RB,
I can't help you with your issue, but I've been wanting to ask you about your i5000's and this reminded me.
I have the D&S 5000, and will probably want to replace it in a couple of years. I have a low ceiling height in the bay and most machines won't fit in the bay. When you replaced your D&S 5000's what did your keep from the old machines and what did you replace? For example, did you keep the arches? Did keeping any of the old stuff make it cheaper? And if you don't mind, what did it cost you to replace one of your D&S 5000's with an i5000? I've read from your previous posts that you are glad you upgraded and it has piqued my interest.
Thanks,
Bill, I installed all new equipment at around $200,000 for 2 bays. I got new arches cause I wanted stainless in both bays.
The i5000s are doing a good job but I did miss something that my background in aviation should have caught. The 5000 sidespinners use hydraulics to spin, the i5000s use water pressure. I knew that there's no free lunch when it comes to energy - if you take energy from one source you have less for the other source. I knew that but I ignored it. In short, the sidespinners on the i5000 don't have as much psi as they do on the 5000.
It's not a big deal, it just causes me to be a little more careful on the chemical formulation to make sure I'm cleaning cars. I'm also probably running my presoak a little hotter for that reason.
Also, I haven't compared, but I think D&S may use a slighly different nozzle on the i5000 sidespinners to help offset this - and it seems as though the sidespinners are longer on the i5000...I haven't taken the time to think about how all those factors affect each other but I'm sure D&S thought it out.
I will probably appreciate my i5000s more when read about one of you next winter replacing the sidespinner v-belt or pulley when it's 20 degrees out, which is when they always seemed to fail.