Clarification on System Setup

[Bubbles Galore]

It almost seems too simple, so I just want to clarify that I'm not missing anything.

The hot and cold water lines are tied into a blending valve to get the water to the proper temperature. That "blended water" that goes out to the unit when the rotary switch is turned to a feature requiring water via a solenoid (NC). If the requested feature requires a detergent, a second solenoid (NC) is opened and a venturi vacuum is formed which siphons the detergent directly into the water headed out to the unit (via an 1/8" poly line that tees into the water supply line).

Above and beyond that, is there anything I am missing? This seems ridiculously simple, but it is mostly mechanical, and not electrical. Above and beyond a relay for the Pet Vac, the meterbox should control everything else.

Thanks!

John

 

[bigleo48]

John,

Kinda...mine has a needle valve that sets how much water pressure is used to siphoned the chems. Each chem also has its own needle valve. It takes a little messing to get it right, but once you've got it, its done.

You may also have some problems maintaining a constant temperature depending on how constant your cold and hot water pressure is. But you'll likely be ok.

Big

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Big,

Can you elaborate a little more about the needle valve feeding the water to the chemicals? I guess I'm a little hazy on that.

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[bigleo48]

I'll take a picture and post it in the next few days.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Thanks Big!

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[mjwalsh]

It almost seems too simple, so I just want to clarify that I'm not missing anything.

Above and beyond that, is there anything I am missing? This seems ridiculously simple, but it is mostly mechanical, and not electrical. Above and beyond a relay for the Pet Vac, the meterbox should control everything else.

John

Bubbles,

Just a heads up the 1.5 gpm recommended was lower than what we needed because most of our dogs washed are larger dogs. We had to recalibrate all the chemicals when we changed to increase the gpm to 2 gpm. That seemed to be a happy medium now for all size dogs. Because we were pretty fussy on the quantity of chemicals for each one ---- this was somewhat time consuming & caused a delay. This is not to take away from Trent & the helpful people at Nat'l Pride & if Trent is monitoring this forum hopefully he takes it as input consideration & not as a slight or lack of gratitude. To be fair other parts of the country may be seeing smaller dogs for the most part.

Hope this helps!

MJ

 

[Bubbles Galore]

What size pipe are you running for your water input line? The blending valve I'm using is 3/4" pipe, does that seam reasonable to run a 1.5-2.0 gallon system at city water pressure?

 

[MEP001]

I've used a 3/4" tempering valve for a 4-bay car wash with very, very weak city pressure to the building and it had no trouble keeping up with all bays running. It was rated at a maximum 30 GPM and hooked up with washing machine hose supplying each inlet.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Wow, I would assume that my little 'ole dog wash will fair just fine then.

Here' another good question for you guys. I've read that the water needs to be roughly 85-90 degrees for the dog to be washed comfortably. I'm concerned that on my busy days at the wash, that the water from my boiler won't stay at a consistent enough temperature to ensure that the water is in that 5 degree window. I was thinking of adding a 50 gallon hot water tank to ensure that the dog wash won't go without hot water when needed. Thoughts?

 

[mjwalsh]

What size pipe are you running for your water input line? The blending valve I'm using is 3/4" pipe, does that seam reasonable to run a 1.5-2.0 gallon system at city water pressure?

Bubbles,

We are using a 3/4" Belimo proportioning valve to maintain the temps. City water pressure is about 60 PSI that needed to be reduced depending on what a trustworthy distributer specifies. It is controlled with a PID loop & the single PLC running both stalls. A fourth hot water recirculating line in exactly the right position on our piping, check valves & also the temperature RTDs' positioning on the pipes were all critical for us. It keeps the water temperature very accurate & can be verified by the logging of the temperatures on a chart &/or a graph via an ethernet connection to the monitors. I would go into more detail but it could be misleading based on being open only since November. Also I was dependent on someone else for most of the programming too. We are clinging to the fact that everyone who has used it tells us that they really like it ---- otherwise like Big Leo said it takes time to build up the business. Opening up during the winter did allow us time to do some tweaking that we otherwise might have bypassed. If you touch base with an engineer hopefully he will steer you on some of the piping to maintain a more consistent water temperature.

MJ

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Thanks for the input...lots to think about here...

 

[Bubbles Galore]

I just ordered the aluminum storefront to close off my bay for the petwash! Hopefully we will have everything installed in the next 2 weeks. Thanks for all the help guys. I'm sure as I get deeper into the installation, I will have even more questions. Thanks!

 

[pitzerwm]

Take a bunch of pictures, re-size them to 480x360 and open yourself a gallery in the Photo Gallery area.

 

[bigleo48]

Yeah...looking forward to the pictures!

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Will do guys! Lots of pics to come. One more quick question, how many gallons (on average) are used to wash a dog? I know this varies, but how about a general estimate?

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[Waxman]

somehow last nite a window popped up. it was wally wash video of the petwash process.

man, was i impressed!

i wanted to go out and get a dog real muddy and maybe skunk sprayed so i could drive there and wash him up!

cool setup. looks like money to me.

 

[bigleo48]

somehow last nite a window popped up. it was wally wash video of the petwash process.

man, was i impressed!

i wanted to go out and get a dog real muddy and maybe skunk sprayed so i could drive there and wash him up!

cool setup. looks like money to me.

Thanks Waxman. Well the video was not professional, my daughter and our dog, but I think the customer gets the idea. We'll re-shoot it one day.

It has been doing well, but since it was a new service that was previously unavailable in our area, it took a while to build our customer base.

IMHO, the keys to good performing petwash is that everything is clean and in good working order. We have two tubs, so that helps (one can be dirty with a clean one available, so we have a little time before we need to get to the wash and clean after hours). We have someone on site during the day and evenings. In the last year, I can count on one hand how many times a customer came to wash their pet and did not have a clean tub available.

Big

 

[Waxman]

It used to appeal to me that this business may be more weather-proof than carwashing.

But has that been your experience or not?

I know hard and fast rules are not always applicable to every situation.

But for me, detailing and carwash are both so weather dependent that I'd like to invest any future time and $ into developing less-weather dependent add-on profit centers to my facility.

 

[bigleo48]

It used to appeal to me that this business may be more weather-proof than carwashing.

But has that been your experience or not?

I know hard and fast rules are not always applicable to every situation.

But for me, detailing and carwash are both so weather dependent that I'd like to invest any future time and $ into developing less-weather dependent add-on profit centers to my facility.

Sorry Waxman, for me, pet washing is almost as weather dependent as car washing

 

[Bubbles Galore]

I have another quick question for you guys. What type of relay would you recommend for switching on the blower/vac option?