[williamx]

I am having trouble with the water flow rate that I am getting from my 100psi pump.

What happens is that I turn the pump on and the water comes out with great pressure, after a couple of minutes the pressure drops and the water comes out in a dripple.

Sometimes its perfectly ok for hours then the next day it starts having problem again, also sometimes the pump just stops as if its dead, them its starts up again, sometimes hours later.

I have checked the battery and that is ok, I have used another pump and the same thing happens as well, I used to use a trigger, and when I disconnected this the pressure came back, but now its happening again and there is no trigger attached.

Any ideas

[steven ainger]

what set up have you got, varistream or pressure switch

[NWH]

Check your wiring,if you don`t have bullet connecters on your wiring change them the clamp connecters like the ones you get with the varistream are rubbish.

[williamx]

what set up have you got, varistream or pressure switch

Pressure switch

[Roy Harding]

I think it the preasure switch by the sound of it.

Roy

[steven ainger]

it could be trouble with that and needs adjusting, i dont use the pressure switch so cant help, but im sure somebody can

[williamx]

Check your wiring,if you don`t have bullet connecters on your wiring change them the clamp connecters like the ones you get with the varistream are rubbish.

The connectors I use are blue plastic coated spades because they need to connect to female connectors on the on/off switch.

Also you can hear the motor running but no water is coming though or its comes out in a dribble, if you disconect the outlet hose, its seems to bleed the system and this can work ok for a while.

[Roy Harding]

Use just the wires from the base of the pump straight to the battery and see if the flow is allright then.

In other words by pass the switch if it works fine buy a new one.

Roy

[williamx]

cheers roy I was going to do that tommorow.

Can the pump be used all the time with out the pressure or are there problems?

[Roy Harding]

I would not use it without, as its there to protect the pump.

But you could fit a bye pass to direct the flow from one side of the pump back to the other, using a flow control tap to regulate the flow.

Roy

[Wayne Thomas]

I would not use it without, as its there to protect the pump.

But you could fit a bye pass to direct the flow from one side of the pump back to the other, using a flow control tap to regulate the flow.

Roy

That works, but, because the pump is running continuously ,the battery will drain quicker.
Why not fit non-return valves wherever possible, so that the pump doesn't have to work so hard pushing the water so far between stop & starts.
I fitted a second hosereel on top of my water tank, but because it is situated high up I wasn't getting much pressure to my 2nd hosereel (1 pump sharing 2 hosereels).  I fitted 2 non-return valves (1 at the Y splitter & 1 just before the hosereel) so that I wasn't losing any pressure and so that my pump doesn't have to work so hard. Problem now sorted. Going to run 2 pumps to 2 hosereels on 2 seperate varistreams so I'm not slowed down because of waterflow restrictions.

[stevekennedy]

I think I might know your problem. Try unscrewing the lid of your tank and run the pump.

Any better?

Next, check the feed hose to your pump for kinks/blockages

Anything?

Let me know how you get on.

[williamx]

I used it today and the pressure was about 50%, took the pressure switch off and its was like a jet wash, which is what I prefer.

Its a shurflo pump, so I not too sure whether the pressure switch can be adjusted or needs replacing.

Its strange that its happen to 3 pumps at the same time.

[Roy Harding]

In the early days I burnt out 3 switchs in 2 wks. Hence I went for the varistream and have had no problems for years.

Roy

[williamx]

Roy
Do you think that it could have happened because of the cold weather or could it be a fan jet ( it comes of a carpet cleaning machine and is very powerful) that I am using?

[Roy Harding]

As I understand it, the reason it happens is because we keep turning the water flow off because we want to save water.
Hence the presure builds up and the switch shuts the pump off, constanly doing this all day burns out the preasure switch.
In my experence they never lasted more than a few days. But the pump is still good and you can buy a new preasure switch and set up a buy pass and this will stop the preasure switch from activating or buy a varistream.

Roy

[Roy Harding]

Just got this off Williamsons web site.

The most common problem with window cleaning pumps is that the user puts excessive water pressure on the switch during use, causing the pump to repeatedly switch on and off (known as "cycling on the switch") during the window cleaning process. This will rapidly cause wear and the pressure switch will fail prematurely. Care must be taken with any window cleaning system to ensure "cycling" does not occur.

By far the most common cause of excessive pressure on the switch is the use of a restriction valve on the window cleaning system - these are commonly fitted to allow the user to regulate the output of water from the pole. Some window cleaners wish to restrict the amount of water flow to save water and allow them to stay out and work for longer before having to return to base to re-fill the water tank on their vehicle.
 
If the user begins to restrict the flow of water with such a restriction valve or tap, there is an immediate increase in pressure in the outlet hose between the pump and point of restriction, and very quickly the pressure will increase to a point where the demand switch briefly switches off the pump to relieve the pressure. The pressure will rapidly diminish and the pressure switch will automatically switch the pump back on. This can happen upwards of 100 times per minute and rapidly causes burn out of the switch leading to pump failure.

 
Roy

[williamx]

How to you do a bypass?

[NWH]

Just buy a varistream.

[Roy Harding]

You have a T joint each side of the pump with a piece of hose on, this goes from one T joint to the other, in the middle of the pipe you put a flow control valve  to ajust the amount of water returning to the inlet side of the pump.

Then the pump runs all the time but never reaches preasure.

Roy