Hydrominder 572 and 573 cheap repair

[Greg Pack]

Hi guys, just discovered something about these valves that I didn’t realize. My hydrominder 572 valve failed in the open position. It’s a Carolina pride pump stand and they didn’t really make a good way to install a more traditional unit (jobe, etc.). These valves are ok but are $200 plus new. The rebuild diaphragm is $55 and the actuator assembly is $80, so it’s an expensive rebuild. A former employee once remarked that valve looked like a sprinkler valve he used in the landscape business. Sure enough, the body of the valve is a hunter 1” sprinkler valve available at lowes and Home Depot for less than $20. I bought the valve, disassembled it and robbed the diaphragm. That didn’t fix the problem so I looked at the plunger stem. The plunger stem/shaft assembly on the hunter is affixed to the coil so I thought I was out of luck. However, I pulled on the rubber seat and it came right off! I pulled the bad one off the hydrominder plunger And replaced it. It looks like it’s fixed. Here’s a couple of pictures for comparison. The hydro diaphragm vs the $6 hunter replacement part and the two valves. I’m going to try figure out how to remove the plunger assembly on this one.

 

[Keno]

Nice find, seems like a lot of car wash parts are just repurposed items from other industries with a huge markup when bought from the "manufacturer". We have a couple of the sprinkler valves used as fill valves with an electronic float switch to control - they are available with 24v and 110v coils. While they can't replace solenoids in all situations, they work well as fill valves, are cheap, and available at any home depot/lowes

 

[MEP001]

That's a great discovery. I've found a couple things like that in my time.

FWIW, I don't like the big Hydrominders. They seem to always fail closed. When I worked for a distributor, someone talked the owner into trying them, but every single one would eventually fail closed. Another guy asked me to get him one to install, and after I told him it was a bad idea I did it for him. Maybe two weeks later he called me on a Saturday morning with his car wash shut down. I had ordered a kit, came out and repaired it, then not long after it started sticking wide open. He was done with them at that point. It was a Coleman Super Saver, so I took a 1" Walters valve and bent the rod into an "S" so it would fit, and no problems since.