Foam brush problems

[Rtharlan]

Hello,new here. Trying to help out my mother in law with her 4 bay carwash. My father in law passed last year an was the brains for this place.

ok, ive tried what seems like everything to get this thing to foam. Ive scoured posts on this site an checked things. It had stopped working recently. And i found a blocked line. This however was after someone else had played with the settings. Ive got solution flowing now.

ive changed pumps. Its a yamada pump
Ive put in a rebuilt hydrominder
Cleaned the mixer jet
Inspected foot valves
Drained and refilled the holding tanks

Theres a 15 gal tank that brings in the concentrate via hydrominder with a blue jet. From there its pulled in to a smaller tank with another hydrominder with a white jet. From there its taken by the pump to the brush.

no foamers. Just air. Inside the cabinet with the plumbing. Theres a set of 8 solenoids 4 are air. 4 are liquid. They are also adjustible im assuming for flow. No matter what combination i get it seems to just run out of the brush like theres too much liquid.

 

[JGinther]

Try pouring some soap in the last hydrominder tank directly. Sounds like you are overdiluting product, but don't know what you are using.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

How hard is the water?

 

[Rtharlan]

Thats the only thing i have not tried. And the reason being this is how it was set up before an worked fine. But i will try anything at this point. As far as the product ill let you know. Soon. Thanks!

 

[Rtharlan]

How hard is the water?

Need to test. I will do that asap.

 

[Greg Pack]

I agree with strengthening the chemical. There is no need to dilute in two stages. But if I read you correctly you are taking concentrate and diluting it roughly 25:1, then you are taking THAT product and diluting roughly 25:1 again. Most non-hyper concentrates run best at about 100:1 or so. Take the tip entirely out of the second hydrominder and see if the problem changes. Alternately, just dilute it once with a yellow or purple tip in the hydro.

 

[Rtharlan]

Adding concentrate to the second tank direct. Worked great. Seems to be a mix issue.

what i dont get is why it has wirked gor years this way. An now it doesnt????

and we are using KR cherry blossom

 

[I.B. Washincars]

what i dont get is why it has wirked gor years this way. An now it doesnt????

Water softener quit working, will do exactly that.

I know I always harp about soft water, but that should be one of the first things you should check when your soap suddenly stops working. I've chased my tail quite a few times over the years, only to realize my softener had stopped working after I had tried 50 other things.

 

[MEP001]

It's also possible that one of the Hydrominder foot valves has failed, or it's not sealing well in the hose. You also need a hole in the discharge hose on the downspout of the Hydrominder, above the liquid, to prevent it from siphoning back to your concentrate.

 

[Rtharlan]

Water softener quit working, will do exactly that.

I know I always harp about soft water, but that should be one of the first things you should check when your soap suddenly stops working. I've chased my tail quite a few times over the years, only to realize my softener had stopped working after I had tried 50 other things.

unfotunately there is no softener here.Been that way 25 years. I plan to test it though to see where its at.

 

[JGinther]

I would put in a couple of hydrominder diaphragms first. They cost a dollar I think... The material starts to break down and changes the flow to the eductor, causing less vacuum pressure.

 

[Greg Pack]

Ok, looking at Cherry Blossom they do indeed recommend a 600:1 ration, which would explain the two stage dilution process. He was doing this instead of a dual port injector. Clean the inlet screen on the hydrominders, replace the diaphragms, and check to make sure the proper discharge tube is used and is not so stiff that it has lost a seal on the eductor.

I don't think its a softener because the color of the solution would still be bright red, it just wouldn't be foamy.

 

[Rtharlan]

It's also possible that one of the Hydrominder foot valves has failed, or it's not sealing well in the hose. You also need a hole in the discharge hose on the downspout of the Hydrominder, above the liquid, to prevent it from siphoning back to your concentrate.

when i drained everything to start from scratch. I went though the footvalves. Replaced the one going to the secondary tank as it was not closing. And used zipties to seal them. The line that goes into the concentrate had what seemed to be a porcelin sleeve in the end that the food valve was inserted.

It's also possible that one of the Hydrominder foot valves has failed, or it's not sealing well in the hose. You also need a hole in the discharge hose on the downspout of the Hydrominder, above the liquid, to prevent it from siphoning back to your concentrate.

 

[MEP001]

when i drained everything to start from scratch. I went though the footvalves. Replaced the one going to the secondary tank as it was not closing. And used zipties to seal them. The line that goes into the concentrate had what seemed to be a porcelin sleeve in the end that the food valve was inserted.

Yes, it's a weight to help keep the end of the hose at the bottom. Definitely check what JGinther suggested - I see that happen a lot.

 

[Rtharlan]

Yes, it's a weight to help keep the end of the hose at the bottom. Definitely check what JGinther suggested - I see that happen a lot.

I swapped in a rebuilt unit going from the concentrate to the first tank. But il just get two new ones for piece of mind.


Neither has a hole on the discharge tube though. One i know is a 511. The other i havent searched yet.

 

[Rtharlan]

I would put in a couple of hydrominder diaphragms first. They cost a dollar I think... The material starts to break down and changes the flow to the eductor, causing less vacuum pressure.

This is interesting because after i emptied everything. During the refill process. I noticed intermittantly the color on the discharge would go from pink to clear sometimes. And i would shut it off an it would be fine for a few minutes.

 

[MEP001]

This is interesting because after i emptied everything. During the refill process. I noticed intermittantly the color on the discharge would go from pink to clear sometimes. And i would shut it off an it would be fine for a few minutes.

I've had that happen too. I had put a new discharge hose on a unit and it worked fine when I tested it, but got called back a few days later because there was no soap. There should be a brown or yellow ring inside the discharge tube, maybe 4 inches down from the valve. The water was jetting right through the ring and not touching it most of the time (at which point it created no suction at all), but if I flexed it a little the water would touch it and it would draw soap.

 

[Rtharlan]

I've had that happen too. I had put a new discharge hose on a unit and it worked fine when I tested it, but got called back a few days later because there was no soap. There should be a brown or yellow ring inside the discharge tube, maybe 4 inches down from the valve. The water was jetting right through the ring and not touching it most of the time (at which point it created no suction at all), but if I flexed it a little the water would touch it and it would draw soap.

Yes there is a ring in it. So what did you do to correct this?

 

[MEP001]

I messed with it for half an hour, and ended up replacing it.

 

[Randy]

The first thing you need to do is read the label on the side of the KR cherry blossom and it'll say something like add this 5 gallon pail to 10 gallons of water, that way you don't have to dick around with 2 Hydrominders and all the other hardware you've got. Just use 1 Hydrominder and pull the chemical from the 15 gallon container. Get yourself a 15 gallon container and pour the 5 gallon pail KR cherry blossom into it and add 10 gallons of water, I've been doing it that way for years, easy as it can be. I use a piece of gray 3/4" PVC pipe to keep the Hydominder hose in the soap container. We quit using the KR soap a few years ago to many problems with it.