d&s I 5000 uses a lot of spot free
- Thread starter cleaning up mud
- Start date
soapy
Senior Member
One thing you could do is add a separate incoming line to the sfr tank and use soft water to fill it in emergencies when you need more water. If you only need it for 10 days or so out of a year this might be a solution. In the past I have had to use soft water in place of SFR water and never had a complaint. I was never able to see spotting on my own cars. I use a high flow hydrominder to fill the tank when the water level becomes low. I mount the hydrominder on top of the SFR tank with a long chain on the weight. The other option would be to use a bigger SFR production unit.
JGinther
Zip-tie engineer
You can fix both dryer efficiency, and how much RO you use by re-plumbing the system: Get rid of the dual inlet to the main pump - plumb fresh water only. Wire from the spot free solenoid to a new small multistage booster pump running at 150 psi or so. Lastly, make sure cat pump isn't turning on from Spot free relay anymore. You will use about 1/4 of the spot free per car, and (as long as you have a good drying agent), vehicles will be actually dry!
Jim L.
Florida panhandle
My machine also uses my cat 3535 to dispense the final spot free rinse. To reduce the consumption rate I plumbed a ‘T’ into the intake and the discharge lines of the pump. I connected the ‘T’s’ together with a 3/8” hose along with a normally closed solenoid valve. When my machine shifts from fresh water to RO water (via mac valve) it also activates the solenoid creating a bypass.
This bypass reduces the discharge pressure at the pump from 1,000 psi to 400 psi. It also reduces the consumption rate by about 1/3.
This bypass reduces the discharge pressure at the pump from 1,000 psi to 400 psi. It also reduces the consumption rate by about 1/3.
MEP001
Well-known member
Unless the fill time would be too long, you could probably reduce that pressure to 200 PSI and not see any difference in the rinse quality. Even if the fill time would be too long, using a time-delay on the solenoid to let it fill at full pressure should take care of that.
cleaning up mud
Member
Stuart
Member
I do not have an I 5000 but I will take a stab at this. Have you noticed higher usage of your chemicals too or any other things different?
Is the updated version supposed to have a pressure reducing bypass installed but overlooked? (Jim L mentions this. He may have your answer.)
During the upgrade, did the program which switches the valves get altered or was it supposed to be upgrade too?
Could it be coincidence that you run out of SF water about the same time of your upgrade?
Are you running out really early in the day or is it towards the end of these busy days you run out?
This season I too have been running out of SFR but it has been due to the business cycle I have been having.
I will usually have a spurt of business at the auto bay and then it will slow down so my RO can catch up and then a spurt. This season the spurts have lasted longer and the slow down shorter. My 3 membrane RO unit did not have time to catch up so I run out.
My fix was to add a 4th membrane to my RO unit and now making about 400 gallon more SF water through the busy daylight hours. Just some thoughts- Hope they help
