[Dave Garrett]

Peter would appreciate diagram have 2 x shurflo 100psi ...dgarrett@ntlworld.com ( also where can i purchase said parts req'd )

[Peter Fogwill]

Paul C

I had a customer renew his pump last year who was one of my very first customers, had his pump over 10 years and its never seen a controller, its a Sureflo. The battery is the same as the water, yes you will go through the battery power faster but per window you should be using the same, if you can use your pump on full flow, and again like the water get more done in a day. You should consider a split charge relay, they are easy to fit and save a lot of trouble charging and moving heavy batteries around.

Dave, its just a cheap standard car relay you need and a few spade connectors you can buy at any Autoparts shop or Maplins.  Maplins also do a replacement pump switch for the pumps if you ever need to replace them.  I can send you the part No's for them as well if you like?

If any of my customers have a problem with the pump and phone me up it is either drawing air or the relay needs replaced 9 out of 10 times. I can pinpoint the problem in about 2 minutes into the phone call, and they have the relay next morning if they don't have a spare themselves.  No waiting a few weeks to find out if they have reversed the polarity or whatever.  I have a guy at the moment who bought one of my system second hand and he phoned me up with problems, which turns out his relay need replaced.  I sent him a relay, and put in a replacement pressure switch as well just incase that goes as well.  He tried to fit the relay and ended up getting the wires mixed up even after I told him to take one off at a time. He admitted that he is clueless even with basic tasks like this and asked if he could stick the whole pump box in a box and send it to me, which I told him yes.  He will get the box back all working and tested, and will just plug it in and he will be working again.  How would this particular chap get on trouble shooting his system if he had a controller as well? What and where would he send to who?  Now I know we are not all like this guy but believe me there are lots of people cleaning windows who are.  Now I will have customers as cleaver as winp and for them if they want to go out and buy a controller for whatever reason they see fit then fine that's up to them, I personally don't want a shelf full of broken controllers.

I am a great believer in keeping things simple.

[Peter Fogwill]

Hi again Paul, you don't charge a battery every night do you?

I am not saying the flojet is not better as I have not had much experience with it.  What I have came across though if they get frozen it breaks the black plastic part that holds the switch on.  I have alway found the Shurflo to be very reliable, and your right about the garantee, but I cover this myself.  I once sent back two pumps that were faulty to the main distributer, had to buy two as replacements while they check them out to see if the garantee covered them.  Got them back two or three weeks later saying there was nothing wrong with them.  Now any my customers buying a replacement pump pays a little extra, and I cover the guarantee myself. Imaging if that was a customer? he would have bought 3 pumps, and ended up with one working and two no use.

[Fin Clearview]

Peter (or anyone in the know) can I ask you, I have a varistream (2nd gen) controller  with shurflo 100psi, for sometime now it never reaches full pressure on controlleras it used to flash 'P' when reached shortly after shut off. Do you know why this might have stopped? Ps, sorry to jib in on this thread.

[Peter Fogwill]

Fin I am probably not the best person to ask.  I do know a bit about them but others wil know much more.  I don't really understand what your asking, could you reword it?
Are you saying the P used to flash when you dead ended, and now it doesn't? Are you meaning the controller is not shutting the pump off when you stop the water?

[Fin Clearview]

Fin I am probably not the best person to ask.  I do know a bit about them but others wil know much more.  I don't really understand what your asking, could you reword it?
Are you saying the P used to flash when you dead ended, and now it doesn't? Are you meaning the controller is not shutting the pump off when you stop the water?

Sorry about my Dutch Peter! I'm probably not using the correct terminology. Yes I do mean the controller is not shutting the pump off when you stop the water. It used to though as the controller used to start flashing 'p' for pressure reached which in turn stopped the pump. Now the controller doesn't flash 'p' and it just stays on the number (for flow rate) until I return to the van with the pump still working (although hardly at all as I suppose it still thinks the max pressure hasn't reached). Hope this makes more sense! Cheers

[Peter Fogwill]

Fin have a look at this link, it seems like you don't have it set properly..
http://acsforums.com/yabbfiles/Attachments/USER_GUIDE_VariStream_VSD6.pdf

Dave the relay is Code N02AW
Pessure Switch in case you need one is GW71N
Both available at Maplins.

Paul a good leisure battery fully charged should last around two days without a split charge relay.

[Fin Clearview]

Fin have a look at this link, it seems like you don't have it set properly..
http://acsforums.com/yabbfiles/Attachments/USER_GUIDE_VariStream_VSD6.pdf

Dave the relay is Code N02AW
Pessure Switch in case you need one is GW71N
Both available at Maplins.

