Homemade Miraclegro Liquafeed Refill

[Rajun Gardener]

Worth, when can I expect the adapters? PM me the bill.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Rajun Gardener

Worth, when can I expect the adapters? PM me the bill.

Here is what I will do there have been a person or two ask for them.
I can make them and you guys are going to have to supply your own green cap to go on the ends.
Will this work?

One of the reasons I have held off is I want to get to the point I can thread like I am driving a car with confidence.
I have practiced my tail off and am about there.

I have to say it is spooky turning a big chunk of steel loose and sending it off toward a big chunk of spinning steel like a runaway train and stopping it one inch before they collide.
It is like patting your head and rubbing your belly running as fast as you can go.

Worth

[Rajun Gardener]

I have the cap, I just need the threaded adapter. You'll get better on the lathe it just takes practice and you'll be fine.

[MrSalvage]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Here is what I will do there have been a person or two ask for them.
I can make them and you guys are going to have to supply your own green cap to go on the ends.
Will this work?

Worth

Yep I am cool with that.

Hey I have had two bottles now feed twice to three times as fast as i am use to. Not all caps feed the same. I thought I was imagining it on the first bottle like that. Then another bottle did it to me as well. So i now have both of those empty's marked with magic marker as fast feed.

So something is certainly wrong in Denmark... err Scotts design lol

[Worth1]

I think the slow and fast bottles have to do with how the air is let into the bottle to take up the space of the fluid going out.
I have one bottle that goes on a vacuum because something is stopped up and the air wont bubble into the bottle.
I havde yet to figure out where that air is coming from.
My suspicion is it is the 15 PSI atmospheric pressure pushing its way past the little rubber seal in the cap and going into the bottle.
If one rubber seal is softer than the other the feed rate will be different.
This is just a wild guess.
If you look real close at the end of the cap down into the groove you will see three tiny elongated holes in front of the rubber seal.
This I think is where the air is entering.
Ont the outside edge of the cap you will see a wee little cut out on the face of it also.
I think this is the outside air inlet port.
If you put the bottle end of the cap in your mouth and stop up the hole the orifice goes into you can still suck in air.
This is how the made the thing so you can get fluid out but it wont leak out.

They were never meant to be used over again so this is why some are putting out more than others.

So with all of that babble here is the deal.
If you do the glue on the pipe thing or use my adapters you dont have to worry about these air inlets as the container will be vented.
The only reason it is there is because the stuff comes in a close bottle.
I have to take my hat off to the person that came up with this as it is ingenious.

So for the folks that are reusing the bottle if it ever stops working it is because of salt build up.

The orifices are more than likely made by a water or fluid jet with an abrasive in it like they do injector for engines.
It is started at a given pressure as the hole gets bigger the pressure drops, when the pressure gets to a certain level the hole is the right size.


Too much information maybe but I thought some of you all would like to know how these contraptions work.

Worth

[Worth1]

Here I will post the pictures of what I am talking about and come back for the explanation.

In the first pictuer you will see the surface of the cap with an open spot in it, this is not a flaw it is where the air comes in.
Inside that deep groove is the elongated hole and you can see the rubble seal behind it there are three of them around this slot.
In the center hole you can see a tiny slit this is where the orifice protrudes and seals to let in the fertilizer.
The second pictuer sows the back side or the part that is in the bottle.
The air comes through the three holes and put the outside edge of the rubber seal into the bottle to make up for the fluid going out.
It is self regulating as log as everything is clean and in order.
You will also see a number on the cape and the rubber seal, 33 and 120 I wonder what those are for.
One more pictuer coming up with the seal taken out so you can see it better.
Worth
IMG_20160626_52486.jpg

IMG_20160626_0781.jpg

[MrSalvage]

Originally Posted by Worth1

15 PSI atmospheric pressure

Worth

14.7 @ sea level....

or

14.696 psi

From my engine building classes...

I know you were just rounding it off in laymen's terms.

