1 of 5 bays continues to freeze due to jammed check valve

[joecarwash]

I have a 5 bay self serve carwash. One bay continue to freeze about once a week. the check valve where the weep system meets the hight pressure hose continues to jam. I have tried about 4 different check valves and 2 different brands. If I take the check valve off and loosen the ball from being stuck the check valve will work as it should for a while but then it will jam again. this is only happing in one of the bays. I currently have the weep lines crossed from the next bay over and that bay has been working fine but the bay in question will still jam the check valve and freeze and outside at the bay.

thanks for any help.

 

[MEP001]

It kind of sounds like you're changing the wrong check valve. Can you post some pictures?

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

Whats your weep water PSI and I would check the trigger gun also they can fail and give problems also something else to check

 

[joecarwash]

I circled the check valve I’m having issues with. It’s the last check valve before the high pressure hose.

I’ve already tried putting a brand new gun outside also and I’m still having the same issue

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Are you sure that's the sequence of what is happening? Could the bay be freezing for some other reason, and THEN the CV gets jammed when the pump comes on, only to be greeted by a frozen hose? Just a thought...

 

[joecarwash]

Are you sure that's the sequence of what is happening? Could the bay be freezing for some other reason, and THEN the CV gets jammed when the pump comes on, only to be greeted by a frozen hose? Just a thought...

There’s another check valve just on the other side of the T fitting in my last picture that seems to be working just fine though and isn’t jamming closed.

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

Where are you, well more specifically how cold is it.
I tend to agree with IB, I'm skeptical that the problem is the check valve unless you got one with a high cracking pressure.
Check the weep psi & gpm like tdl said.

Does it happen to be the furthest bay? Many years ago my furthest bay froze on a couple unusually cold nights. Further means more resistance to flow of the weep water. Simply increasing the flow to that bay helped, but I eventually increased the weep water pressure to the furthest bays, that stopped the freezing.

 

[joecarwash]

Where are you, well more specifically how cold is it.
I tend to agree with IB, I'm skeptical that the problem is the check valve unless you got one with a high cracking pressure.
Check the weep psi & gpm like tdl said.

Does it happen to be the furthest bay? Many years ago my furthest bay froze on a couple unusually cold nights. Further means more resistance to flow of the weep water. Simply increasing the flow to that bay helped, but I eventually increased the weep water pressure to the furthest bays, that stopped the freezing.

I’m ln Colorado. It’s has been around 20 degrees at night . The problem bay is in the dead center of the carwash. I believe the cracking pressure on the check valve is around 10 psi. I have switched my weep lines from the next bay over and that bay has been working fine but my bay 3 is still randomly freezing with the lines still crossed. There is a another check valve that is just up stream of this check valve that has been working fine so I don’t think it’s been freezing outside and and getting jammed when the pump turns on.

 

[MEP001]

I don't get what swapping weep lines would accomplish. It's the same water, just from another hose, right?

What is the other check valve just upstream for? Spot free to the bay?

 

[joecarwash]

I don't get what swapping weep lines would accomplish. It's the same water, just from another hose, right?

What is the other check valve just upstream for? Spot free to the bay?

I believe it is for spot free rinse. On my system there is a solenoid, I think it’s called, off the main weep line for each bay.

 

[Kevin James]

What a plumbing nightmare. Do you have a solenoid valve on each pump for the weep water? We only have one main solenoid valve on our weep systems. What you put on a new check valve before you start the pump does the weep water flow out of the gun in the affected bay? Try a different brand of check valve, would be my guess.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

The solenoid on each bay is N.O. and closes when a LP service is selected. I agree that it's a plumbing nightmare. It's a Mark VII Proline system. I had a couple and eliminated a lot of the over-engineering.

 

[MEP001]

The solenoid on each bay is N.O. and closes when a LP service is selected.

I like the individual solenoids for weep (It prevents the low pressure functions from getting diluted), but there's definitely a better way to do it than how Mark VII and D/H did things.

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

Whats your weep water PSI

I still come back to this, what is the psi and gpm for the bay thats freezing VS the others.
20 at night is not cold - One way or another its got to be a flow issue, prove that and identifying where the restriction is becomes easier.
Yes I know you may have already narrowed it down to a restriction at the CV, but if it were me, I'd measure the flow, then bypass the CV and measure the flow again. That would prove it.

 

[2Biz]

Like IB says...He has an old Mark VII system that has weep shutoff solenoids for each bay for when a LP is selected. It still has a master weep solenoid that feeds the system. I had the same random freeze issue before I ripped out all the secondary solenoids. They would stick closed when someone selected PS. They are just a problem waiting to happen. I don't have that issue any more!

 

[cantbreak80]

I don't have that issue any more!

Could it be because your pre-soak is no longer plumbed into the hp hoses?

 

[2Biz]

Could it be because your pre-soak is no longer plumbed into the hp hoses?

That might have something to do with it!