Triple Foam System Sucking Air

[washregal]

I am baffled - I have an older triple foam system with three solonoids at the bottom of the system.

My problem is - when the system is in use or there is demand it apears to work fine.. When the dial is turned off clear coat or shut off .. my flo jet pump goes crazy.. The pump hammers or ait binds...

I have changed the check valves, and air regulators.. aside from changing all the solonoids is tehre anything that anyone would recommend?

I looked up at my Red clear coat color from the hydrominder it apears to be bubbling.. could this be the problem?

 

[Bubbles Galore]

It sounds like one of the valves in the flojet isn't closing properly when there is no draw on the system. Do you have a spare flojet you can change it out with to see if that fixes the problem?

 

[washregal]

I swapped out a few.. Thought the same thing thinking that it might have been the flo-jet .. No luck unfortunatly still the same cavitation.

 

[car washing systems inc]

I would start with the sol first take it apart and clean or replace it, it sounds like it is leaking

 

[MEP001]

It sounds like there may be an air shut-off for the pump that isn't working. Is there one pump for all three colors? Those will usually have solenoids that supply the three colors to the pump, and when the system is off they're all closed. If the pump is still getting air when no bays are in use, it will run like crazy trying to draw liquid through the closed solenoids.

 

[whitescout]

Are the three solenoids controlling flow of liquid? If so, you are counting on the solenoids to dead head the pump. When the pump is going crazy like you say,... is there any chemical being pushed out? If the answers are yes, i would propose that the flo jet is in mid stroke when the sloenoids closes. my suggestion would be to add one cheap solenoid in front of the flo jet that opens when triple foam is needed.

 

[pitzerwm]

I have a foam brush setup in my garage to wash my cars, and the flojet does that when there is no liquid to suck up, i.e. the soap gets low and the hose is out of the liquid. So sucking air from some place would do that.

 

[MEP001]

Are the three solenoids controlling flow of liquid? If so, you are counting on the solenoids to dead head the pump.

Let's not confuse the issue - if there are three pumps, then there must already be a solenoid on the outlet of each pump, plus the ones for the bays, so the pumps are already dead-headed. Adding another solenoid would only complicate the system and would ultimately do nothing. If there are three solenoids feeding one pump and they are all closed when the system is off, then the only reason why the pump would continue to run would be that it still has a supply of air. It should "dead head" and stop pumping if the solenoids to the bays are all closing 100%, but if one has even a small leak then the pump will run as if it's not getting liquid because all three supply solenoids are closed. Try closing the valve to the inlet of a FloJet and you'll see what I mean - it won't just stop pumping. If there are air bubbles in the line only when the bays are off, it's because the pump is creating a vacuum on the inlet tubing and sucking air in wherever it can.

 

[whitescout]

Quote"Let's not confuse the issue - if there are three pumps, then there must already be a solenoid on the outlet of each pump,"

I never said anything about three pumps... Some of the systems out there have three solenoids( one for each color), on the inlet side of the pump, that are controlled by a delay timer.

Quote"If there are three solenoids feeding one pump and they are all closed when the system is off, then the only reason why the pump would continue to run would be that it still has a supply of air."

As I said, I have seen the Feed solenoid shut off, cutting of liquid to the inlet side of the flo jet when the flo jet is in mid stroke. The flojet continues to try and get more liquid, but there is no liquid available because the supply solenoid has shut of the supply. this leads to the same symptoms as a empty bucket before the flojet with flojet trying to pump air. Or, as the OP stated ".. my flo jet pump goes crazy.."

 

[MEP001]

Ideally the pump should have a solenoid to shut off the air supply to the pump to prevent what you describe. I've never seen a system that closes the inlet solenoids and keeps the pumps pressurized. I'm not trying to create an argument, but I really don't see the sense in adding a solenoid to the outlet of the pump when there is one already in place, and when checking on or adding a solenoid to the air supplying the pump would completely solve the issue.

 

[whitescout]

I wasn't clear in my first post. When i was asking about the 3 solenoids controlling the flow of liquid, I meant on the inlet side of the pump. The solenoid I was suggesting to add, was to control the flow of air to the pump. no worries, I did not think you were trying to argue, I didn't think you understood what I was talking about, ... and after re reading what i posted, I can see how you didn't.