Power Washing and Roof Cleaning Forum

Zach Maynard · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Gray 3/4

Steve Salley · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Artie McGuyver at your service :)

Art O · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Gray 3/4" check valve

Brian C Jackson · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Gray 3/4

Maverick Contracting · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Who told you that Brian?
Muriatic acid even well diluted will eat metal worse than other acids.

What do you need to clean out?
I assume the presumption of using an "acid" is to neutralize the base (SH), use a weak acid, hell distilled vinegar?

Drop a s.s. bolt in muriatic acid and come back in 24 hrs and there wont be much left lol.

If any surfactant residue dries inside, it shouldnt do any harm and the best thing to clean that out is dihydrogen monoxide, aka H2O, aka water

Brian C Jackson · Approved Exterior Cleaner

I believe be it was on Tim(Proportioner Page). I was S/Heed to read it and it needs to be deluted and flushed properly. I personally haven't done it myself because I rinse my Booster after each job.

DirtyRoofcom · Approved Exterior Cleaner

I'm bringing this thread back to life.

Art and Brett how are both of your mixing valves holding up now that you have some good amount of time through them. What changes would you make if any?

Art O · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Gray 3/4" check valve

DirtyRoofcom · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Art O wrote:
DirtyRoofcom wrote:
I'm bringing this thread back to life.

Art and Brett how are both of your mixing valves holding up now that you have some good amount of time through them. What changes would you make if any?
Mine has been working Great, No big problems other then the Nuts on the check valves came lose. Now I tighten them good before I put them on. The best part is rinsing the pump and hose reel. I turn the soap and S/H off, open the ball valve on the hose and turn the switch on and off, let the water run through for and hour or so. No more rust from the reel when I start up.

Awesome. Thanks

Art O · Approved Exterior Cleaner

DirtyRoofcom wrote:
Art O wrote:
DirtyRoofcom wrote:
I'm bringing this thread back to life.

Art and Brett how are both of your mixing valves holding up now that you have some good amount of time through them. What changes would you make if any?
Mine has been working Great, No big problems other then the Nuts on the check valves came lose. Now I tighten them good before I put them on. The best part is rinsing the pump and hose reel. I turn the soap and S/H off, open the ball valve on the hose and turn the switch on and off, let the water run through for and hour or so. No more rust from the reel when I start up.
Awesome. Thanks

Over the winter Erik I maybe making one for Pat, We can just make 2 at once

Patrick G · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Gray 3/4

DirtyRoofcom · Approved Exterior Cleaner

RE: Gray 3/4" check valve

Patrick G · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Gray 3/4

BlueRidge · Approved Exterior Cleaner

RE: Gray 3/4" check valve

Art O · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Been using the 3/4" Gray Check valves for 3 season now. I'm finding the O rings are leaking at the seam after about 6 months. Now I'm Gluing it together at the seam with PVC cement. It shouldn't leak anymore. I like this Check valve because there is Zero restrictions.

Chris · Exterior Cleaner

Art O wrote:
Been working on my Proportioner for my 10 GPM Booster pump that I will be ordering soon. Went with Schedule 80 and liking it. Makes for nice tight seams and its thicker, stronger and cheaper then the Bango fittings. Its going to work out good when its finished

I like that box a lot Art, did you build it?

Is that only just bolted together?

Is that box tight and strong or does it wobble any?

How are those valves holding up for you after this much time?

Thank you.

Art O · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Chris wrote:
Art O wrote:
Been working on my Proportioner for my 10 GPM Booster pump that I will be ordering soon. Went with Schedule 80 and liking it. Makes for nice tight seams and its thicker, stronger and cheaper then the Bango fittings. Its going to work out good when its finished

I like that box a lot Art, did you build it?
Is that only just bolted together?
Is that box tight and strong or does it wobble any?
How are those valves holding up for you after this much time?
Thank you.

Everything works good, The box is very strong and the valves work fine

Chris · Exterior Cleaner

Gray 3/4

Chris · Exterior Cleaner

I use those white and red plastic siphon pumps for the 55 gallon drums to get the bleach out and into the 5 gallon containers but they don't last forever and was looking for something that holds up to the SH.

I saw a video of one of those "shaker siphon pumps" where you shake the hose some and the siphon takes over, looks like it would do a good job but the SH will eat up the seal in it eventually I am thinking.

I was wondering about this check valve that Art posted about, I wonder if you put hose barbs on each side of it, then hose on the outlet, if it would in theory work like one of those shaker siphon pumps, then rinse it out with water when done?

