You cannot "flip" the pads for the Simonize tire shine machine. The foam is precut to fit over the nozzle manifolds as well as to allow the pins through it to secure it to the unit.
What you should be doing is using a garden hose and city water and spraying them out during cleanup at night.
We usually prime the pads every morning by flipping on the relay that activates the machine, so the
flojet pumps send a burst of product back into the pads before the first customer gets a tire shine.
Also, in your original post, you allude to "increasing" the seconds on the timer to "decrease" the amount of product used...actually it is the opposite. If you want to drain a barrel of Pad Perfect in a heartbeat, set that sucker to three or four seconds and it'll be gone in a week. I would never set that thing to more than two seconds, we use it on one second and it does a good job.
We also used a series of plugs to plug up several of the nozzles in the manifold, which has decreased our usage a bit. Those pads get over saturated with product and generate too much "sling" when all the nozzles are allowed to spray.
Finally, look for a viable alternative to Pad Perfect. We're using this stuff called "Sling Free" (which is white in color instead of blue like PP) and it's cheaper in a 55 gal drum than a 30gal drum of Pad Perfect is! Pad Perfect is WAY overpriced and isn't any better than cheaper brands. Our drum of SLing Free was just under $400.