I am setting up a petwash and am having difficulity getting the chemical draw. My city water pressure is between 38 - 40 PSI. According to the instructions I need 45 PSI city water pressure. Can anyone recommend a booster pump to use to raise my city pressure to at least 50 psi @ approx 3 gallon a minute?
What to use for booster pump
- Thread starter sparkey
- Start date
JGinther
Zip-tie engineer
I would reduce the injector orifice size (it sounds like that is what your system uses). It would be way cheaper, more reliable, and not cost extra utilities or future repairs...
If I choke the water pressure back far enough it will draw chemical fine. I would like a little more water flow and still have good chemical draw. Thats why I am leaning towards a booster pump.
PaulLovesJamie
rural 5 bay SS
Do you need more water flow, or do you need more chemical draw?
What JG is saying is that if you need more water, use a booster pump.
But if all you want is more chemical draw, use a tip with a bigger hole in it. NUCH MUCH cheaper and easier.
FYI I only get about 30 psi at my hydrominders. Tip recommendations never work for me, I always use one with the hole a couple sizes larger than recommended.
What JG is saying is that if you need more water, use a booster pump.
But if all you want is more chemical draw, use a tip with a bigger hole in it. NUCH MUCH cheaper and easier.
FYI I only get about 30 psi at my hydrominders. Tip recommendations never work for me, I always use one with the hole a couple sizes larger than recommended.
JGinther
Zip-tie engineer
I still think I would figure out another way... A booster pump and bladder tank combination will work, but is certain to give you fits when you least expect it and cost you more. Daveyusa makes one that will not give you the constant cycling problems associated with most booster pressure switch controls. Have you considered changing the injectors to dosatrons?
mjwalsh
6 bay SS w/laundromat
Sparkey,
Have you completely eliminated the possibility of something making the city water pressure less other than the actual large city main itself that branches out to your business & the other businesses on the same city street?
Back in 1987 with the smaller tanks on our brand new car wash equipment from Specialty Equipment Co., we had water pressure problems. It turned out the 2 inch line that came into the building from an older water main that was configured with 4 outlets that lead to our 2" heavy type K bendable copper line. One of the outlets valves had never been opened
since day one way back in 1959. Long story short, after visiting with a mechanical engineer friend, we came in with a whole new 4" line from the other street (we are on a corner lot). Since the street had to be dug up because of the fact that complete liability for the abandoned line was ours according to our friends at city hall. The other point you may already know is the unique way the solenoid block tends to be used in carwash distributed pet washes. Other pet wash owners such as Big Leo could chime in also about this. The tubing involved has to all have perfect seals on all its connections ... so that makes the connections less forgiving than with normal carwash setups to the best of my knowledge. A very experienced car wash installer - troubleshooter friend of ours told us that backward flow within the solenoid block would never work ... so we wound up temporarily testing hi quality Hydraflex Chemflex injectors ... but their normal installation requires a pump. We were limited on available space ... so we have been doing just fine with fewer components & a needed more compact setup.
I hope this helps ... because that is my intent.
mike walsh http://kingkoin.com/USA_Deficit_Reduction.html
The petwash doesn't use injector tips. It uses one of these https://www.kleen-ritecorp.com/p-1598-dema-injectors-b-series-adjustable-water-flow-38.aspx. You get more suction by cranking down the bypass screw and opening up metering screw. As you crank down the bypass screw you get less water. It gets to a point where the water volume is less than desirable. The petwash manual specifies the city water pressure must be 45PSI which is why I wanted to raise the pressure to their specifications.
I ended up adding a small well pump with a small bladder tank that I had laying around doing nothing. Problem solved.
JGinther
Zip-tie engineer
Its too bad your equipment came with those type of injectors... I guess they have no idea of the water pressure your going to have when making the equipment, so they put a bypassable injector to 'cover all bases'. You will eventually hate those injectors... Since you are bypassing water around the orifice, the smallest change in outlet flow, inlet pressure will make chemical draw go everywhere. One day someone will complain about low product flow, and the next day your bucket will be sucked dry! When I was advising reducing the orifice size, I was referring to the size of the water inlet orifice in the injector - not tips or reduction of bypass water. If you had a 204C or 206C injector instead, you would put in a different nozzle bushing, and the flow would always be the same unless the inlet pressure drops very low. A dosatron would not have any of these problems, but size may be an issue.
Sparkly....after you added the water pump with bladder what psi are you running now. I'm getting 40 psi from city my chemicals are drawing fine but I would prefer higher water pressure at the tub. I, myself own a Collie and find it difficult to throughly rinse him. I want to increase water pressure. I have looked all the different pumps available someone suggested a well pump. I will be running to wash stations and both needed increased pressure. Just wondered where your pressure was at?
I am running about 60 psi after installing the shallow well pump and tank. My chemicals also draw much better.
