Entire carwash looses prime

[1carwash1]

First off, the supply line feeding the pumps appears too small. Secondly, I had the exact same symptom develop at one of my washes. It eventually turned out to be a galvanized nipple corroded on the inside surface thereby reducing the flow of water. As it turns out we replaced our tanks about a year earlier and used a galvanized nipple to transition from female threads to rubber tubing. Over time the nipple corroded and restricted the water flow; causing the same problem you described. We replaced the nipple with PVC and the problem was solved. The old nipple appeared perfect on the outside but was more than 50% restricted on the inside.

 

[pitzerwm]

I think you could punch a few more holes in the tank, that should fix your problem.

 

[ratfink102]

The problem is with your water softener not your main. The tank can stay full because when they turn it to rinse it uses main pressure with a regulator not gravity flow. If you have a bypass on your softener turn it on and you will see that it will work.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Ratfink, he has never stated that this is a pressure fed rinse, everything he has stated leads us in the direction that it a gravity fed system. Not all washes have pressure fed rinse, most I have seen do not. Of my four washes, only one has a pressure fed system. Unless Ghetto throws us a curveball his problem has already been diagnosed ad nauseum.

 

[Ghetto Wash]

I purchased a stainless 1-1/4" bulkhead fitting and whenever I get bored or slow I will replace my suction manifold with 1-1/4". In the interim I just added one more small hole to the tank to feed one bay, the remaining 6 are still fed thru the original mainfold. I think this will get me by. I could check by zip tying all the trigger guns and turning all the bays on, but I think I'll just wait until I'm busy again. I hope its soon as business has sucked the first 10 days of this month. First ten days of Dec total up to one average day. In other words, for the last 10 days my income has been 10% of normal.