Second Pass Filter Set-Up

So, with an exploded water filter (the housing says they're good to 125 psi) I think the system was working a bit too well. I needed a way to regulate the pressure being generated by the pump, and there were two ways to do it. First, I could reduce the RPMs on the pump by reducing the pulley size on the motor or changing out the motor. And second, I could re-route the plumbing to create some sort of pressure relief system.

I tackled the second problem first. With the filler hole in the reservoir acting as the intake on the pump, I was free to create a loop with the high and low pressure lines. With a tee in the loop going to the filter (with a newly added pressure gauge so I could monitor it) and a ball valve on the loop, I could throttle how much pressure was generated at the filter. This system worked well, but even with the ball valve wide open, the filter was still seeing close to 20 psi.

With the pressure relief set-up in place it was time to tackle the issue of the motor. The motor I'd been working with was a 2hp 3600 rpm pump that pulled something like 10 amps at start-up. After considerable thought and much sorting though of old motors on the shelves of Industrial Liquidators, I settled on a 1/4 hp 1800 rpm motor(coincidentally rated for hazardous environment). This new motor, along with a much smaller pulley, seems to have been a good choice for the system. Now, when the valve on the loop is wide open, the pump is generating about 2 psi, and when fully closed, about 60 psi.