4 Gallon Silent Surge Device out of the Box

This is the unit taken right out of the box. The tiles on the floor are 1 square foot in size. That should help you judge how big the unit actually is. This unit itself is very light and well made.

Silent Surge Plumbing Connections

This is the bottom of the unit. The large hole on the bottom is where the water exits during a surge. It is a 1½ inch socket connection. It is not a pipe.

The hole on the top left is the overflow port. If for some reason the unit is unable to surge and dump its water, the water will overflow out of the unit and exit from this hole. This 5/8 inch pipe is plumbed to the sump or tank. You have to be careful to make sure that this connection can handle the volume of water you place into the unit. If something goes wrong and water can not exit out of this pipe fast enough, water will come out the top of the unit's air vent hole.

The hole on the upper right side is the water input. It's is a 5/8 inch connection that I Tee'd off of my MAK4 secondary return pump.

Silent Surge Mounted to Wall

The unit must be mounted perfectly level and plum to the wall to operate correctly. This is not exactly simple to do. I created a cardboard template of the unit and taped that to the wall and made the template level and plum. I then drilled the holes into the wall based on my template.

The unit calls for four wall anchors that can each support 50 lbs. However, the unit only weighs about 40 lbs. when full of water. A drawback of the unit is that the mounting holes are 11 inches a part and studs are 16 inches a part. I decided to not mount into the studs and used four large toggle bolts.

The unit needs at least 5 inches of clearance between the top of the unit and the ceiling. The surge should be mounted within 12 inches of the top of tank. I would suggest you not go higher than 6 to 8 inches.

Silent Surge Installed and Working

This shows the plumbing work completed. The surge pipe was created with three 1½ slow turn ell's commonly called sanitary elbows. I have the surge exiting on the left side of the tank about middle, pointing slightly backwards towards the rocks.

The input and overflow connections are 5/8 inch flexible tube held in place with pipe clamps. I wrapped the tubing in black electrical tape to prevent algae growth inside the pipes.

Silent Surge Installed and Working

Be careful when constructing the surge pipe. Use extra PVC cement to make sure the seals are air tight. If you fail to do this the unit will suck in air bubbles during a surge. The manufacture recommends you seal each connection with aquarium silicone but I found that is not needed for bubble free operation if your really glob on the PVC cement in the connection seams.

DO NOT attach the surge pipe to the unit with PVC cement. Only use aquarium silicone for this connection. The reason behind this is that if you need to return the unit for repairs it will be much simpler to fit it back into the box without a large pipe sticking off the unit.

Silent Surge in Progress

This is the exit pipe of the surge. This picture was taken during a surge and as you can see the unit operates with no bubbles just as advertised. The unit is silent, it really is. You do not even hear sound of the water flowing in the pipe. The only sound from the unit itself is a soft thump of the valve closing inside the unit. The real noise you hear is a sudden rush of water entering into your overflow chambers.

You will want to periodically test the overflow protection in the unit to make sure everything is working OK. You do this by holding down the plunger rod on the top of the unit. Be warned - this takes considerable effort. One or two fingers are not enough. Water should drain out the overflow pipe with no water coming out the top of the units air vent.