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Pressure Washer Products · Guest

A Few Tips From Pressure Washer Products

Mar 7, 2010

Excellent advice Lori.

When you are drawing chemical from the top of your tank, I recommend using a 3/4" PVC pipe inside the tank with a 3/4" MPT coupling at the top into your 3/4" bulkhead.

At the top use a PVC or poly 3/4" street elbow attached to the top of the bulkhead, and attach a 3/4" MPT x 1" barb.

Attach a 1" poly-braided or ag hose to the 1" barb and run it down to your pump mounted close to the bottom of your chemical tank.

If you are using a 12V Pump mount it upside down.

The intake side of your pump should have a poly 1/2" MPT x 3/4" barb. Cut a short 3" piece of 3/4" poly-braided hose and attach it to the 3/4" barb.

Next slip over your 1" intake poly-braided or ag hose on top of the short piece of 3/4" hose on the hose barb intake fitting. Hose clamp everything tight.

The physics behind this advice is what Lori is talking about, FLOOD YOUR PUMP.

The extra weight and volume you are pulling down through your 1" hose will aid in the suction of the lighter weight and volume of chemical going up the 3/4" PVC pipe in your chemical tank.

The result will give you a smoother running pump, and more output from the extra siphoning action you are giving the intake side of your pump.

-- Edited by Roof Cleaning Pro Greensboro NC (336)362 7659 on Thursday 11th of March 2010 08:44:39 PM

Pressure Washer Products · Guest

Thank you for stepping in, Mike! Fantastic advice. Keep it coming.

Mar 7, 2010

Pressure Washer Products wrote:
Thank you for stepping in, Mike! Fantastic advice. Keep it coming.

Oh, I forgot to add attaching a 1" T with two ball valves or a 1" 3-way ball valve and add extra plumbing to a water tank to rinse out your pumps.

Unless you are hard core like Chris is and use Kynar air pumps, in which case rinsing your pumps are not necessary.

Mar 7, 2010

Mike whay do you place the fatboy upside down?

Mar 7, 2010

You want your fittings to be at the bottom.

If you happen to have any leaks, it won't leak into your motor, so your pump will last longer.

Also, the plastic head facing down will keep the sun off it. The sun's UV rays will wear out the plastic eventually.

Chris uses sun-tan lotion to help protect the plastic from the sun.

-- Edited by Roof Cleaning Pro Greensboro NC (336)362 7659 on Sunday 7th of March 2010 11:28:50 PM

Mar 7, 2010

sounds good thanks.

Guest

I'm gonna stress Mikes point on rinsing. Definitely have something set up to rinse the pump directly after use. A tank is ideal, but if nothing else adapt a garden hose coupler so you can at least force feed it some clean water. I prefer roller pumps which are cast iron, rinsing these with approximately 7-10 gallons of water, Greatly improves the life of even these cast iron pumps. Look at it this way, chances are you mix in your tank anyhow,...so when rinsing just run it directly back into the chemical tank, kill two birds with one stone as they say.

I'll answer the questions that I'm sure are coming, Ha,Ha,.......I use roller pumps because they allow me to use 3/8" hose. I can make lots of money with one roller pump, so the trade off of longevity is worth it to me. Like I said It's not a big deal for me to rinse, gotta add water to the tank anyhow for the next mix. also easy to replace in the field and are readily available.

Jeff

andy hinson · Mar 10, 2010

Roof Cleaning Pro Greensboro NC (336)362 7659 wrote:

Excellent advice Lori.

When you are drawing chemical from the top of your tank, I recommend using a 3/4" PVC pipe inside the tank with a 3/4" MPT coupling at the top into your 3/4" bulkhead.

At the top use a PVC or poly 3/4" street elbow attached to the top of the bulkhead, and attach a 3/4" MPT x 1" barb.

Attach a 1" poly-braided hose to the 1" barb and run it down to your pump mounted close to the bottom of your chemical tank.

If you are using a 12V Pump mount it upside down.

The intake side of your pump should have a poly 1/2" MPT x 3/4" barb. Cut a short 3" piece of 3/4" poly-braided hose and attach it to the 3/4" barb.

Next slip over your 1" intake poly-braided hose on top of the short piece of 3/4" hose on the hose barb intake fitting. Hose clamp everything tight.

The physics behind this advice is what Lori is talking about, FLOOD YOUR PUMP.

The extra weight and volume you are pulling down through your 1" hose will aid in the suction of the lighter weight and volume of chemical going up the 3/4" PVC pipe in your chemical tank.

The result will give you a smoother running pump, and more output from the extra siphoning action you are giving the intake side of your pump.

-- Edited by Roof Cleaning Pro Greensboro NC (336)362 7659 on Sunday 7th of March 2010 09:02:20 PM

Mike are you using a float valve? I have been running a hose through the top of the tank with a filter on the end. It works. But. A hard line would be nice. Do you have Pics?

Washed-up · guest

Flooding the pump.........wonder if I up the size of hose feeding my pressure washer will worj in the same therory? Worth checking out...

