

This is the first time I used the ATK system (brand new), so definitely no clogs yet (and 0 TDS RO/DI). Also not going to use kalk (exactly because of the clogging).

I'll go take a closer look. Thank you!

[RussM]

The siphon break included with the ATK is not a valve. There is no arrow on it. You should see a 1mm hole in the straight barrel section.. that orifice is what allows air to come in and break a siphon. You can use a paper clip or needle or fine wire to check if it is blocked.

[kinetic]

I took the siphon break out to look. The hole looked pointed the right way, but actually, there might not be a hole at all? I see the scoring for the hole, but i don't think it actually penetrates through the valve. Should it look like there's a hole, or is it too small for me to really notice? Just looks white at the end.

[kinetic]

Update: the hole wasn't drilled all the way through I believe. The smallest drill bit I have is a 1/16" so I just used that to make the hole. Sure there's a ton of water squirting out, but the siphon does break now! I'll see if neptune can send me a new "coupler" with the correctly drilled hole size...

[rkpetersen]

Good work. Honestly that's probably what I would have done if the instructions say there should be a small angled hole on the barrel of the device, but it's not there. Hopefully Neptune won't have a problem that you did that. Hopefully one could find similar/identical siphon breaks if one looked a bit online, although I haven't done so myself. I haven't seen these as OEM pieces sold separately by Neptune yet.