Darkroom water temperature conrol

[Melvin J Bramley]

Does anyone have instruction on how to quickly set the water temperature with this Treck controller?
It seems that it is a balancing act between temperature and water volume control.
Once set it is ok but if I alter the flow rate I have to re balance the supply.
Should I have a fixed orifice in the water lines?

 

[Dave Ludwig]

What "may be" happening is your hot and cold input lines are of 2 different water pressures and when you change the output flow rate one of the two input lines pushes more water through faster than the other making it difficult to set a temperature. I have no experience in fluid dynamics but it sounds logical. If you can confirm input water pressure is the same on both hot and cold then you might consider the internal mixing valve may need maintenance. Placing a ball valve and flow meter on each input line may help to make each line the same pressure. Before getting a Hass Intellifaucet I used a standard bath tub mixing valve and had similar situations, plus temperature spikes every time a toilet was flushed. I hope someone has more information about this unit than I. Good luck.

 

[Melvin J Bramley]

I may put flow restrictors on the hot and cold inlets to see if it helps.
Servicing the valve is out of question as the kits are ridiculously expensive.

 

[Dave Ludwig]

Might be interesting to disconnect the H/C lines and see how many seconds it takes for each to fill a gallon jug at full pressure.

 

[Melvin J Bramley]

Good idea , will try it.

 

[MattKing]

Ah, a piece of equipment labelled "Treck" - that is a blast from the past.
Treck started up as an employee buyout of the Canadian business of a former division of Eastman Kodak named Eastman Photographic Stores. They sold equipment mostly to commercial labs and professional and commercial photographers.
It may be that others in different markets will recognize that mixing valve with different branding.
And the person I would ask your question of is someone with knowledge about plumbing - people who install high end showers tend to know how to make them behave better.

 

[Kino]

One further thing that may help; I had to install a whole-house water pressure regulator for my tempering valve to work properly.

Unknown to me, the local water pressure in my area can vary from 70 to 120 PSI (4 to 8 bar roughly) due to geographical location from the main water tower. This can upset the valve and it can also dramatically shorten the life of any appliances attached to the water supply.

I also took the opportunity to install a 5 micron charcoal activated filter on the main supply upon installing the pressure regulator; which actually just saved me a lot of grief yesterday.

The local water board, unannounced, cut the water off mid-day to replace a mains valve and injected near pure mud into the lines during the repair. It totally clogged-off the whole house filter and it took several hours of changing filters and flushing lines afterwards, but if I had not had the filter... oh boy.

 

[Dave Ludwig]

Matt is right, ask an experienced plumber. It could be a number of things.

 

[Doremus Scudder]

Although I don't own a Treck, I usually have to reset the temperature on my temp-regulating valve when changing the flow rate significantly. I don't find it that bothersome.

Best,

Doremus

 

[Melvin J Bramley]

Ah, a piece of equipment labelled "Treck" - that is a blast from the past.
Treck started up as an employee buyout of the Canadian business of a former division of Eastman Kodak named Eastman Photographic Stores. They sold equipment mostly to commercial labs and professional and commercial photographers.
It may be that others in different markets will recognize that mixing valve with different branding.
And the person I would ask your question of is someone with knowledge about plumbing - people who install high end showers tend to know how to make them behave better.

It's actually a rebranded Leonard valve.
I have had two,used, mixing valves before it and they failed.
The costs to put repair kits into them was more than I could justify!
This ,Treck, one had a leaking vacuum break so I just discarded it.
At $25 CDN for the valve the plumbing parts cost more than the valve!
I had a Powers Photoguard mixing valve before which had way more sophisticated/complicated working parts which wavered from its setting and before that a Leedhal which also failed.
The costs of repair kits for all these valves is in the region of 50% of new cost which for the amateur tinkerer is too much.

 

[mshchem]

I've played around with old (but very nice) mixing valves. Some branded Kodak, Leedal, Pako etc. All were as you've found a Powers or Lawler etc underneath. I've been able to clean out the lime and clean. Yes the rebuild kits are ridiculously expensive.

Mixing valves are wonderful (well working ones) Goodluck!!