This would not take up too much room, just a hose with the check valve on the end and it does not need much to get flow through it, so I was thinking it might work and probably last a while, probably much longer than those white and red drum pumps.

What do you guys think about this idea?

Western Mass Prowash · Exterior Cleaner

RE: Gray 3/4" check valve

Chris · Exterior Cleaner

I had looked into those Steve, just forgot about them and no moving parts to wear out.

I am looking for something that I can keep in the truck or trailer, I don't have an air compressor yet,

So I need something that will work out in the field with no air supply.

Thank you.

-- Edited by Chris on Thursday 14th of February 2019 09:07:30 PM

Jeff Wible · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Gray 3/4

Chris · Exterior Cleaner

I know of at least 4 other guys out there that have also looked for hose to use on the pumps when the hose cracks, seems like the companies selling those pumps would also sell replacement hoses, but then since the pumps last a while, might hurt their pump sales.

I tried a 1" clear polybraid hose but it would not work and was too stiff, this was for using with strong, high ph truck washing soaps and another one for strong aluminum brighteners.

At the home depot and lowes they sell a replacement drain hose for the clothes washing machines, someone suggested it but I tried it and it rotted away within a week. I did not rinse it out, I never rinse out those red/white drum pumps for the soaps and acids but for the SH I do rinse them out with a 5 gallon bucket of water.

When I pickup the drum of bleach from the supplier, sometimes I just keep it in the truck and siphon off into 5 gallon buckets what I need for the job, sometimes I will empty the drum into a drum on the ground and move that drum into storage or if I am in a hurry, I will get my 2"x10" 8 foot long boards (2 of them), make a ramp off of the tailgate of the truck and slide the drum off of the truck and move it to where I keep them at.

The siphon pumps work good but when they get low, you have to pump them and that takes a while to fill the buckets, one of many reasons I am looking for something else.

I don't have a fatboy pump, might buy a 12 volt pump and put it in a bucket with a battery and hoses or rig up something to get the bleach out of the drum faster when it gets low so I don't have to pump it out by hand.

I know the clear polybraid hoses last with many different chemicals going through them, that is what I use mostly for downstreaming chemicals with the injector, have you guys used rubber hoses or garden hoses with the 12 volt pumps for transferring the SH and those hoses last a long time?

If I rigged up something like in a box or bucket to where the pump and battery don't move around or tip over, that would be a good idea, then I could use that for transferring out of the drum to the buckets, maybe once in a while use a longer discharge hose to pump into the drum on the trailer when needed for the larger jobs.

DirtyRoofcom · Approved Exterior Cleaner

RE: Gray 3/4" check valve

Art O · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Water full on, S/h in the middle go from there. Soap I just changed over to one of those small Black and white valves. Not doing well with it, but haven't given up on it. The Gray check valves I like, but you should glue the valve together at the seam so it doesn't leak down the road. Had a few leaks and I think this is the fix.

BlueRidge · Approved Exterior Cleaner

DirtyRoofcom wrote:
For those of you running a mixing valve....
How are you typically adjusting your valves? Do you leave water and soap valves in one position and primarily just adjust your SH valve as needed?

Is your soap valve generally set on low or almost closed side?
Is your water generally set wide open?

I'm just trying to really understand this fully before I build one.

I bought everything from US Plastics. Metering valves and have to stick with them since this is what the crews are use to. I wish I could go with cheaper ball valves. The check valves we have have never had a problem except for a small piece of trash and have never leaked in over two years. I set it up a bit differently with water coming in to the bottom of the Proportioner to help prim the pump and as well, cleaning. The trick to this set up is like everything else... rinse it all the time.

Water on full. Soap has two settings for the two different soaps for roofs and house wash. Same with the SH. I hope this helps.

DirtyRoofcom · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Gray 3/4

Art O · Approved Exterior Cleaner

RE: Gray 3/4" check valve

DirtyRoofcom · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Thanks Brett and Art that does help.

So it sounds like there is no need for 3 metering valves. Possibly only get one metering valve for SH and and 2 reg quality valves for soap and water.

Are you using 1/2 for soap as well?
Drop sticks for everything or permanently piped to tanks?

BlueRidge · Approved Exterior Cleaner

I run 5/8" for water and SH, 3/8" for soap. Water and SH have drop tubes but the soap is a bit different so it's easy to switch.

I can't offer much about standard ball valves but Art is happy with how they work.