It seems like the quality of the hydrominder blue & grey footvalves has decreased in direct proportion to their increasing price! What exactly in that piece of plastic has increased to justify a price of over $7.
I'm not sure who makes it, but last year I tried
Kleen-Rite's part #INHB500 as a footvalve. I bought 6 of them and right out of the package I could not suck through 3 of them. They simply wouldn't open.
I have now made it a practice to continue using the hydrominder footvale but double check it with a 3/8" JohnGuest speedfit checkvalve. (
Kleen-Rite part#JG6CV or Dultmeier #LM SCV38) They are not cheap, but they sure work well. The cracking pressure is low enough that it doesn't affect the draw.