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Selecting a pump and controls

Etowah
I went ahead and bought two of the Viton pumps and going to try them for now to get the machine install finished. If they do not work out I will get an electric motor driven pump installed before we open and have two spare presoak pumps.
 
Two of these double Flojet pumps seemed to work for a while. Lately we have been leaving chemical spots on vehicles. We have been trying different drying agents and protectants so that probably plays into the issue. At first I thought that I would compensate by putting in larger spot free arch spray tips along the top but this didn't help a lot. I have some even larger ones on order but they take weeks to get. Then I noticed that the glass building window washing streams didn't look like they were reaching all the way to the ends of the building. I'm thinking the pumps are not pumping as much as they did when they were new. I put my finger over the mufflers on each pump. The"leading" pumps (the first pump that the air gets to from the tee fitting) have pressure coming out of the mufflers. The "trailing" pumps (the ones at the end of of the air line) do not seem to have any air coming out of the mufflers. I can't remember for sure if it was like this originally but to me it seems they should all have the same feeling of pressure coming out. What is the chance that both trailing pumps are bad and the leading pumps are fine? If so, what would cause that? Is there a quick way to verify this without taking plumbing off? My thought was to pinch the trailing pump air line with pliers and listen for a difference.
 
I pinched the air lines going to each trailing pump and couldn't hear a difference. I'm assuming those pumps are not working.
 
OurTown said:
I pinched the air lines going to each trailing pump and couldn't hear a difference. I'm assuming those pumps are not working.
Click to expand...
Is it one air line feeding all the pumps? There may not be enough volume at the end of the line to run those pumps.
 
Those are just 2 g57 pumps mounted back to back, so there is a chance 1 may have gone out or is stalled. I would try disconnecting the liquid outlet and route into a bucket to measure gpm.
 
Well, dang! Sorry to read about your issue. I thought pumping only water would have little effect on their longevity.

I must report that my dual Flojet pre-soak installation worked really well for about one year. Then, the pumps began performing like you’re experiencing…followed by some significant leakage of the low pH pre-soak pump.

The solution was to replace the old cobbled-together IBA with a Kondor Flight.

Service calls to this site are now limited to fixing mundane stuff. 😌
 
HeyVern said:
Is it one air line feeding all the pumps? There may not be enough volume at the end of the line to run those pumps.
Click to expand...
Yes. One air line, and that is the way they are plumbed from the factory. They worked great for a while, so I doubt that is the issue.
 
Keno said:
Those are just 2 g57 pumps mounted back to back, so there is a chance 1 may have gone out or is stalled. I would try disconnecting the liquid outlet and route into a bucket to measure gpm.
Click to expand...
Actually, one is, and the other has mirrored internals.
 
cantbreak80 said:
Well, dang! Sorry to read about your issue. I thought pumping only water would have little effect on their longevity.

I must report that my dual Flojet pre-soak installation worked really well for about one year. Then, the pumps began performing like you’re experiencing…followed by some significant leakage of the low pH pre-soak pump.

The solution was to replace the old cobbled-together IBA with a Kondor Flight.

Service calls to this site are now limited to fixing mundane stuff. 😌
Click to expand...
This is what Autec uses on the presoak arches, but I'm starting to think those are not pumping the same as new either. At least those are only one double pump per arch. I'm thinking of replacing those someday with Procons. I talked to Roland at Flojet for a while yesterday to get his thoughts. There is way too much to type here, but the main takeaway is that this was not a bad idea, but I need to start looking for another long-term solution.
 
I just watched those YouTube videos I posted on this thread early on, and there is definitely an issue now.
 
Keno said:
Maybe use regular Flojets to pump into a gravity holding tank where you can use a multistage booster pump
Click to expand...
That was a thought I had or use a sump pump to fill it. I need to figure out where to put the tank. We have very little floor or wall space left. I'll probably have to build a really tall stand so it can be above another piece of equipment.
 
Is there any reason why those double pumps have to mirror each other? The only thing I see is that they have those nice inlet and outlet manifolds. Instead of scrapping the whole idea, I could build manifolds that would line up four pumps in a row. If they each have their own air, water inlet and water outlet shut off valves, then I could isolate them for easy diagnostics and replacement. I'm also thinking of installing a pressure gauge on the spot free arch that can be easily seen from the outside of the glass building. That way I know easily if one of the pumps is bad. I could live with replacing a pump every six months. It might be still cost effective in the long run compared to an alternative setup. Also, they might still be getting moisture to them even though I have the refrigerated air dryer.
 
I installed a pressure gauge right after the solenoid valve on the spot free arch. It's only building to 22 psi when running. Not good. It looks like the trailing pump (the one I'm suspicious of) is the normal G57 which I have plenty of spares of. I'm trying to think of a quick way to isolate each pump for testing. (AKA scratching my head) They have common manifolds for the inlet and outlet plus the air lines are not separate. I might have to wait until it rains again or get up at stupid o'clock AM so I don't inconvenience many customers.
 
I shut off the air to the pumps, relieved water pressure, pulled all manifolds and air hoses, then tested each individual pump with spare fittings/hoses/regulator. My suspicion was correct. Both trailing pumps were "stuck" with no output. I replaced them with spares and now I have 40+psi at the arch. Yay! (Until next time)
 
OurTown said:
Is there any reason why those double pumps have to mirror each other? The only thing I see is that they have those nice inlet and outlet manifolds. Instead of scrapping the whole idea, I could build manifolds that would line up four pumps in a row. If they each have their own air, water inlet and water outlet shut off valves, then I could isolate them for easy diagnostics and replacement. I'm also thinking of installing a pressure gauge on the spot free arch that can be easily seen from the outside of the glass building. That way I know easily if one of the pumps is bad. I could live with replacing a pump every six months. It might be still cost effective in the long run compared to an alternative setup. Also, they might still be getting moisture to them even though I have the refrigerated air dryer.
Click to expand...
Look up the mounting system for flojets used for soda fountains, probably would be exactly what you are looking for.

Something like this

 
One of the presoak trailing pumps was also bad. I'm going to install water traps just before these pumps. The mufflers definitely have moisture on them so hopefully that's why they failed. We have a refrigerated air dryer but maybe it doesn't work right. Flojet is sending us two new double pumps for free which is nice.
 
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