Weep Problem

[Kari_L]

We own and operate a 6 bay wash in Michigan. It is 3 self bays and 2 touchless automatics. Our weep suddenly stopped flowing to our self bays. The weep to the auto bays is working as it should.

We just bought the wash in May and we are first timers. I have attached photos and a video to show how it is set up.

The red hose on the left feeds the weep to the auto bays. The red hose on the right feeds the weep to the self bays. The video and photos show how it feeds into the first self bay. It also shows how the red hose connects to another red hose that feeds into the next self bay. It then flows into the third in the same way.

Each self bay is connected the same way with a ball valve at each one as shown. There is also a solenoid before the ball valve in the other two bays. We removed the solenoid from the one shown to see if it would fix the problem. It did not. Everything seems to flow well from the water source and out through the block. But once we reattach the hose and turn it on, nothing gets out to the bay.

What should we do next?

 

[pcb]

Is your weep water getting to the pump? If so, if the ball valve is open and water isn't making to the bay it's either got an obstruction after the pump or may have frozen in the line somewhere already.

 

[Randy]

If your getting water to the pump from the source your hoses going out to the bays from the pump are frozen. Do you have doors on your bays? It would probably be a good idea to open the ball at is feeding water to the weep system. Could you post a picture or 2 of the solenoid valve that is feeding the weep water to your weep system. You also might want to disconnect your hoses on in the bay and bring in the equipment room to thaw out.

 

[Kari_L]

If your getting water to the pump from the source your hoses going out to the bays from the pump are frozen. Do you have doors on your bays? It would probably be a good idea to open the ball at is feeding water to the weep system. Could you post a picture or 2 of the solenoid valve that is feeding the weep water to your weep system. You also might want to disconnect your hoses on in the bay and bring in the equipment room to thaw out.

We got it figured out. All of the lines that run out to the bay are in heated and insulated troughs and they didn't have any freezing. We brought in all the frozen hoses, guns, and brushes from the bays a few days ago to thaw. We thought we had checked absolutely everything. But the culprit was a little bit of ice in the boom itself.

We only put together and opened one bay "just in case". It is frozen again tonight even with the weep working correctly. I don't know if we're not weeping enough or if it's just too cold. It's going to be a learning process of when we can and cannot leave it open. We do have one door on the exit side (south end) of each self bay that stays closed all winter and we have slab heat. But we're not 100% how well that is working because our third self bay had a ton of ice chunks build up on the floor and it looked like Antarctica in there a week or so ago.

I showed my husband your explanation of how you blow out and winterize your bays and we are definitely going to be doing that in the future. Unfortunately we are still in the learning, catching up, and solving constant problems mode right now.

 

[cbchevy4x4]

Not sure of your temps but here is a guide for what ive learned and do. Mine are set to cycle with weep mizers, to set the flow rate i turn the weeps on manually thru the weepmizer and test with a jug i marked at 40 oz. Time for 1 minute and try to set them all to that rate. Ive never froze up into the single digits at that flow.
There are alot if variables in it too.
You use hot water you can weep less. My second site i weep hot because the guns are exposed to more wind yet i run about 20 oz per minute and havent froze up yet. If i set the cold weep site at 20oz per min id probably freeze up in the low 20s