I have two "4 Paws" (National Pride) dog wash bays. The water pressure to the each tub seems low. I talked to their tech support and they asked me what the water pressure gauge was reading and both were around 45. They mentioned of I turned the pressure much above 50 it would not draw chemical. They did mention they had a retrofit to take the rinse away from the chemical solenoids but this was more of a solution for chemical being accidentally pulled during the rinse (which happens occasionally as well). I have been getting complaints to increase water pressure but don't think that adding the rinse solenoid will solve it. I am considering redesigning entire system and copying the KR design. I checked a friends KR dog wash and his pressure seemed good. I have considered that the 3/8 hose that was once used for the car wash bay and is now providing the entire system with water as a possible problem. If I was lacking pressure at the gauges, I would consider this as a possible problem but pressure is good to the gauges. Does anyone have a schematic for the KR bay or an idea how to fix this? Your help greatly appreciated.
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Dog Wash Water Pressure Too Low
- Thread starter Buzzie8
- Start date
2Biz
Thread Killer!
How far are you running the 3/8 line? If its very far, even though you have 40-45 psi supplying it, it may be long enough of a run that the pressure at the end is low. Or is the 45 psi taken close to the tub? If not, maybe you could put a gage there to see how much pressure drop you have in the supply line from the ER. This might give you a better direction as to how to fix your problem.
The 45 PSI is taken right before the solenoid manifold in the dog wash bays. The 3/8 inch hose is about 100 ft long and is tapped into a 1 " main. I am getting 45 right near the tubs and that is what is throwing me a curve. How could the pressure drop so dramatically in the 15 ft of plumbing or so to the tub?
2Biz
Thread Killer!
I see what you mean. Yea, you should have plenty of water at 45 psi. On my Spotfree rinse, I have a 5 micron prefilter with a 1/4"-3/8" nylon drain hose attached after the filter. Its a nice place to get de-chlorinated water. At 40 psi supply pressure, it will fill a 5 gallon bucket in about 15 seconds....
So your running the supply into a solenoid manifold? A lot of those manifolds only have 1/8" orifices...Do you know what size yours is? This might be where your restriction is?
So your running the supply into a solenoid manifold? A lot of those manifolds only have 1/8" orifices...Do you know what size yours is? This might be where your restriction is?
bigleo48
Active member
Buzzie,
I think 45psi is low. I have the KR setup and it works fairly well at 85psi. There is a main water solenoid that has a metering injector that pulls chemicals from a solenoid block. You adjust that main injector to where you balance water flow with chem draw.
In the block there are also metering adjustments for each chem. Simple and cheap.
One problem with this I have always had was pulling conditioner chems. They are thick and we do water it down, but it always seems to get clogged. So I installed a flowjet pump at about 10psi to inject into the solenoid block. Works great!
I think 45psi is low. I have the KR setup and it works fairly well at 85psi. There is a main water solenoid that has a metering injector that pulls chemicals from a solenoid block. You adjust that main injector to where you balance water flow with chem draw.
In the block there are also metering adjustments for each chem. Simple and cheap.
One problem with this I have always had was pulling conditioner chems. They are thick and we do water it down, but it always seems to get clogged. So I installed a flowjet pump at about 10psi to inject into the solenoid block. Works great!
bigleo48
Active member
City pressure is 85psi. Pulls chemicals fine....
If all of your water feed is going thru an injector being fed by a chemical manifold and then out the sprayer head, the injector is the restriction point and the problem is probably volume and not pressure. You could plumb a "bypass" solenoid (loop) around the original solenoid and chem feed injector - activate the original solenoid for all chemical feeds as usual, but activate the "bypass" N/C solenoid only during rinse to remove the restriction.
