What's new
By:
Car Wash Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Foam Brush Issues

spf8298

spf8298

Member
I've got a 3 bay self serve with a home-made foam brush set up. It's not ideal, but It was that way when I purchased. It does have two manifold blocks (air and product), two regulators with gauges (one controls pressure to flo-jet and one to the air mainfold), and a solution tank that the flo-jet pulls out of. The lines are all 1/4" poly and they are tee'd together in the equipment room with single 1/4" lines going out to the foam brush.

The set-up is very touchy. I usually set the air pressure to the flo-jet at 55-60 and the air pressure to the air manifold at 45-50 and most of the time this makes decent foam. Lately, I just can't get it set with out the product coming out liquidy.

My question is, what can be done to improve the product show? Would running two lines out to each bay and teeing above the boom help? My manifold blacks each have metering ajustability. Any help would be appreciated.
 
I'd probably do what Keno has suggested first and if that works go up one tip size to get strong solution. You might want to think about building a Foam generator. I have the same type of set up the air and the solution meet in the equipment room and I have one line going out to the bay. But I have a foam generator in the equipment room that the air and solution are tee'd into. I get shaving cream foam out in the bay.
 
spf8298 said:
I've got a 3 bay self serve with a home-made foam brush set up. It's not ideal, but It was that way when I purchased. It does have two manifold blocks (air and product), two regulators with gauges (one controls pressure to flo-jet and one to the air mainfold), and a solution tank that the flo-jet pulls out of. The lines are all 1/4" poly and they are tee'd together in the equipment room with single 1/4" lines going out to the foam brush.

The set-up is very touchy. I usually set the air pressure to the flo-jet at 55-60 and the air pressure to the air manifold at 45-50 and most of the time this makes decent foam. Lately, I just can't get it set with out the product coming out liquidy.

My question is, what can be done to improve the product show? Would running two lines out to each bay and teeing above the boom help? My manifold blacks each have metering ajustability. Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
If you have a home made set up (nothing wrong with that) you may have some components are 10-20 years old or older. One thing to get rid of is any old aluminum mixing blocks out at the bays (if any) and replace any flex hoses after the mix occurs but before the brush boom. This is a common area where soap build up occurs and will significantly slow down, stop, or screw up a good brush soap show. Totally agree a good first test is to add some pure soap to the mix and see what happens.
 
If your foam generators get clogged the product you can have that symptom. I've even had to replace the hoses going to the brush due to buildup so keep that in mind.
 
spf8298 said:
The lines are all 1/4" poly and they are tee'd together in the equipment room with single 1/4" lines going out to the foam brush.

T
Click to expand...
I think trying to push foam any distance thru a 1/4" line is an issue. You could try making the line 1/2 Braided or go the route of T'ng above Boom and see which works best. Report Back.
 
I did discover a few things with the foam brush this weekend. The dilution was way too weak. I ended up going up one tip size and that seemed to help. The other issues I'm seeing is that I get good foam in the two bays closest to the equipment room, but the bay that is farthest from equipment room comes out liquid no matter what adjustments I make. Not sure what I can do to mitigate this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top