Air/liquid mixture in the ER vs in the bay

[Noob]

Can anyone give me the pros/cons of mixing the air and chemical for low pressure functions in the equipment room and then pushing the final product to the bay vs mixing the final product at the boom in the bays? Would pushing it from the ER give it more time to mix/foam?

 

[Earl Weiss]

I think mixing in the ER will give foam more time to die en route to the bay. Mixing above the bay gives it about 25 feet to foam.

 

[Randy]

Can anyone give me the pros/cons of mixing the air and chemical for low pressure functions in the equipment room and then pushing the final product to the bay vs mixing the final product at the boom in the bays? Would pushing it from the ER give it more time to mix/foam?

We mix all our products in the equipment room with no problems. They push out to the bays just fine, we've only been doing it this way for over 32 years.

 

[MEP001]

You would need a bigger line from the room to the bay, and like Earl said it will drop out of foam on its way. I've seen a number of washes built in the 80's that were like that, and you really can't get a good consistent low pressure spray or foam at the brush unless the run is fairly short. I used to manage a chain of washes (I think there were eleven) that had the foam brush generators in the room with a 1/2" hose going to the bay. If I adjusted to make good foam, the farthest bays took a couple minutes to start. If I adjusted to get the foam to the bay quickly, it would spit and sputter or pause for a period before spitting out another cough of overly dry foam. I tried smaller hose but it just restricted the foam even worse. I eventually started replacing the hose as I needed to with a pair of 1/4" tubing lines and it worked great.

 

[Earl Weiss]

We mix all our products in the equipment room with no problems. They push out to the bays just fine, we've only been doing it this way for over 32 years.

How many bays on each side of your ER?