A check valve for water applications requires as much considerations as you would collect in any other valve selection. Same as various other media, water has its own unique features curve that should be accommodated to the valve for specific use in those media. Of course, this is an simple matter, but some less obvious reasons may be included when it come to choosing the perfect check valve for water.

Problems with water delivery

Water Hammer: Although this hydraulic problem can be discerned in other fluids, water hammering hits when the medium is forced to stop or change direction suddenly. As water or other media is trapped in the pipe with only two directions to pass,th is situation comes with vibrations of the pipe andirritating noise. Both hurt the system. Transporting water is a ordinary thing in countless applications, but it remains a hard case nowadays because it’s almost impossible to maintain the flow indefinitely steady.The most common cause of water-hammer is when a pump stops working without any warning. Water flows back ward to the pump, because the check valve is not able to react fast enough. Water hammer is sometimes referred to water slam.

Reverse Flow: If left unchecked, reverse flow of water or any medium can render the pump spin backwards, causing unexpected damage. Likewise,if water flows in the wrong direction, for any length of time, it will hurt the entire system seriously. Unlike a back flow preventer, which consist of, work in andem with multiple check valves, a single check valve is not a panacea.

Valve chatter: Valve chatter occursif valves open and close constantly and frequently. Valve chatter can cause damage to the valve and piping and can inflict total failure to the system.

Checking for water problems

Though check valves areremarkable reliable and endless new model and design are brought to the field every year, all problems theytry to answer to are just these three listed above. Due toits simple structure, it can be immune from external factorslike power failure, but is still affected by flow direction, and by check valve design features and defects.

There are two basic designs of check valves. One uses a disc (basically a flap) and one uses a free floating ball. They both have a single direction, which means that their job is to prevent water from flowing backwards through the pipe. Both types have advantages and disadvantages, but perform the same job with fairly equal success.Ultimately, however, the success of a check valve rest with an not-too-fast-or-too-slow action.

Finally, like most valves, its sealing performance determines the success of a check valve . All of these things should be taken into account when selecting a check valve.