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Foam Brush Woes

H

Haines

Member
I am running a Husky 307 pump at 60 psi with air assist at 40 psi. The problem is, sometimes it works good for foam and then it starts pumping liquid. It had been working great up until a few days ago; although I'm not certain of the pressures ( I adjusted them without noting where they were. duh.) My foamers are in the brush handles, and the lines are teed after the pump in the equipment room. I am running 3/8" poly to my bays. As I said, it was working great, but now I can't seem to figure it out. I'm using the KR Cherry soap. I'm not sure how slick it should be in the mixing tank, but I did add some more to the tank direct to eliminate that. How often should the pump "pulse"?

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you.

Haines
 
I use a Flo-jet, with needle adjustment valves for air and foam brush soap on each bay. Some times you may have to turn the pressure way down and slowly turn it up until you get foam you want out in the bay. My pump cycles about 4 - 5 times per minute.
 
I've seen your video, love your results. Will a Husky perform similarly to a Flo-Jet? It's a new bucket of soap too. It's working, knock on wood, at 60 and 40 for now. To throttle it back to five I'll have to put a different regulator in. If it goes wonky again, I'll try 40 and five. Doesn't the pressure of the air assist affect how often the pump pulses? I guess I don't get what changed that it is having problems now. Car wash gremlins I guess. Thanks for your replies!

Haines
 
The thing I find about KR soaps, got in 4 five gallons of cheery FB soap. Three were thick as they usually are the 4th was MUD. Of course that's the first one we opened and put in place of the almost empty one. Then people start complaining no foam, We use flojets to pump it out to the bays. They would not suck it up. Just have to watch you get from them.
 
Here's a good thread with lots of info about different foam brush setups.

http://www.autocareforum.com/showthread.php?9947-Foam-brush-plumbing-Attn-2Biz&highlight=Foam

Your air driven husky pump should be similar to a flojet. I run 60 psi flojet, 30 psi air mixed in through a foamer at the boom. You need a consistant flow of about 20 Oz a minute liquid to make good foam. It's hard to accomplish this without using needle valves on the liquid. The tee'd in air is regulated to 30 psi, so no need for needle valves. I use 3/8 poly all the way out to the boom tips. Never have to make any adjustments. Always good foam.
 
Did adding more soap to the mixed tank affect the problem? You could be leaking liquid into the tank that's slowly diluting the mix, or the foot valve in the bucket could be bad and you're siphoning diluted soap into the concentrate.
 
Haines said:
...... Doesn't the pressure of the air assist affect how often the pump pulses? I guess I don't get what changed that it is having problems now. Car wash gremlins I guess. Thanks for your replies!

Haines
Click to expand...

Yes, because you can only put so much thru the hose, so the Flo Jet is fighting the air.
 
Adding more soap to the holding tank didn't seem to affect the problem. I think most of my problem was that I was trying to adjust the pressures too quickly rather than wait on results. What caused the initial disturbance is beyond me. 60 and 40 seemed to be working as of last night, I will check in bit when I get off work.

Most of the way through the thread referenced above; good stuff. Quick question, why use an expensive Graco instead of the common Flo-Jet? Longevity, durability, volume?

Haines
 
All of the above! As far as using the Flo-jet pump.

I have 6 Self-serv bays, 100' tunnel and a quick lube. We have about 14 Flo-jets in use. They work perfect. When there is a problem, swapping one out takes 1 minute. we always have a couple of back ups.
 
Haines said:
Quick question, why use an expensive Graco instead of the common Flo-Jet? Longevity, durability, volume?

Haines
Click to expand...

Not sure how long flo jets have been around 20+ years ago all the set ups were with Husky's and Graco's. Thye are spec'd out at higher volume than Flo Jets. In the tunnels and SS the only place I think I would need that volume is for the 8 Bay Foam Brush. I just use 2 Flo Jets at 4 bays each. All other pumps for the SS and 4 tunnels have been replaced with Flo Jets. I use Viton only. That way I just stock a couple of spares at each location and don't have to worry about if it's compatible or not.
 
Well if the Husky blows up, I will definitely change over, but I don't think I'll swap it until then. I sure do like the prices of the FloJet for sure.
 
Haines said:
I am running a Husky 307 pump at 60 psi with air assist at 40 psi. The problem is, sometimes it works good for foam and then it starts pumping liquid. It had been working great up until a few days ago; although I'm not certain of the pressures ( I adjusted them without noting where they were. duh.) My foamers are in the brush handles, and the lines are teed after the pump in the equipment room. I am running 3/8" poly to my bays. As I said, it was working great, but now I can't seem to figure it out. I'm using the KR Cherry soap. I'm not sure how slick it should be in the mixing tank, but I did add some more to the tank direct to eliminate that. How often should the pump "pulse"?

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you.

Haines
Click to expand...

I believe the issue is related to the air. For some reason it lost proper air pressure. Could be related to a sticky regulator or other causes of air pressure loss like a leak.... Next time it does it check the pressures.

Air does slow the pump, and im sure it was pumping away at the time. I've cheated a weak regulator by running the air a little higher... you can always open the regulator and check for gumming or damaged parts.
 
Here's a good one for you. Do you have a water softener? If so is the water soft. If my water isn't softened for whatever reason, it affects all my chemicals but it is especially noticeable in the foam brushes. They will spit and sputter and throw liquid all over the place.
 
I don't have soft water at one wash and the foam brush doesn't spit or stutter... Comes out pretty foamy.
 
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