Low pH and float switches?

Piper · Post by **Piper** » Tue Feb 26, 2013 10:14 pm

I recently (about 5 weeks ago) put my float switches into use after having my RA+ up and running for a while. All I use them for at this point is to alert me when A) my top-off vat needs to be refilled or B) is my sump is about to run dry. Over that time my pH has slowly but surely dipped down to 7.6ish.

Knowing full well it's not accurate, a week ago I re-calibrated my probe. That bumped me back up to 7.8/7.9 but still a tad low. Over the last week I watched it drop down again. Thinking stay voltage (after searching here,) I started to unplug equipment one by one to see if I could find the culprit. Turns out it's one of my float switches. The float produces the same results no matter what port it's in.

Would a crossed wire cause the switch to do that? I'm thinking I might have messed up one of the solder joints when I extended it on or maybe even got a bad crimp on the 2-pin connector. Or is that just a sign of a compromised float switch?

~Charlie

00Warpig00 · Post by **00Warpig00** » Tue Feb 26, 2013 10:23 pm

Where you crimped your float switch wires to whatever lead you are using to reach your controller/IO module are the connections under water? are you using waterproof crimps? sounds like you may have water getting into an electrical connection somewhere.

Nick

Piper · Post by **Piper** » Tue Feb 26, 2013 10:31 pm

No. I soldered and heat-shrinked the wires near the actual switch and that us well above the water line. If the heat-shrink didn't take all that well I'm sure humidity could play a part. That could be the reason it has slowly drifted I suppose.

The crimps were done at the connector where it hooks up to the RA. I used my own 2-pin connectors there so I didn't have to any more soldering and heat-shrinking

00Warpig00 · Post by **00Warpig00** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 12:48 am

Piper wrote:No. I soldered and heat-shrinked the wires near the actual switch and that us well above the water line. If the heat-shrink didn't take all that well I'm sure humidity could play a part. That could be the reason it has slowly drifted I suppose.

The crimps were done at the connector where it hooks up to the RA. I used my own 2-pin connectors there so I didn't have to any more soldering and heat-shrinking

Ahh... I know my float switch wires were too short to reach so I had to use leaders to get to my RA. I had to buy some waterproof heat shrinkable crimp connectors because i have a couple crimp connections under water. Just wondering if this may have been an issue for your situation. Doesn't sound like it.

Nick

rimai · Post by **rimai** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 9:57 am

Does sound like your float is bad.

Piper · Post by **Piper** » Thu Feb 28, 2013 8:54 pm

I'll put a new switch in there and see if that makes a difference. Thanks for you help!

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