# ever wonder what was inside a manual paddle valve?



## mango-smoothie (Jan 25, 2011)

i bought one and took it apart to see if i could make it faster.

i figure that I'm not the only person curious about the inner working of these cool little guys.


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## crispy21 (Mar 26, 2012)

no your most certainly not. any progress as to speeding up dump speed? i was gonna do this


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## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

Kinda seems like this is how the paddle valve works to me from your pics:

- Red is the guides that slide the left piece up/down, spring helps center the valve after use
- the green holes on the right rest in the pink circles on the left
- the green holes on the right line up with the green holes on the left when you "fill"
- the top green hole on the right lines up with the yellow when you "dump" and it allows the air to leak through the valve.

If this is correct then to increase dump speed you could always dremel out the yellow cavity on the left or use a different o-ring on the upper right green.

To increase fill speed you will have to bore out the channel which leads from green circle to green circle on the left slider piece.

Anybody else actually do this so they can correct me?




Woops forgot to add me paint drawing:


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## crispy21 (Mar 26, 2012)

i could do all those things, but have no way to test it


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## crispy21 (Mar 26, 2012)

were all making this harder then it should be haha, i think youre right with the yellow area needing to be bigger. these ares if opened up with a dremel could work. in theory if the hole is bigger then more air should escape quicker


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## mango-smoothie (Jan 25, 2011)

^ you pretty much nailed it

the o-rings are pretty long too.

also worth noting - thee is some sort of light oil on the sliding surface. (kind of stinky too)

i was going to keep cutting this one apart to see what that inner channel looks like. maybe get in there with a dremel as you say and epoxy it back together. Not sure how to close it back up. any suggestions?


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## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

crispy21 said:


> were all making this harder then it should be haha, i think youre right with the yellow area needing to be bigger. these ares if opened up with a dremel could work. in theory if the hole is bigger then more air should escape quicker


Yes that is for the dumping. 
For the filling quicker you would have to bore out the hole and channel that i'm 99% sure runs between the two green circles i drew


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## crispy21 (Mar 26, 2012)

id plastic weld it


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## crispy21 (Mar 26, 2012)

if i could have the reliability of paddles with the fast drop times, i may just go this route


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## mango-smoothie (Jan 25, 2011)

yes, but only for dumping air.

adding air uses the internal channel i was talking about.


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## mango-smoothie (Jan 25, 2011)

MechEngg said:


> i'm 99% sure runs between the two green circles i drew


yup. confirmed by me.


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## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

mango-smoothie said:


> yes, but only for dumping air.
> 
> adding air uses the internal channel i was talking about.


Yup, you could always dremel out the back of the channel, you can see where it is currently plastic welded in place, just dremel a bit out then make a new back plate and plastic weld it in place?


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## crispy21 (Mar 26, 2012)

does the air drain from the front of the paddleor the back of the paddle when airing out?


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## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

crispy21 said:


> does the air drain from the front of the paddleor the back of the paddle when airing out?


it drains on the rear, through that right yellow hole that you circled.


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## crispy21 (Mar 26, 2012)

idk cuz i have a disassembled paddle in front of me and i dont think its dremmeling the two holes. the hole in the back is never covered even when the paddle valve is in the middle.


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## JrJanowski (Sep 11, 2011)

Off topic, but how long does it take you to air up and down haha? Ive got a 3 galllon with a 400cc compressor and im looking to do paddles because i cant afford presets and analog isnt cool enough for me to throw the extra cash down, and i want reliability. But to be modding your paddle valves, im starting to think this is some slow air out times


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## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

crispy21 said:


> idk cuz i have a disassembled paddle in front of me and i dont think its dremmeling the two holes. the hole in the back is never covered even when the paddle valve is in the middle.


What don't you get? Seriously...

The lower green circle on the right side supplies the pressurized air
When the paddle is in the neutral position the right green circles are resting against the pink circles on the left hand slider
The paddle is put into the "fill" position and the left hand slider moves so that the green circles on the backing (on the right in the picture) are lined up with the green circles on the left and the air flows from the supply line, through the channel in the slider which connects the two green holes, and into the bag supply line until the paddle is put back into the neutral position.
when the paddle is put into the "dump" position the slider on the left moves so that the right top circle (connected to the bag) now dumps into the yellow chamber on the slider, and further out the yellow slot on the right.

Is it really that hard a concept to follow the flow of air in a simple mechanical device?


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## crispy21 (Mar 26, 2012)

JrJanowski said:


> Off topic, but how long does it take you to air up and down haha? Ive got a 3 galllon with a 400cc compressor and im looking to do paddles because i cant afford presets and analog isnt cool enough for me to throw the extra cash down, and i want reliability. But to be modding your paddle valves, im starting to think this is some slow air out times


theow. mainly the reason i wont be using them. like 10 or more seconds to air out


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## crispy21 (Mar 26, 2012)

MechEngg said:


> What don't you get? Seriously...
> 
> The lower green circle on the right side supplies the pressurized air
> When the paddle is in the neutral position the right green circles are resting against the pink circles on the left hand slider
> ...


well just tried it on my buddys car and to no avail. still slow dump times :thumbdown:


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## mango-smoothie (Jan 25, 2011)

MechEngg said:


> Yup, you could always dremel out the back of the channel, you can see where it is currently plastic welded in place, just dremel a bit out then make a new back plate and plastic weld it in place?


the only plastic 'welding' i've done is just melting the plastic with a soldering iron. 

can you elaborate on how this works?


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## MechEngg (Jan 13, 2009)

crispy21 said:


> well just tried it on my buddys car and to no avail. still slow dump times :thumbdown:


Then the valvebody is most likely not the choke point in the system. Other choke points could be the airline since it is quite a long length of tubing or the o-ring seal


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