HP gun problems-wand breaks

[BayWatch]

What type of gun and wand do you recommend. I use a gun with the ss receiver for the wand and a galvanized wand. I have had a large amount of broken wands in the last month or two. I havent changed brands but I went ahead and replaced my bay equipment with new hoses, guns, wands, brushes, etc. Every since, the wands have started breaking off at the ss fitting on the gun. Any ideas?

 

[MEP001]

Make sure your booms are "homed" properly - when the gun is placed in the holder the boom should swing the hose against the wall and out of the way of cars entering and leaving. I probably average two broken wands a year.

 

[Jim Caudill]

I think you are looking at vandalism. Either somebody is using the gun as a lever while the wand is in the "scabbard", or you have someone using the wands as a prybar to get mud off their vehicle.

 

[Eric H]

I have spring flex wands. They are just a hose with a spring wrapped tightly around the outside. My customers can bend the wand to get up into wheel wells or and hard to reach area and it just springs back when they let go. I never did like those solid pipe wands or the ones with the rubber flex section in the middle.

 

[Kevin James]

Are you using the cheap galvanized wands that are just a plain Ole piece of ?? pipe?

 

[Randy]

I make my own wands. I use a short piece of 3/8? High pressure hose with a ?? male fitting on one end and a ?? female on the other end. I use 7? piece of ?? galvanized pipe, threaded on one end and tapped to 1/8? on the other. Screw the pipe into the ?? female fitting and cover the galvanized pipe with ?? hose and then I put a ?? hose bend restrictor over the short section of high pressure hose. They last forever.

 

[BayWatch]

Thanks for the remarks. All of the booms do rest appropriately, so I dont think they are being torn off by mirrors, etc. I have always used this type of gun/wand combo. It is the galvanized 1/4 mpt x 1/8 fpt plastic coated with built-in tip protector. The only difference is I have started to order them, and everything else, from a different national supplier, who just underwent a website update if that helps explains anything. I dont think it is vandelism since two of the four breaks were pointed out to me by the customer while I was there. Just wondering what the norm is for other operators. Also do you use the stainless steel receiver on the guns or just brass.

 

[Jim Caudill]

I use the weeping gun sold by Kleen-rite their #PU21295 for $18.75 each and the stainless wand with flexible center section, part #WTSRFBL for $12.50 each. The gun is made by Giant and has a brass discharge fitting.

I suppose your "new supplier" could have cut threads too deep and produced a "weak spot" in the tube or some other manufacturing defect.

 

[BayWatch]

I have also noticed a lot of rust inside the wand and on the threads. They are less than two months old. For those with the flex wands, what type of problems have you had?

 

[JMMUSTANG]

I get my s.s. flex wands from Kleen-Rite.
The only problem I've had is once in a while in the winter and for whatever reason the gun freezes and blows the rubber in the flex wand.

 

[Gabriel]

Just stop using galvanized! Problem solved.

 

[MEP001]

I use the full plastic sheath with tip protector, with a stainless steel wand inside. The wands never rust or get bent or broken, so I can reuse them indefinitely. The plastic sheaths get ugly over 3 or 4 months, and I replace the sheath and tip protector together. The wand holders are rigid and point away from the meter box, so if someone pulling in the proper direction happens to hook the hose with a mirror the gun just slides out on the floor and nothing gets broken.

I did have someone break a foam brush head today - the person before him managed to get the boom to stay in the middle of the bay, then some idiot drove in under the hose, then decided to back out again and broke the head, also bending the heck out of the holder. He then pulled right back into the bay, running over all the parts on the floor.

 

[CRHAMEL]

Mr. BayWatch

The wand's you ordered our not HAMEL wands, Our part#719. If you ordered them from the supplyer I think you did, the parts you recived are a foregin made KNOCK-OFF, Thet do not go by NPT pipe thread standard, They just cut the threads too deep leaving a VERY WEAK point on your wand. All the wand we make are avaiable in Galvinized, Stainless, sch 80 Stainless, You can get quality AMERICAN MADE PARTS from Autowash matiance, Windtrax, Kim supply, Dultmeier, National Pride, Kleen-rite,Sonnys, Custom Kraft, 75% of our carwash customers have been working with us scence the late 70 to
early 80's
MEP 1 has a VERY good point to make sure your booms home correctly

WASH THE PLANET

Chris Hamel

 

[BayWatch]

That is the answer I was looking for. Thank you. I will double check the old wand brand vs the new wand brand. I did order the old ones from Kleenrite and recently switched to another supplier.