Self Serve Soap Tank, Lady in Distress@ECW

[elkocarwash]

I hope someone can steer me in the right direction.

My new husband built a car wash in 2005. It has 2 Auto Bays and 2 Self Serve bays. He is ill and I am the one running the car wash now. I have been on site since June and am learning things daily.

Today I ran into a problem with the HP rinse in the SS bays. First, yesterday I had trouble getting the soap to flow. I changed the orifice in the tank, I cleaned the tubing and the detergent strainer out. I got great soap flow. Today the HP rinse in 1 bay is soap and I cannot figure out what is wrong.

Does anyone out there have a suggestion to troubleshoot this? I would love to have a direction.

Thank you,

Lady in Distresss@ECW

 

[MEP001]

When you cleaned the strainer, you might have dislodged something that got caught in the soap solenoid.

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

Odds are MEP001 has it right, but it could just be coincidence that you worked on the soap yesterday. I only mention that so you dont get tunnel vision and not see another cause.

But fundamentally, if you are suddenly getting soap on the rinse cycle (and nothing else has changed), then the problem is in the soap solenoid. Replacing the solenoid will probably fix it. Cleaning it out will probably fix it too, but there is a chance that the solenoid is worn and needs either a repair kit or a replacement, so depending on your time availability, budget, skill level, you might want to take the easy route & replace it.
btw, cleaning &/or repairing a solenoid is quite easy, if you are doing any mechanical repairs then you can handle it.

Let us know how it works out.

 

[JMMUSTANG]

Have someone turn on the soap in the bay, keep the bay gun trigger pulled constantly to get high pressure.
While the trigger is being pulled go inside and slowly turn the water (probably Hot) solenoid to the bay closed.
The pump will start to starve for water and vibrate roughly. Let the pump vibrate for only a few seconds then turn the water valve all the way on. You might have to do this a few times but make sure you don't bleed the water to long.
Turn on rinse cycle in bay and see if this helps clear out the soap solenoid.
You also might have to repeat this with the rinse on in the bay.

 

[Jeff_L]

What JMMUSTANG says could help dislodge debris if that's truly the case, however, that debris could get lodged somewhere else down the line, then you're hunting for a different problem.

I would recommend cleaning the soap solenoid out as a next step. Be careful taking it apart, since we don't know what kind it is, there might be a spring or other small parts in it that you'll need to deal with.

After cleaning out the solenoid, I would recommend taking the tip off the wand and running the pump for a couple of minutes to wash anything else out of the line. It's common practice for us at our wash. Too many times in the past have we taken something apart, cleaned, tested, and walked away thinking a job well done. Only to find out later a piece of debris is now clogging the tip.