[WISEOWL]

Here is a little advice for those with WFP, it helped me and could be worth a thought.

I bought my WFP van second hand last August and it has been a great success - I have had teething problems with my RO, pump and battery so any problems I get now are easily fixed. Special mention should go to certain members of this forum who have helped me in the past, thats why I want to pass this on so I feel I have contributed.

I noticed that my flow was weak, nothing bad but an airlock would cause one of my jets to trickle out - a quick shake of the extended pole whilst cleaning agitated the air and fixed it but it was getting annoying. I also noted, despite a fully charged battery, that on level 3 or 4 (settings I use for first cleans) would cause the green light to flash. Anything above 5 and the pump would cycle!

Then my power would cut out, I would have to fiddle with the wires to fix it and once this was done it would work whilstever the wires were un-touched. This however, was the final straw.

I had a good look at the wiring - the last time it had any attention was when I bought a new pump and correctly fitted the wires: battery > Varistream > pump. On closer inspection, and something I didn't notice at the time, was that the wires from the battery to the Varistream were a simple pos/neg set-up with small crocodile clips and the remaining circuit was robust, insulated wire.

What I think happened was that the previous owner of the van needed crocodile clips so bought a pair already hooked up to this wire that might as well have been string and attached it to the circuit. Despite being low quality it did the job but over time have worn down and maybe burnt out a little causing a very low thresehold of power. It is the same principle as jump-starting a car, you could attach the jump-leads to the national grid but if the wire carrying the charge is of low quality or too small then the wire will only carry the charge it can fit into the circuit.

So a trip to my hardware store and £3 spent on some new wire, along with attaching BIG crocodile clips to the battery has not only fixed my problem of power cutting out but also created a healthy flow and any air is spat out by the pump efficently. I can also go right up to BOOST with no detrimental effect to my battery or pump.

So as we go into the cold weather it may be wise to look into your wiring, especially you guys like me with modest set-ups.

[leapstallbuildings]

The only good reason I can think of to use a Varistream or similar is to conserve water usage - which can sometimes mean working more slowly.  I've always had a "return to tank" setup myself.

[Window Washers]

The only good reason I can think of to use a Varistream or similar is to conserve water usage - which can sometimes mean working more slowly.  I've always had a "return to tank" setup myself.

also saves on the pump running full tilt all the time as it cuts off cooling it down a tad

[leapstallbuildings]

The only good reason I can think of to use a Varistream or similar is to conserve water usage - which can sometimes mean working more slowly.  I've always had a "return to tank" setup myself.

also saves on the pump running full tilt all the time as it cuts off cooling it down a tad

This is something that I find a touch puzzling.  After a while, I started having the "return to tank" tap fully closed in order to (a) work with a decent flow rate and (b) to shut the pump down when I switch off the flow controller at the end of my hosereel.  This had the extra bonus of not discharging the battery (leisure battery on a split charge relay) too quickly.  Or at least I assume the battery charge isn't being used when the pump is stopped.  Now there is an argument against doing things this way because I think it's supposed to wear out the pressure switch too soon (or I think that's what was meant).  However, I worked that way for nearly three years before the pump needed replacing which I reckon is a reasonable lifespan for a pump.  From what I've read it looks like the pressure switch problems with pumps have been with sureflo whereas I use flojet (100PSI).  Once the pressure build up (quite quickly), the pump cuts out.  It does burst into life sometimes if say a jubilee clip needs tightening or a hoselock is dribbling.  Sometimes it can fail to stop if the leisure battery's charge has dropped  but I seem to get 12 - 18 months from them so long as I recharge manually maybe once or twice a week or if I'm going through a phase of lots of cleaning and little driving.
So as I said, I do sometimes wonder why people bother with them.  Maybe it's because most people seem to use sureflo pumps and perhaps they aren't so resilient as flojet ones.
I'm not offering an answer - just a bit puzzled really.