Paul a good leisure battery fully charged should last around two days without a split charge relay.

Thankyou Peter, I'll take a look. 

[Ian Sheppard]

The pump is a shurflo 100psi and was new with the controller the pressure cut off is set around half way. The unit was sent to pure freedom for the sole reason of fuses being blown one after the other. It was only today that we was told its our fault because the diote has blown and according to purefreedom the unit is at the manufacterer.

Thank you for the confirm on controller location Liam.

Wow this has been a busy thread over the weekend. A controller does far more than simply adjust the speed of a pump. Is it the only way to conserve water? that depends on the individual and the way they work.

I also personally feel that Water Volume as opposed to how fast the water is flowing is the important consideration and the ability to adjust the volume than become important.

I am also unsure how simply running water fast EG pump flat out makes cleaning quicker?

If you can clean an external French pane (cut-up) window in 19 seconds .. how much faster can you get by doubling your water flow ? The bio-mechanics of the human effort limit the top end.

You still have the same area of glass to cover no matter how fast the flow is. There are other factors to take into account. Eg pump size- hose size – efficiency of the motor – pressure required.

There will be occassions where a fast flow is necessary.  Equally there is a need to be able to regulate flow to suit the conditions and the job at hand, therefore giving the user flexibility is key. In short, use only the water you need at each job.

[Dave Willis]

One thing everyone forgets is that there are two elements to cleaning glass - brush and rinse. If all we were doing is squirting a window then a very quick burst of high volume water would be quicker than a longer steady flow.
Basically we need just enough water to carry the agitated dirt from the top of the glass to the bottom. A small pane therefore needs far less water than a massive shop window. This is the reason I need to be able to vary the flow rather than simply flat out on or completely off. Something an aquadapter can't do I believe.
The brushing time I would presume can't be altered - most of us scrub the least we think we can get away with but are never sure because we can't see what's happening.

[DaveG]

You're half right with the aquadapter Dave.. when the pole is extended, you pull the hose and water is either on or off, but on low level You can adjust the tap at brushhead from full flow to a trickle..

[Ian Sheppard]

I bought a new flow controller from Pure Freedom about 4 months ago. It worked fine for a few weeks then started blowing fuses for no reason as it was wired correctly and I sent it back to Pure Freedom who had it repaired and said there was a fault on the unit and its fine now got it back and re-fitted it and it worked fine for about 2-3 weeks then the same thing happend again I called Pure Freedom back and told them I was told to send it back and they would send me a replacement, 2 weeks on heard nothing so I called them they said it was still sat on the shelf they hadnt looked at it yet and they will get straight onto it.
Today I called them again (couple of days later) and they said I had to pay for the repairs as it was me that had caused the damage a diode inside the unit had blew due to reverse polority with is impossible as it had been working fine and then suddenly started blowing fuses the wiring was fine and had not been touched so how can it be my fault, I have told them to send the varistream back with a statement and I am going to get an independent electronics expert to check it for me and will be passed onto trading standards.

I told them this and it cant be my fault and was basically told I was a liar and its the laws of physics that its been wired wrong,

I have used Pure freedom for about 7 years and spent alot of money with them. and get customer service like that.
I will NOT be using them again
Be warned !

I have had an opportunity to Speak with both PF and our engineer re this control. The control was bought in October of 2012, and was first returned to us on the 9th April 2013. Report from customer is the fuse constantly blew.
On inspection of the control the reverse polarity diode had blown due to miss wiring.

We have for some time been protecting the processor and PCB against miss wiring by placing a diode on the power input.
Direct current DC will pass through a circuit in one direction only think of it as putting a vehicle in in 1st gear the car can now only move forward. Trying to engage reverse while traveling forward at speed will destroy the gear box.

As such correct polarity becomes very important in a DC device in that the power can only flow in one direction. The position of the diode means that there is only reason for the diode to blow.

Current would only need to flow in the wrong direction for a fraction of a second so as already suggested in the Thread it would be enough to touch the negative terminal of the battery with the positive connector.

At this point dependent on the battery size and if it is fully charged you have the full current available passing through the circuit the wrong way. For example if an 85AH battery is used then 85 amps are passing across the control in that moment.
As the controller has been miss wired any fuse is bypassed. The Processor we fit has a maximum current rating of 10amps so putting 85 across it completely destroys the PCB and processor.

To avoid this permanent damage we fit the diode.

Despite the fact that the control had been miss wired when returned in April and not covered by our warranty. We repaired it free as an act of goodwill and advised this at the time.