Mar 11, 2010

AHINSON wrote:

Mike are you using a float valve? I have been running a hose through the top of the tank with a filter on the end. It works. But. A hard line would be nice. Do you have Pics?

No float valve, no filter for me. No pics yet.

Mar 11, 2010

Washed-up wrote:

Flooding the pump.........wonder if I up the size of hose feeding my pressure washer will worj in the same therory? Worth checking out...

Absolutely.

I finally upgraded my intake on my pressure washer last year and it made a BIG difference.

www.pressurewasherproducts.com

If your ball valve is not 2" at the bulkhead, take it off.

Attach 2" MPT nipple to your 2" bulk head fitting

Buy a 2 inch single union ball valve.

Attach a 2"x 1-1/2" reducing nipple to the ball valve.

Attach a 1-1/2" filter to the reducing nipple.

Attach a 1-1/2" MPT x 1" barb.

Attach a 1" polybraided or ag hose to the 1" barb.

You'll have to attach your fittings to the 2" single union ball valve before screwing the valve on your bulk head because the 1-1/2" filter is so large it doesn't have enough room to screw on.

If your intake has 1/2" threads use a 1/2" MPT x 3/4" barb and attach a short piece of 3/4" poly-braided hose on the barb, and slip over the 1" hose on top. Hose clamp tight. For 3/4" intakes, use a 3/4" MPT x 1" barb.

The result will give you a force feeding funneling effect, FLOODING YOUR PUMP.

Fittings will cost about $50+shipping, and it's well worth it.

When you do this, you will feel like you just bought a brand new pump that pushes a whole gallon more per minute. No joke. $50 well spent.

NOTE: This system of drawing from the bottom is not recommended for roof cleaning. This is for a pressure washer using a water tank, not a chemical tank.

If Lori with Pressure Washer Products does not show the parts you need on their website call them, they can get whatever you need.

Their hard copy catalog show much more stuff than their website.

-- Edited by Roof Cleaning Pro Greensboro NC (336)362 7659 on Thursday 18th of March 2010 03:29:04 AM

andy hinson · Mar 11, 2010

All this talk makes me want to pull my hair out,and I'm bald.
Mike if I'm out of line.Slap me. It sounds like you are pulling from the bottom of your tank. If you say it works.Then it does.
However another master, Chris says no bulkhead they will leak. Pull from the top.
It is confusing. If I'm understanding this correctly.

Mar 11, 2010

Sorry, the last post was for pressure washing with a water tank.

Roof Cleaning from a chemical tank draw from the top.

Guest

Nice post Lori and Mike, If any one would like to see some pictures I would be happy to send them of the set up I have. I run the yamada air pump, 1/2 inlet and outlet. I run 3/4 pvc from the water/chemical tanks to a 3 way ball valve (3/4), than 3/4 pvc piping down to my air pump. I also run 200 ft of 3/4 chemical hose to a 3/4 ball valve. Nice post about the fatboy, never thought about upside down before I switched to an air pump.

Guest

Great posts here dudes! Here's some feedback from my personal experiences:

1. Pulling from the top is imperative. I used to pull from the bottom, using a little tiny barb to allow flow into my 1/2" hose. It was pitiful compared to pulling from the top.

2. Flooding your pump is remarkable. I did this for the first time the other day, and what a difference this makes in flow and distance coverage.

3. Always rinse when using these diaphragm pumps. After EACH use, simply run 10-15 gallons of fresh, clean water through it to make it last longer. The seals in the diaphragm pumps are not designed to be used with our roof cleaning mixtures, and if they aren't rinsed and properly maintained, they will go out. Then, you'll have to call Lori again, and since she never works, or is always "on the other line", then you're outta luck and won't be able to clean any more roofs. biggrin

Joking guys! Lori is great.

Pressure Washer Products · Guest

Silly boys!!!!!!!! LOL!!!

aggilliam · Guest

I'm new to this forum and I'm sorry if this has already been discussed but I couldn't find anything in the search. My question is do you filter your roof cleaning chemicals prior to intake with the delevan 5850?

Roofie · Guest

I myself filter all my chems before they enter any of my pumps, wheather it be my 12 volt pumps or my pumps on my wash rigs. Thats just me though and I like to take every precaution I can. I have to work hard for these great rigs, so I wanna keep them in good working order as long as I possibly can. So, I would suggest you filtering all your chems before entering your pump my friend.

Baltimore MD Roof Cleaning 410-482-4367 · guest

Don't get confused it is always from the top for your delevans and air pumps always from the bottom for your pressure washers

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Lake Marion Citrus & Sumter Counties in Florida

The Roof Cleaning Institute Of America Training & Certification Forum "Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"

Dwayne MillerFLORIDAWASH

Lake Marion Citrus & Sumter Counties in Florida

The Roof Cleaning Institute Of America Training & Certification Forum
"Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"

Dwayne Miller
FLORIDAWASH