Author Topic: Toilet Flush Sensor, Version II  (Read 3489 times)

Cube

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Toilet Flush Sensor, Version II
« on: October 31, 2016, 03:37:13 PM »
This past weekend I replaced the float valve in one of my toilets because part of the plastic housing had cracked and the valve often ran away. (By running away I mean it continuously overflowed water into the bowl without shutting off, even though the the tank was full.) Sadly, I can only guess how many hundreds of litres of water were wasted needlessly down the drain. The new valve was installed in a matter of minutes, and as an added bonus was much quieter than the original valve. The kit was easy to install, came with all the hardware and decent instructions - in fact, the only down side was that this new model did not have a ball float on which I could mount a magnet for my Venturii float sensor. I need to come up with a new system for monitoring when this valve was allowing water to flow.
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Cube

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Re: Toilet Flush Sensor, Version II
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2018, 11:24:39 AM »
On a similar note, I checked my data the other day and was dismayed to find that NONE of my toilets are logging any changes - all of them show normal status even when you flush them. Inspecting the sensors, I found that all three of them suffered the same bizarre fate - they all failed in a dead short, which caused their inputs to remain in the "normal" state - even when a magnet was nowhere near the sensors. I pulled one of them apart and discovered first that it was full of water and crud - possibly a side effect from being mounted inside a toilet tank, though they are all above the water line. Perhaps each one got splashed at some point, and clearly despite the appearance of being so, they are not water proof! Ironically, it appears that they got water inside the silicone seal where the wires enter the plastic housing, and then that same seal RETAINED the water inside the plastic body. What was even stranger though, was that once removed and the tiny glass magnetic switch cleaned up - it too, while being impervious to water, had failed such that the metal strip did not move anymore! It appeared to be fused! So now I am tasked with replacing all three sensors, this time it will be a different model and hopefully one that fares better and lasts longer.
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