On receipt of the control again around the 10th May the reverse polarity diode has again be blown.

Unfortunately no matter how you look at this passing current the wrong way around a DC powered device will blow it up.

[Dave Willis]

Ian, once the diode is blown - what happens when you reconnect the battery terminals the correct way round? Will it then blow the inline fuse (if you have one) or simply not work at all?

[Liam1990]

Thanks for looking into it for us. But we are back to were we started the first repair we was told there was a fault fixed under warranty no mention of miss wiring or goodwill gesture.
As for the miss wiring how can it be wired correctly run the pump and then blow a fuse ? Then blow another and another. To me a fuse blowing tells me there is a short some and it wasnt the external wiring.
Can you say 100% that its impossible for the unit to short from the inside?

[Peter Fogwill]

Ian, once the diode is blown - what happens when you reconnect the battery terminals the correct way round? Will it then blow the inline fuse (if you have one) or simply not work at all?

Looks like this is the key question and could prove if the polarity had been reversed or not.
Surely its not hard to put something in that would protect the unit and the diode, if the polarity is reversed?

[Peter Fogwill]

One thing everyone forgets is that there are two elements to cleaning glass - brush and rinse. If all we were doing is squirting a window then a very quick burst of high volume water would be quicker than a longer steady flow.
Basically we need just enough water to carry the agitated dirt from the top of the glass to the bottom. A small pane therefore needs far less water than a massive shop window. This is the reason I need to be able to vary the flow rather than simply flat out on or completely off. Something an aquadapter can't do I believe.
The brushing time I would presume can't be altered - most of us scrub the least we think we can get away with but are never sure because we can't see what's happening.

We can move the brush at a faster speed though. With a small pane you are on the glass for a much shorter period of time to deliver the water it needs.  A large pane needs more water so you are on that pane longer.

[Dave Willis]

I think my brush speed is the same on every job I do. I dould make my arms go like bees wings i suppose. Not something that interests me to be honest.
I like a steady day with the lightest equipment available, return home refreshed with energy to spare. Sod the money. 

[Ian Sheppard]

Thanks for looking into it for us. But we are back to were we started the first repair we was told there was a fault fixed under warranty no mention of miss wiring or goodwill gesture.
As for the miss wiring how can it be wired correctly run the pump and then blow a fuse ? Then blow another and another. To me a fuse blowing tells me there is a short some and it wasnt the external wiring.
Can you say 100% that its impossible for the unit to short from the inside?

Hi Dave/Liam following a miss wire and and blowing the reverse polarity diode, Once the cables are re connected with correct polarity yes the fuse will blow.
This is because following the miss wire it is likely to have caused a short across the board on reconnection of the cables with correct polarity the short will cause the fuse to blow.

The original fault was caused by miss wiring the controller. This tends to happen following a battery change. The battery is disconnected for a re charge on reconnection the positive cable connector only needs to be in contact momentarily with the negative terminal of the battery for a very short period.
 
The way the PCB is designed built and tested plus how we position the diode. Yes I can be 100% sure that only an external miss wire would cause this diode to blow.

[Small but perfectley formed]

I did a miss wire and it blew the fuse surely that's what the fuse is for?

[Peter Fogwill]

Wow this has been a busy thread over the weekend. A controller does far more than simply adjust the speed of a pump. Is it the only way to conserve water? that depends on the individual and the way they work.

I don't think it is a way to conserve water, it is just a way to reduce flow to the brush.
More convenient than a bypass if you are on a reduced flow for a long period, but like you already know I think that is detrimental to a window cleaners speed, rather than saving him water

I also personally feel that Water Volume as opposed to how fast the water is flowing is the important consideration and the ability to adjust the volume than become important.

Coming out a brush the pressure and flow is relevant. The more pressure pushing up the pipe the more water at the brush.

I am also unsure how simply running water fast EG pump flat out makes cleaning quicker?

It allows you to move the brush faster, so work quicker with the same amount of water.

If you can clean an external French pane (cut-up) window in 19 seconds .. how much faster can you get by doubling your water flow ? The bio-mechanics of the human effort limit the top end.

Depends on the individual. Supposing the water was coming out too fast and you come across say a window with cut ups and it needed a good scrub, you just give it a wetting, turn the water off for however long needed, turn it back on again and finish off.  Are you proposing they would go back to the van and reset the controller for maybe one window?  The way I just described is more or less the principal on how a controller works, without the expense or problems associated with them.

We will always disagree on this Ian.

Dave W, I don't think your arms need to go like bees wings. It just means your brush needs to be on the glass for a shorter period of time than it is just now.