[Worth1]

Here is the cap with the seal taken out.
I have a small stick stuck in the slit.
Worth
IMG_20160626_12395.jpg

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by MrSalvage

14.7 @ sea level....

or

14.696 psi

From my engine building classes...

I know you were just rounding it off in laymen's terms.

Yes I was just rounding off.

Just like my lathe says I cant cut 11.5 threads per inch but I can if I convert it to metric threads or at least get so close it doesn't matter with a gear swap.
Pitch in inches 0.08696 converted to metric is 2.209 MM.
The lathe will cut 2.2.
This is less than run out or imperfections.

Worth

[Salsacharley]

Well Allrighty then. Thanks for the suggestions on my leak problem. I decided to heed Worth's advice and go the glue-on route.

I have expanded my plan up to using 5 gal buckets for concentrate and connect to the feeder with 5/8" hose. In order to do that I had to reduce from the 1" PVC that the feeder bottle threads are glued to... to 1/2" for the 5/8" female hose attachment. I spent about an hour at Lowe's (where I wanted to use my Fathers Day gift card) trying to figure out a way to make the reduction since Lowe's didn't have a simple 1" x 1/2" adapter. I ended up using a 1" x 1/2" tee, and plugging the tee part, then using a 1 x 1/2" bushing. It appears to be excellent. I will build out my rack to hold the 5 gal buckets and test it...hopefully later today. I am stoked about this.

By the way. I stacked 4 of the MiracleGro feeders to provide options to add various ferts or treatments and I have experienced no problems with that so far.

[MrSalvage]

Originally Posted by Salsacharley

Well Allrighty then. Thanks for the suggestions on my leak problem. I decided to heed Worth's advice and go the glue-on route.

I have expanded my plan up to using 5 gal buckets for concentrate and connect to the feeder with 5/8" hose. In order to do that I had to reduce from the 1" PVC that the feeder bottle threads are glued to... to 1/2" for the 5/8" female hose attachment. I spent about an hour at Lowe's (where I wanted to use my Fathers Day gift card) trying to figure out a way to make the reduction since Lowe's didn't have a simple 1" x 1/2" adapter. I ended up using a 1" x 1/2" tee, and plugging the tee part, then using a 1 x 1/2" bushing. It appears to be excellent. I will build out my rack to hold the 5 gal buckets and test it...hopefully later today. I am stoked about this.

By the way. I stacked 4 of the MiracleGro feeders to provide options to add various ferts or treatments and I have experienced no problems with that so far.

Charley, can you post pictures of 4 feeders stacked? I would certainly like to see that!

Thanks
Bill

[Salsacharley]

Here's a picture of the 4 stacked feeders from my earlier set up. They will remain the same in my new set up. Sorry it came out sideways.

[MrSalvage]

Originally Posted by Worth1

They were never meant to be used over again so this is why some are putting out more than others.

Worth

Worth I am talking about brand new bottles putting down different rates brother! I haven't reused any bottles whatsoever.

Remember I bought over 60 brand new bottles. No need to reuse any of them yet. Plus i don't have your adapter's yet to build it out the way i want.

[Worth1]

When I put my irrigation system in I had to go to Lowes and Home Depot to get fittings.
What one had the other didn't.
It is almost as though they have it planned out to make you build stuff from more fittings than you need.

Some of these fitting they didn't have are very common fittings too.
Lowes should have had the 1 inch collars/couplings so you didn't have to buy the tee.

Worth

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by MrSalvage

Worth I am talking about brand new bottles putting down different rates brother! I haven't reused any bottles whatsoever.

Remember I bought over 60 brand new bottles. No need to reuse any of them yet. Plus I don't have your adapter's yet to build it out the way i want.

If you look at the design you can see there is no way that can be accurate as far as feed rate.
New or used.
Can you look at some of the cap parts and see if the numbers are the same like in the pictures I showed?

I will go ahead and build the adapters, I hope you dont get them and think they are junk.

Worth