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P.S. & T.C. Check Valves?

2Biz

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If I put PS and TC on a seperate gun of their own, are check valves needed? Equipment used will be Flojets, kip manifold blocks, and pistol grip guns (no trigger). Washer fluid and air injection for winterizing. No weep.
 

cantbreak80

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Jeff,
Because of the easy discharge path through the foam gun nozzles, the chemical pumps will not produce enough back pressure to open the idle solenoid's plunger...unless you plumb it crazy...and you're not likely to do that.?!?
 

Eric H

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My only concern here would be about the pressure for the air blow down on the winterizing. I'd look up how much pressure the solenoids can hold back just to put my mind at ease.
 

MEP001

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If I put PS and TC on a seperate gun of their own, are check valves needed? Equipment used will be Flojets, kip manifold blocks, and pistol grip guns (no trigger). Washer fluid and air injection for winterizing. No weep.
If all the pressures are about the same, you shouldn't need check valves, but fwiw I've tried out washes that had separate check valves for every line to the boom, and the tire cleaner/presoak didn't foam nearly as well without it mixing through a single valve.
 

MEP001

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My only concern here would be about the pressure for the air blow down on the winterizing. I'd look up how much pressure the solenoids can hold back just to put my mind at ease.
If you're talking about the solenoid resisting backflow from pressure to the outlet side, it's almost none. Solenoids are basically check valves that are pulled open with the coil to flow in reverse and aren't designed to prevent flow in the opposite direction.
 

2Biz

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My Tri Foam system uses a procon pump and it has a single check valve at the kip manifold inlet. But its plumbed for weep which I don't use. I can see the need for that one if I used weep.

Just yesterday, I had somebody using PS and holstered the gun with a lot of time left on the meter and left the PS running. Except the weep gun was restricing flow. I must have a failing/weak air CV at the boom because PS backed up into the ER and was pouring out the air regulator (Air side of the PS). Switching to HP sealed the CV and stopped the leak by. So I disabled the PS till I have time to get up there in the morning and swap the CV.

I'm in the process of getting all my parts to move the Tri-foam to the FB and moving PS to the Trifoam boom....Theres lots of benifits by doing this. (Thanks CB80 for the suggestion! I'm on it!) By moving the trifoam system over to the FB, this opens up a switch position so I'm adding Tire cleaner. Hence the CV questions.

Eric....CB80 and I both winterize the LP systems using washer fluid and air injection. I don't have any check valves for the FB. I've never had any backflow issues, even with as bad as last winter was. I didn't know if combining PS and TC to the same gun, especially since I'll be running them through a single foamer, if that would create any back flow issues. It Sounds like it won't be an issue.

CB80, Thanks!!! I CAN get crazy with the plumbing, so I wouldn't rule anything out! I know I can combine/eliminate air solenoids with the winterizing PLC, but I'm not as risky as you! So I'll have three Wyes on each foamer for PS, TC, and washer fluid/air injection. I'll have to add a few more relays for PS and TC input to the PLC so they can share a single washer fluid/air cycle. But that is fairly easy to do.

Thanks for all the replys...So No CV's needed. I'm happy with that! :)
 

MEP001

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Just yesterday, I had somebody using PS and holstered the gun with a lot of time left on the meter and left the PS running. Except the weep gun was restricing flow. I must have a failing/weak air CV at the boom because PS backed up into the ER and was pouring out the air regulator (Air side of the PS). Switching to HP sealed the CV and stopped the leak by. So I disabled the PS till I have time to get up there in the morning and swap the CV.
Are there separate check valves for presoak and air now? I have tire cleaner, presoak and air all coming together on a common check valve. Backflow is prevented by the air pressure being 5 PSI higher than the liquid.
 

2Biz

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Are there separate check valves for presoak and air now? I have tire cleaner, presoak and air all coming together on a common check valve. Backflow is prevented by the air pressure being 5 PSI higher than the liquid.
After gedtting up there this morning to fix it, I realized there is only one common check valve for the PS and air. So the CV wasn't the issue. The problem turned out to be a bad regulator and gage. It would work fine when the trigger was pulled, but as soon as you let off the trigger, PS would over power the air line and flow back towards the ER. Since it was the truck bay, 75' away, it would take awhile to reach the regulator. The moon and stars had to be lined up for PS to make it all the way back to the ER! How often would someone holster the gun and just let the PS run?!?!?! It hadn't happened in almost 4 years!

Running 60 psi on the Flojet and 35 psi air works ok even when you release the trigger. No PS would backflow. If I increased air pressure more than that, it would spit and sputter.

Needless to say, I'm still moving the PS off the HP gun.
 
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