Adding air assist to PS.

[Bricks]

Hi there!
I’m trying to add air assist to my PS to cut costs and maybe help it cling to the vehicles. Last year I put adjustable nozzles on it to lightly mist it on, but it’s too touchy.

Last week I cobbled some old parts together, because poverty . And it seems like I need to change the nozzles. But maybe it’s the cob job. The machine has never had air assist and I’ve been told that it’s the way to go. Is there a certain ratio of air to chemical pressure that works best? Can someone recommend good nozzles for foamy Presoak? I think there are 9 total.
Thanks for any help! Two new washes are under construction really close to mine. And instead of raising prices right now, saving money on my $25/gallon Presoak would be great as long as the cleaning ability doesn’t suffer.

 

[MEP001]

Does it use the same tips for the presoak and the high pressure? Aren't they zero-degree tips? I feel like you might not have great results adding air to that setup, but as a rule you should have air assist on the presoak. You can run the chemical much less diluted and get better cleaning without using more, possibly even using less. If it has separate presoak tips, definitely add air to it. I would recommend V-spray tips and not MEG.

 

[Bricks]

Does it use the same tips for the presoak and the high pressure? Aren't they zero-degree tips? I feel like you might not have great results adding air to that setup, but as a rule you should have air assist on the presoak. You can run the chemical much less diluted and get better cleaning without using more, possibly even using less. If it has separate presoak tips, definitely add air to it. I would recommend V-spray tips and not MEG.

Presoak has its own tips. Thanks MEP!

 

[Greg Pack]

the best first step is to go back and look at standard chemical tips. Do you have the old nozzles? Look on them for the nozzle numbers. They are different than high pressure nozzles. The first number is the degree spray and the second number is the volume of product at 40psi. An 8010 nozzle would be 80 degree spray with 1.0 gpm delivery. You need to make sure the total nozzle GPM numbers don't exceed pump GPM for an optimal pattern. My water wizard uses a cat presoak booster pump that has a huge capacity- 30GPM I think but I think a total volume capacity of about 7-9 gpm of nozzles and gets good coverage on a fairly quick pass.

The water wizard has a foam generator on top of the gantry where the air and chemical meet. Presoak is fed into it with a 1/2" pushlock line. Air comes in with 3/8" poly. It then comes out of the generator, hits a tee and branches off to the nozzles manifolds. Chemical delivery is around 75 psi and the air going into the foam generator is somewhat less-maybe 40-50ish. There is a regulator on the air line on the gantry. The presoak is plenty foamy.

Once you get it looking good, you can play with downsizing nozzles (or speeding up the gantry if your auto programming allows). I like to get a complete sheet of coverage (shouldn't be able to see the driver through the glass) with some product running off the bottom of the car. Incomplete coverage does not work well, it will leave patches or streaks of unclean areas. I also like to see some runoff but not too much. When I get too stingy with chemical cleaning suffers.

 

[Bricks]

the best first step is to go back and look at standard chemical tips. Do you have the old nozzles? Look on them for the nozzle numbers. They are different than high pressure nozzles. The first number is the degree spray and the second number is the volume of product at 40psi. An 8010 nozzle would be 80 degree spray with 1.0 gpm delivery. You need to make sure the total nozzle GPM numbers don't exceed pump GPM for an optimal pattern. My water wizard uses a cat presoak booster pump that has a huge capacity- 30GPM I think but I think a total volume capacity of about 7-9 gpm of nozzles and gets good coverage on a fairly quick pass.

The water wizard has a foam generator on top of the gantry where the air and chemical meet. Presoak is fed into it with a 1/2" pushlock line. Air comes in with 3/8" poly. It then comes out of the generator, hits a tee and branches off to the nozzles manifolds. Chemical delivery is around 75 psi and the air going into the foam generator is somewhat less-maybe 40-50ish. There is a regulator on the air line on the gantry. The presoak is plenty foamy.

Once you get it looking good, you can play with downsizing nozzles (or speeding up the gantry if your auto programming allows). I like to get a complete sheet of coverage (shouldn't be able to see the driver through the glass) with some product running off the bottom of the car. Incomplete coverage does not work well, it will leave patches or streaks of unclean areas. I also like to see some runoff but not too much. When I get too stingy with chemical cleaning suffers.

This is great stuff! Thanks so much! Today I’ve learned that check valves at the nozzles can cause an imbalance. I’m taking them out in between customers.