High Pressure Hose Emergency Repair Methods?

[jfmoran]

Just keep spares, seems simple enough.

 

[Greg Pack]

Just keep spares, seems simple enough.

You guys are totally missing the point

So all you guys have everything you need all the time? I sure don't. You guys fix everything the right way all the time, even if there is a way to get by? If I can improvise on site without affecting quality of wash I will if need be. Do you guys ever repair poly tubing breaks with unions?

I have probably 10K in spare parts sitting on the shelf at my main wash. I have a $3000.00 hose crimper, dies, and several hundred feet of HP hose in various diameters. There's probably close to twenty different hoses HP hoses on my machine, and I've got four locations. So yes, I guess If I stock around eighty spare HP hoses at various locations I could avoid the downtime.

If it's 5pm on a Friday and a random hose breaks and I don't have the proper replacement I can do this in ten minutes to get me by until I go make one and replace on a return trip. Option 2 is make a special trip and spend two hours plus driving and time to make and change the proper hose. I'm taking option 1.

 

[OurTown]

Since we are talking about replacing hoses do you guys replace them as a preventative measure? Mep brought it up about the self serve hoses going from the pump to boom but what about the autos? Do you replace after so many years, hours of operation or machine cycles? I'm sure the ones that flex burst much sooner.

 

[MEP001]

There are a couple types of machines I used to service regularly that I'd change all hoses on as preventive maintenance. One is the D&S 5000 top oscillator hoses - I found that once one was old enough to break, the others would start to break one at a time about a week apart. So whenever a customer had one break I'd just change them all and they'd be good for another couple years. The other was the Belanger Vector. I would replumb the boom hoses with 5' lengths of stainless pipe and six 4' pieces of hose. Whenever one would break I'd change them all, since it required unbolting all the pipes to get a wrench on the hose anyway.

Machines with stationary hoses tend to break when the outer jacket fails. As a rule you should be able to visually inspect and replace those hoses before they fail. Of course some machines have hoses running inside the machine where you can't see them - most people just wait for them to break and shut it down until they can get a replacement.

 

[MEP001]

You guys are totally missing the point

I think those who are missing the point aren't thinking beyond a spare bay or foam brush hose.