High Pressure to Low Pressure Switchover Time

[wrightwash]

I'm trying to come up with a way to improve low-pressure delivery to the wand. Right now my furthest bay from the control room takes about 20 seconds to deliver.
Does anyone have any suggestions or tricks to improve this? I was thinking about "pulsing" the motor for a few seconds with a circuit on the HP pump to help push bursts of LP to the wand.

My low pressure is running Flojet 57s @ 60psi.

1/4" LP lines running to the bay and branch at a manifold right at the boom.
3/8" HP lines to the wand.

 

[MEP001]

Add another two stacks of solenoids, tee them together in the room and run one 1/4" line to the bay. Actually, I'd run a 3/8" line for the presoak liquid and use the existing 1/4" for the air. Combine the three lines at a cross just before one check valve. The air will accomplish several things, you can increase the strength of the product without using much more concentrate so it will work better, it will stick instead of just running off, and it will assist in filling the bay hose. Mine takes about six seconds to reach the gun. You can use one stack of solenoids for both tire cleaner and presoak, but it's really finicky to adjust things where they both work well. I set presoak with almost no air assist and the tire cleaner with more so it foams and sticks to the tires.

 

[cantbreak80]

99% of my customers have moved low pressure products to a separate foam gun. Delivery is very quick; the show is great, and usage is significant. No owner has expressed conversion regret.

Run product and air lines to above the bay. (I use 1/4" poly for both with no noticeable volume loss) Connect them to your manifold with 3/8 poly supplying the bay.

Install this curly hose assembly with parts acquired from your favorite supplier. Make your own "foamer" from PVC fittings and a plastic pot scrubber.



Poof! Instant Gratification! (almost)



While most are just 2 products, one or two operators dispense Pre-Soak, Tire Cleaner, Bug/Mag Remover, and Tri-foam...all from the "Red Gun".

 

[OurTown]

99% of my customers have moved low pressure products to a separate foam gun. Delivery is very quick; the show is great, and usage is significant. No owner has expressed conversion regret.

Run product and air lines to above the bay. (I use 1/4" poly for both with no noticeable volume loss) Connect them to your manifold with 3/8 poly supplying the bay.

Install this curly hose assembly with parts acquired from your favorite supplier. Make your own "foamer" from PVC fittings and a plastic pot scrubber.

View attachment 7882

Poof! Instant Gratification! (almost)

View attachment 7884 View attachment 7885

While most are just 2 products, one or two operators dispense Pre-Soak, Tire Cleaner, Bug/Mag Remover, and Tri-foam...all from the "Red Gun".

Don't forget to mention that you need a blow down/antifreeze system in many areas for winter usage. Have you ever done this on a "three at a time" triple foam gun?

 

[cantbreak80]

Some method of freeze protection is needed for cold weather locations.

While a blow down/antifreeze system is very effective, some operators choose to simply add another poly weep line to the above bay manifolds. Water weep works but obviously increases wintertime water/sewer expenses.

"Three at a time" foam gun? Doesn't that just create green foam?

 

[OurTown]

Some method of freeze protection is needed for cold weather locations.

While a blow down/antifreeze system is very effective, some operators choose to simply add another poly weep line to the above bay manifolds. Water weep works but obviously increases wintertime water/sewer expenses.

"Three at a time" foam gun? Doesn't that just create green foam?

Three hoses go all the way to the gun tip. Three colors come out at once stacked vertically. D/H made one and currently Etowah Valley makes one.

 

[cantbreak80]

Wild.
How does EV freeze protect their three-at-a-time?

 

[OurTown]

Wild.
How does EV freeze protect their three-at-a-time?

Winter chemicals.

 

[Ryancross11]

Low pressure gun for all low pressure functions. The switchover is just too long through the regular gun.

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

Are you guys doing SF out the LP gun too?

 

[wrightwash]

Add another two stacks of solenoids, tee them together in the room and run one 1/4" line to the bay. Actually, I'd run a 3/8" line for the presoak liquid and use the existing 1/4" for the air. Combine the three lines at a cross just before one check valve. The air will accomplish several things, you can increase the strength of the product without using much more concentrate so it will work better, it will stick instead of just running off, and it will assist in filling the bay hose. Mine takes about six seconds to reach the gun. You can use one stack of solenoids for both tire cleaner and presoak, but it's really finicky to adjust things where they both work well. I set presoak with almost no air assist and the tire cleaner with more so it foams and sticks to the tires.

Thank you for the advice! I had enough spare parts laying around to rig this up on one bay, I really like the results! I will need to play around with pressures, it seems the air pressure needs to stay around 15psi under the flojet pressure. It improved the delivery speed about 5-6 seconds.