Monitoring a Solenoid

[CGSmith]

Does anyone have experience setting up a system which monitors a solenoid valve’s health? I have a situation where the solenoid will sit unused for long periods of time but we need some reassurance that it will operate when power is applied.

 

[hacksaw]

Typically, you test, use fail safe valves (fail open) and in critical services use backup valves and pressure monitoring. Basically you perform your study, buy your parts, and be prepared to spend money...

 

[CGSmith]

Thanks for the reply! Sorry I didn’t see this sooner. I agree with your recommendations on fail safe and redundancy. We have several electro-mechanical actuators with fail safe brakes which release using the solenoid. If the solenoid doesn’t release the brake, the actuator won’t work and hatches/doors won’t open. So, it’s already fail safe (brake on when solenoid fails) but I would still consider operation of the solenoid critical.