3 way Solenoid valve for Aeroponic pump duration

Hello fellow forum members!

Water pumps die and experience decresed longevity from the intermittent on/off cycles commonly found in aeroponic systems. Growers typically run these pumps for [1min on | 5min off] which places unnecessary stress on the water pump, often leading to early failure.

Here's a thought... (I would love to know if anyone has tried this)

Wouldn't it be great if the pump inside the resevoir could stay on 24/7 yet only feed your plants via the numerous spray nozzles at the [1min on | 5min off intervals]? In addition wouldn't it be great if that feeding contained highly oxygenated nutrient water for your plants?

Here's what I'm looking to accomplish.

Place a 3-way electronic (typicall 12V DC) plastic solenoid valve inline between the pump and aeroponic garden.

Resevoir pump -------> 3-way Solenoid valve -------> OUTPUT 1 (Resevoir)
-------> OUTPUT 2 (Aeroponic garden)


OUTPUT 1 (Default Open) returns the nutrient rich water back to the resevoir and if allowed to waterfall back will enrich the water with oxygen.
OUTPUT 2 (Default Closed) permits the nutrient rich water to continue its flow to the aeroponic garden.

You could then rig a 12V power adapter and then connect that adapter to a timer. When no power is applied, the water flows back to the resevoir creating lots of bubbles and infusing the water with oxygen. When power is applied OUTPUT 1 closes and OUTPUT 2 opens, allowing the garden to be fed.

I know I'm smoking a big fatty right now and it might not make the most of sense.. but I think this would be very useful in aeroponic gardening while extending the life of the pump.

-DZ

Nema standards publication MG 10-2001. Table 7.

Nema recommends that for a 1 hp motor, you can start it up to 15 times an hour, as long as between starts the motor experiences a 75 second period of rest...

As the motor size decreases, Nema recommends (specifically for energy conservation purposes) that the motor can be increasingly restarted safely without seriously affecting the life of the motor....

A lot of people are using pond pumps for their setups which are significantly smaller than one horse.

Perfetly safe to repeatedly cycle your aero pumps.

If the pump is heavily loaded the inertia can affect the recomended duty cycle, but if your running it 24/7 under high load its going to put wear and tear on the motor anyway.

i have used only the ecoplus pumps in 396,633, and 1056gph and never had a failure. the cycling does nothing to these pumps, and there is only one moving part. the big issue with a pump in a res is temp and running a pump 24hrs will seriously heat the res.

I've been using the wrong pumps..

FAIL

Thanks for the input guys. Guess there's some upgrading to do...

-DZ