Residual Soap in HP Rinse

[MDrost1]

Folks,

I have a problem that is very similar to the one in this thread:

Soap in HP Rinse

This is what I know: When I use HP rinse there is a very little bit of what I think might be soap in the HP rinse. Can see it on the edge of the water when sprayed on to the bay floor. All 5 bays. I started recently. I don't know exactly when, but we shut down the wash 2 weeks ago to seal coat, install a new air compressor, and clean the brine tank for the water softener. I think it might have been after that but, not sure. Sorry for the vague description.

When I hit the HP wax, then go back to HP rinse the residual "soap" seems to have gone away. But it is in all of the bays. More so in others. My warm water rinse tank is clear as a bell. Opened the top for a while thinking might be condensation from the soap and wax tanks, not sure. Weep system is off for the year.

Any thoughts as to what my issue might be?

The thread above would point to swapping my HP hoses. But all of them? My wash has some newer HP hoses, and some older. Varying ages.

Any assistance or advice would be greatly appreciated and welcome. Hope you all had a nice Memorial Day.

Thanks!

 

[MEP001]

I've seen this exact problem several times now. It's always been with steel-braided hose like the Neptune 3000, and it has always occurred suddenly in all bays. My guess is it's a change in the soap since it has always affected all bays.

 

[Greg Pack]

I had that happen ne time a couple of years ago. I changed to a new HP line in an attempt to stop it. I finally had to swap to hard water rinse to make it go away completely.You mentioned you cleaned out the brine tank, I wonder if your softener was working prior to this.

 

[2Biz]

So...After reading this, I checked yesterday when I cleaned out my bays...The OP said he had soap around the edges when he sprayed water on the floor. That's not a good test when trying to figure out if you have soap in rinse issues. I have the same thing then! Concrete is pretty porous and can hold a lot of soap residue. I think the real test is on a car.

I use steel braided 3/8 hose, some of which are 10+ years old. I run "0" grain hardness water for both soap and rinse cycles. When I switch over to rinse from soap, the rinse water clears up within a few seconds after the rinse water reaches the wand. Its interesting the problem is in all your bays. Some worse than others. From my experience, I'm having a hard time believing it's the hoses. If the holding tanks aren't contaminated, what else can it be? I'm hoping your not using the concrete floor for the test like the OP?

 

[MDrost1]

Well,

The initial complaint came from a customer washing his car. A regular who is familiar with the wash. I have used a bunch of surfaces, including the floor...Dohhh! I do have Neptune 3000 in the boom. Swapped it out without any change. Gonna move to the trough hoses next. I am also letting my rinse tank, which has tons of condensation, like a rain forest, air out for a few days and see if things change. Thanks for all of the help guys!

 

[MDrost1]

So I did a few tests. One, sprayed the water from HP rinse into a bucket. You could see the little bit of foam initially. But it would go a away. When it did go away, I agitated the water and it didn't really come back.

Also, my spot free TDS reads 9ppm.

Thoughts? Am I going crazy ; )?

 

[MEP001]

From my experience, I'm having a hard time believing it's the hoses.

I did too the first time I saw it, but I eliminated literally every other possibility before changing the high-pressure lines to the bays which solved the problem.

 

[JMMUSTANG]

Hook up a new bay hose and gun directly to the pump in the equipment room, bypassing all your trough lines.
Turn on that pump and see if you have a problem or not.
If there is no soap problem then hook up the hose from the bay to the pump in the equipment room and see if you have the problem.

 

[MDrost1]

Folks,
I took off the line to the bay and connected a new hose. Sprayed water in a clean 5 gallon bucket. Clear water. Hooked back up to the bay and sprayed water from bay gun into a clean bucket. Definite suds. I guess I'll start by getting the old Neptune 3000 boom hoses and hoses to the gun replaced and see if that helps. A lot of Neptune 3000. Old. : ).

 

[MDrost1]

Update: Swapped all boom hoses and spray gun hoses today. We will see if there is a change. Time will tell.