Forgot to check???

[Earl Weiss]

Any examples of things we forget to check or maintain.

I just had one. Checked the air intake filter on one of my my compressors. Needed to be cleaned really badly. Better check the rest.

 

[Randy]

Earl, Thanks for the reminder. I guess I?d better check the filter on my Air Compressor, I haven?t looked at it since I bought it about 15 years ago. I should also drain the Air Compressor tank, can?t remember when I did it last. I also need to check the Weep system before we get a hard freeze.

 

[MEP001]

Check the screens in the bottom of your tank, or the inline filters to the low-pressure pumps. These tend to get overlooked until a busy day comes and you're not getting enough pressure to your presoak with several bays in use. It's a good idea to check the Hydrominders to make sure they're filling at a good rate too, since there are usually screens at their feeds.

 

[Waxman]

Man, this forum is great.

I read this post, checked my air filter on the compressor, and changed it cause it was pretty dirty!

 

[Danny]

Here are a few commonly forgotten areas (out of site out of mind) to check...
greasing bearings at the entrance and exit of the conveyor, vacuum bearings, motors
Hydraulic powerpack fluid levels, leaks and filters
Inline filters for debris and/or holes in screens
Reclaim barrel screens for debris and/or holes

 

[MEP001]

I've mentioned this before, but a routine inspection of hydraulic lines (I do the same with high-pressure hoses on our Vector) can spot a hose that may breal in the near future. I try to never let a hose get so bad that it bursts, especially a self-serve bay hose.

 

[Jeff_L]

Funny this thread came up, and probably great timing for a lot of us. Had a problem yesterday that I trouble shot until late last night. It was in my self serve bay, no water was coming out after turning on the pump. Just replaced the pump over the weekend so I discovered that a chunk of crud broke loose and made it all the way to the wand where the tip was then clogged up.

While finding this problem, I found some more up in the trough to this bay. The soap had worn away some connections at the manifold and I had a crack in a T connection which was slowly leaking when the bay was in use.

Having one problem led me to find more problems. Which tells me I need to check through all the connections in the troughs to make sure there are no other hidden problems.

Nothing like sitting in your rafters, busting your knuckles, and drinking a brewskie late at night! You hear some crazy conversations from customers in the bays who don't know you're even up there!

 

[mac]

Also concerning the air compressor intake filter: If you plumb the filter outside the equipment room, you will greatly decrease the sound it makes. Just use a hose to go from the compressor head to the piping.

 

[Randy]

I remembered to check my Air Compressor this morning. It?s been long time since I last drained the tank. I drained about a ? a gallon of water out of the tank, is all. I think the reason I don?t get a lot of water in the tank is the Air Compressor runs pretty slow. I always check the hoses for any signs of damage or any other problems when ever I go to the wash.

 

[MEP001]

I once did a service call to replace a compressor that kept tripping the thermal overload. It had an 80-gallon tank which was literally half-full of water, and was turning on and off so much it kept overheating the motor.

 

[mac]

Randy, the speed that the compressor head turns doesn't really determine the ammount of water that gets in the tank. It's a factor of the ambient humidity. If you are in the upper midwest or western US where humidity is around 15%, you won't get much water in the tank. If you are in Florida in the summer, you get enough to water the garden. A half gallon isn't that much. Sounds like if you do yours weekly it will be OK.

 

[Randy]

Mac, We have 5 Air Compressors the ones that run fast need to be drain more often then the one I personally have that runs slower than the rest, so therefore I very seldom drain my air compressor, this is just my personal observation that the slower they run the less water they build. The humidity here this morning is only 98%.

 

[Waxman]

I drain my compressor every day but Sunday. That's its day of rest.

 

[JustClean]

I drain my compressor every day but Sunday. That's its day of rest.

I put an automatic drainer in. Not the #$% digital one. Had that before. Just a normal ordinary one that comes on every 1/2 hour. Works like a charm and another thing to forget...

 

[Kevin Reilly]

When we install an air compressor we remove the drain valve at the bottom and replace it with an elbow, a nipple and a 1/4" ball valve so we can reach down and open the valve without having to get on our hands and knees to drain the compressor and we crack it open when we walk in the machinery room. It then becomes a "simple" task to keep it dry.

If you want to spend some bucks you can get a valve that does this automatically. But we can see our valve coming out the bottom and just reach down, open it to see if there is any water and then close it.

 

[Danny]

All this talk of air compressors reminded me of a situation a few years back. This is something to definitely check on. The compressor was located in the end of the chemical/storage room. Every night the compressor was shut down and powered back on in morning and drained every few days since it became very humid and collected quite a bit of moisture. The wash kept their drum of wheel acid stored next to the compressor not realizing the compressor was pulling in the corrosive vapors from the acid. The moisture caused the inside of the compressor to rust and the acid would eat the rust causing it to rust again this accelerated the damage to the compressor. The employee who was responsible for powering on the equipment every morning did so as usual until the tank ruptured killing the employee and blowing a hole in the roof of the equipment room. Check that your corrosive chemicals are properly and safely stored.