Foam brush watery

[chaz]

Recently I’ve noticed my foam brush soap is watery at the bay. My anti freeze brush uses the same foam generator and it looks great...almost like shaving creme. I’ve just cleaned the air line backflows above each bay....my soap flow has increased but still watery. I’m guessing it’s an issue of air vs chemical at the flo jet? But I’m not getting anywhere. I’m using Warsaw chemicals with a 400-1 (was 470-1) dilution. The only thing I have not tried yet is switching out the micro drum of FB soap. Thoughts??

 

[JMMUSTANG]

Do you have a screen in your foam brush tank that might be clogged?

 

[chaz]

Yes, I have the screen. Been keeping it pretty clean....but maybe I’ll try soaking it in bleach to make sure it’s clear. Tks

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

400:1 and 470:1 that's a super lean ratio like your running ultra concentrated chemical. Typically on foam brush I have always ran yellow (90:1) or brown (75:1) on a 511 hydrominder setup. Have you always ran a 400:1 ratio and is this the first time setting up this barrel. I typically run 45-50psi of air also.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

I'm assuming water hardness has been checked.

 

[Jerry]

You wont need bleach, just hit it with the high pressure rinse while you hold the screen in your hand, that should clean it.

is this happening to every bay? if so, your anti freeze might be diluted too much.
If only 1 bay, one of your soap lines might be split

prolly a bad flojet

 

[Ontario Car Wash]

easy way for me to tell if soap has fell out is put a few drops of simonoz surfactant right into the hyro tank and you will have suds in a second, if no suds then you have bigger issues

 

[Greg Pack]

Assuming hydro is working OK try a bigger tip. Those hyper solutions can be pretty thick and the true ratio is much leaner than the tip color suggests.

 

[chaz]

Thanks all. I will try a larger tip cause still not as foamy as I’d like. But changing out the micro filter screen has helped a ton. I thought I had the screen pretty clean...but I guess it’s still blocked

 

[MEP001]

Watery foam brush won't be a restriction of flow - it's always going to be either hard water, too little air or over-diluted product. If it spits and sputters across the bay and still doesn't foam, start by checking your softener.

 

[chaz]

Thanks...I was just thinking hard water?! My water is still soft ....but I now need to add 3 drops to get good reading..,previously tested great with no drops. Does this mean I need to change out the softener beads?! I’ve got twin tanks. How involved is this??

 

[chaz]

I'm assuming water hardness has been checked.

Was just thinking my water is not as soft as in the past. How involved is changing out the medium in my twin tanks ?

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Was just thinking my water is not as soft as in the past. How involved is changing out the medium in my twin tanks ?

It's easy. I call the guy, he comes and does it, charges me a whole bunch of money, and we're done.

 

[chaz]

Yeah. I got one quote for job....about 3k for materials and new seals....plus 800-1000 labor. I’ve got nothing to compare to so maybe that’s about right. I’ve replaced the carbon once,,,,never the softener resin...ten years

 

[Ontario Car Wash]

I bit the bullet last year on mine from Culligan $4500
Twin tank lot more efficient than my old one actually glad I bought it.

 

[2Biz]

Thanks...I was just thinking hard water?! My water is still soft ....but I now need to add 3 drops to get good reading..,previously tested great with no drops. Does this mean I need to change out the softener beads?! I’ve got twin tanks. How involved is this??

Check your incoming water and see if it has changed. You might have just ran out of softening capacity. I had the same issue a few years ago. No HP soap at all in the bays. I checked my flow meters and nothing changed there. The soap looked the same in the lines. Water tested 15g in the gravity feed tank. Incoming water tested 15g. Its usually 4-5 coming in the Er and zero after the softener....So I had ran out of softening capacity.

The issue happened to be the water treatment plant. Their softener had broke down. Took about two weeks to get it fixed, and it didn't clear up over night. The tower that supplies my wash was contaminated with hard water and took a few more weeks to get back to normal...To fix until it cleared up, I just set my softener to regin every 3000 gallons instead of 9000 gallons.

After catching the issue, I switched tanks and soap returned to the bays...Pretty easy fix. Maybe your tanks aren't bad after all? I would at least check this before spending the $$$ to replace the resin.

 

[MEP001]

Was just thinking my water is not as soft as in the past. How involved is changing out the medium in my twin tanks ?

It's not difficult to do. I work on Fleck softeners all the time, and for an 8 cu. ft. system I can change the resin and all working parts in the head for about $1200 in parts in about 4 hours. 4 grand is insane IMO.

3 grains isn't particularly bad. Like 2Biz said, check the hardness every day, and if you know how to, check which tank the softener has in service and what usage it's at in that tank. It will at least narrow down if only one side is a problem.

 

[Greg Pack]

Yes, 3 grains isn't bad. It shouldn't be causing your problem. Stick to the plan: ensure the hydrominder is OK and then increase tip size until it gets foamy. Their hypers are thick, so you might have to use a purple-pink tip.

Also, before you spend money changing resin there are other things to do to troubleshoot your softener. It could be a simple as bridged salt, or not regenerating frequently enough.

 

[chaz]

Finally have my foamy Brush running really nice...almost like shaving cream.

Though my water is a bit harder than I’d like (3-4 grains)...it’s still pretty soft. I am needing to regenerate a bit more often so likely I’ll soon rebed my tanks.

But here’s what solved my issue I cleaned out my hydro minder tips and the chemical injection portion. Amazing results just getting the caked on soap cleared.