Chemical Tanks Overflowing

[blake247]

Over the past week I've received complaints about lack of soap coming out. Each time the chemical tank is completely full and watered down. At first I thought this could be a hydrominder issue. After rebuilding it, I'm still getting the same problem. Today I was at the wash changing the pump oil, and noticed when I used soap on the 2nd bay, my chemical tank would FILL up. Apparently water is coming back up through the bottom of the tank causing it to overflow. This only happens if you use the 2nd bay soap option. You can see the tank overflowing here:

http://www.masonforums.com/xtra/wash.WMV

Would this be a check valve or solenoid issue? Any advice would be great appreciated.

 

[Randy]

You have a check valve problem. Do you have a check valve on the soap supply feed to Bay 2? It could also be a bad check valve on the weep system. A solenoid valve will only stop the flow in one direction.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

your bay 2 is filling the tank, because the check valve is leaking, you are most likely getting lower pressure to that bay also. Whatever chemical is in that tank it is that check valve. Take it apart and clean it. If that doesn't work replace the check valve. The hose it is backflowing into should be warm due to the hot water. Hope this helps

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

Do you inject soap on the high pressure side of your pump or the low pressure (inlet) side of the pump? If its on the high pressure side, then yes, probably the check valve. (Mine's on the inlet side, I dont have a check valve, only a solenoid.)

 

[MEP001]

The most common self-serve setup is hot water, soap and wax all in tanks. Hot water (Often labeled rinse on the tank but not actually used on the rinse cycle) is drawn whenever the pump is running, and selecting soap or wax opens those solenoids to allow the pump to mix that selection with the hot water. When rinse is selected, most washes open a different solenoid that allows direct city pressure to the pump, and that pressure forces a check valve shut to the hot water and commonly another to the soap and wax. Older Dilling/Harris equipment eliminated the separate check valve on the soap/wax lines by reverse plumbing the solenoids.

You've determined which bay has a problem - follow the soap line from the tank to that bay, and when you reach a check valve, replace it. If you've recently changed a solenoid on that stand, check the others to see if they have the inlet/outlet reversed to indicated flow.

your bay 2 is filling the tank, because the check valve is leaking, you are most likely getting lower pressure to that bay also.

A bad check valve on a soap line that's only allowing rinse water back to the tank won't cause a loss in pressure at the pump.

 

[randall]

Same thing happened to me...it was the 1/2 check under the pump.

 

[blake247]

Thank you guys so much for the advice!

 

[Kimberly Berg]

Thank you so much for your advice! We've been having a similar problem with our water tank overflowing too. The only clues we had to go by was that it happened in the middle of winter, in the middle of the night. We thought it was our float valve, and have changed it several times. We have tried CASA, BOB and now finally JOBE float valves, and the problem continued to happen... Very frustrating! After reading your posts, I realized that the problem was probably tied to our weep system. According to my notes, the tank ALWAYS started to overflow AFTER we turned on our weep system in the winter-time. We were able to isolate the problem by turning on one bay at a time, and realized we had 2 bad check valves. Changed them last week, and the floor has been dry ever since!