Watkins Replacement Water Check Valve for Hot Springs Spa, 3/4" - 35233

Like another reviewer, I too was looking for a better back-flow solution for my dishwasher and found this! Dishwashers need a check valve to keep water from the garbage disposal from flowing backwards through the drain hose into the dishwasher. And the check valves sold for dishwashers are usually a very cheap rubber flap or “duck bill” type valve. They don’t work well, fail often, and generally suck. This is a very well made, solid, yet simple check valve. It works perfectly. It’s super rugged and will probably last longer than the dishwasher itself. I don’t understand how some reviewers can claim it leaks, etc. You can simply blow into it to see how well it seals (which is very well!). Maybe they installed it backwards? Anyway. If it will work for my little dishwasher pump, it will surely work in your hot tub! My hot tub doesn’t use check valves anywhere, or I would certainly use this one.

This item works perfectly in my Watkins Classic. We'll see how long it lasts...

I used this on a dishwasher drain to disposal. It leaked right out of the package, put water an pressure on the stop side, and it did drip, quit heavily actually. This might be acceptable for a spa, but stagnate water in the dishwasher isn't. Put Dielectric gel on the plunger an seat, problem solved. Vaseline would work as well. Happy with the product for using what it wasn't designed for.

Hot tub froze over in the winter from the kids not closing it. Plastic piece cracked & this was a cheap repair! Worked out perfect!

this was an exact fit for my tiger river bengal spa. the old valve was leaking and I replaced it. ordered new clips but the ones you remove can be reused. Just one note, if the spa is filled with water you have to do this quickly as the water will spill out once you remove the old one.

This device is exactly what I was looking for. It is a simple check valve that must be installed somewhat vertically to insure drainage. I mounted it into 1/2 inch PVC female slip couplings on each end even though it has barbs. It seems to be a good fit, and I used multi-purpose Oatey plumbing cement purchased from Home Depot intended for use on a variety of plastics such as PVC, CPVC and ABS. This valve is used in a gravity drain application with no pressure from the A/C unit, and there will be minimal pressure applied from the drain line downstream of the valve as the water softener T's into a line that vents to the outside of the house about two to three feet away with no resistance. The fit seems to be fine. The valve itself is quite simple: Essentially, a small rubber piston is housed in a somewhat larger cylinder allowing liquid or gas to easily flow around it. When pressure is applied from the downstream side the piston is moved to the upper end of the cylinder and the top seats against the opening which blocks any back flow what ever. When that "wrong way" force is removed the piston falls due to gravity and the liquid above it is allowed to flow out of the cylinder and into a shared drain. There is no minimal "crack force" required to unseat this valve. While this appears to be well built, I would not use the above tecnnique in an application where substantial force will be applied from the down-stream line or the upstream line for that matter. In either case, using a hose and clamps would yield better results.

Not a pefect valve for preventing backflow, but it stops 95+ percent of it. I used this for a sump pump backup application. I use a small 12v battery-powered centrifugal backup pump (bilge pump). It feeds into a clear plastic 3/4" tube, which is tied into the typical 2" PVC outbound pipe. When the main sump pump runs, the valve prevents backflow into the bilge pump (a trickle comes back through it). When the bilge runs, this allows water through easily. The centrifugal bilge pump is able to push water up and out about 9' of vertical pipe with 15ft of horizontal run thereafter (i.e. not too much head pressure to overcome.)

This check valve sucks! It leaked slowly from the time I installed it about a week ago. Well, it completely failed today. Does not even slow the water draining back down into my sump. As for other applications, maybe you will get lucky. But it did not work at all for my aquarium. I had a previous check valve that worked for the year I have had the tank. But unfortunately, I don't know what brand it was and I do not know how long it had previously been in use. So I know the application was correct. It is this check valve that sucks!