What's new
By:
Car Wash Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Easier way?

E

Earl Weiss

Well-known member
Coins were not falling into vault. Open meter and coins stacked in tube. Pull out all we can reach and hit clog about 4 inches down with a threaded rod. No Luck. Open vault, naturaly it is the far drop tube. Hit clog from bottom with fish tape. No Luck. It's been below freezing for a week and now it's about 15 degrees. Try to heat clog from top with torch and put flame at bottom of drop tube as well. Clog seems to be about 18" thick based upon how far fish tape goes in.

Some quarters come loose. Put shop vac at tube top in meter box. Can feel air flow at bottom, but clog is still there. More heat with torch at bottom . Now with shop vac on to pull heat thru .

After an hour of repeated heating and jabbing from top and bottom about $30.00 in quarters and ice come out.

Was thinking maybe it would have gone faster if I heated water in the microvave and poured it in to the tube. The torch only seemed to get the surface of the clog.

Any thoughts?
 
We have had that happen a couple times and finally broke it loose with fish tape from bottom like you did. We considered some hot water but were concerned that if it did not break loose we may have a solid tube if ice. Our problem occurs at Y where back to back coin tubes join to enter safe. I later thought about using our heat gun to get air flow and heat and in hind sight think that may be a better method.

Ted
 
Since you can feel air flow, maybe pour boiling water through it. (maybe you can use your "hot water rinse".) Be sure to have a large supply because I wouldnt want to stop in the middle, in fear of getting a solid plug. I doubt the microwave will give you enough, you need to melt ice that has frozen metal in it.

FYI, I have a very similar problem. My coin vac jams occasionally due to a gap in the underground pipes. :mad: To un-jam, I duct tape a length of well casing to the end of my shop vac hose, and feed it down into the pipes to suck the Qs out one at a time. The well casing hose is just the right size - Qs fit inside, and the OD is a hair smaller than the ID of my pipes. Anyway, maybe if you shop-vac from the bottom while pouring very hot water in the top, maybe that would get it after a while.

When mine clogs up, I get about 10 feet of solid Qs. Thats not a job I enjoy, and it always seems to happen when its 20 degrees and busy.
 
Bubbles Galore said:
How did you get water stuck in your tube? What is the root cause of this problem?
Click to expand...

First time in 4 years out of 8 Bays it has happened. Everything seems to be proper except some unusualy long cold spells coupled with unusualy busy times.

The drop tube has about a 1/8 inch lip above the bottom of the meter box, but if enough water were sprayed directly at the box it will enter both the coin acceptance and rejection slot. From there the natural migration path is to follow where the coins go. The meter box has heater keeping the water liquid and the box ice free. But I would have to imagine in the temps being 20 degrees or less a short distance down the tube is below freezing.

If I designed a place in this area with vaults I would try to put a meter box heater or something in a position to keep the vaults ice free. (Maybe run a loop from the floor heat around the vault near the door. )We get so much ice sometimes I now use a Mapp Gas Torch in each hand to melt it faster so I can empty the vaults more quickly. Then I sometimes have a clump of frozen quarters stuck to the vault sleeve.
 
What if you just took a bucket of warm automotive antifreeze and dumped it down? Use another to catch it and do it again. The antifreeze won't compound the problem (like water) because it won't freeze. And its better than the RV variety because it won't gel either...
 
If the pipes are PVC, I'd try a hair dryer rather than a heat gun which can easily get hot enough to melt the pipe.
 
Why not pour some icemelt down tube and/or spray it with windshield deicer. I would be carefull because the deicer might be flamable.
 
I'd be worried about the thermal shock of dumping boiling water into a frozen tube - might break things.

I had 1 tube that plugged about twice a week because the brick layer moved the vault, making the grade too shallow. I found that I could buy more time by squirting a little graphite powder in the tube but it made the job of counting quarters a little more messy.

I eventually installed another vault.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Etowah
Back
Top