AR pump problems...

Entretien SG

New member
I had a KEC job last night where there was no need to bring the hot water unit, so I went there with my portable unit equiped with a hot temp kit and when I plugged the water on it suddently I noticed that the pump was leaking baddly...

My pump is an AR XTA2G15 (1450RPM) not even a year old and it was leaking just in between the pump head and the pump housing... Does that mean that the water seals need to be change or it could be something else?

I was able to use it to finish my cleaning but it's not fun at all when you're not even started and the pump leaks like that in front of the customer...

:help:
 
Yes, often a leak in the described loctaion will indicate the need to re-pack the pump. of course there are many variables so the pump head will have to be pulld and the inners inspected to be sure. Most likely changing the seals will fix the leak.
 
If your machine had opportunity to freeze, the pistons may be cracked.
 
Our AR pumps are very delicate and need attention quite often. Look in the oil glass and if you see milky oil you most likely have a cracked piston. Just rebuild it and you will be good. Get a piston kit. Sometimes its very hard to see a crack. fill the piston with wd40 and shake it. you will know if you have a crack.
 
Thanks Tracy, Russ and James...

I took a look at the oil glass and the oil looked kind of grey... Is that what suppose to be milky? If so, I'll take a look at the piston! I was careful with it to make sure it did not freeze but you never know if those are that delicate with the weather we have here, I'll have to be a little more careful in the future...

Thanks a lot guys!
 
Your pump might have a dipstick to check the oil, if the oil in the pump is milky then you have water in the oil.

Sometimes what you see in the sightglass can look different sometimes than what is in the pump. I have seen what I thought was milky looking oil in the sightglass but when I drained the oil, it was ok, just time to change it out.
 
Hot water seals in a portable pressure washer

Hmmm.. nobody mentioned a bypass-overheat..
Almost every portable (garden-hose-fed) pressure washer that comes in our service center
has been overheated in bypass..
the water flowing through the pump keeps the seals cool, when the gun is open.

When the gun is closed, the water is "bypassing"..
If the water coming in is 70 degr.F..
..you will have enough water in the bypass loop to manage bypassing for a couple minutes.
If the water coming in is at 160degr.F..
..letting off the trigger for just 1 minute can send the bypassing water temperature over 200 degrees.
I think ALL the seals in the pump and unloader are probably "cooked"..
so when you take the head off the pump..
make sure the piston oil-seals are NOT leaking oil,
.. or you'll have the head off that pump again shortly.

E-mail me for a free copy of our pump inspection guide.
Or, come to ACR's roundtable (Mar.10th), and I'll train you in person
how to troubleshoot, and Bullet-Proof your systems.
Yes, we can make that AR 630 "better than it was before".

And BTW..
gray oil indicates you needed to change the oil, ..or fix an oil leak some time ago.
 
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When the gun is closed, the water is "bypassing"..
If the water coming in is 70 degr.F..
..you will have enough water in the bypass loop to manage bypassing for a couple minutes.
If the water coming in is at 160degr.F..
..letting off the trigger for just 1 minute can send the bypassing water temperature over 200 degrees.

Maybe I'll sound a bit stupid but why pay for a hot temp seal kit if when hot water goes in the bypass it's cooking all the water seals inside the pump? As far as the grey oil I knew it was time for an oil change since winter is my downtime period I was looking to get this done before spring but I had an emergency KEC cleaning to do last night...

As per you guys knowledge, are those repairs be taken care by the manufacturer warranty if it's not related to freezing since the unit is still under warranty?
 
Re-read what Jerry wrote.

When you don't pull the trigger for a while then the hot water in the bypass loop is starting to heat up more and then cooks the seals.

If you are not going to pull the trigger for a while, turn the machine off.

If you are doing vents, you could rig up a disconnect so that the bypass water is going onto the floor, attach a longer hose so that it goes into a drain close by and no more cooking the seals, that is if you are using a machine with a short bypass loop inside the restaurant. If you have a rig outside the building then you could rig up a bypass onto the ground or back into the tank if you are using a tank.
 
A big long bypass hose could make a huge difference,
and generally keeping the gun open is smart.
Hi-Temp seals are a great starting point, but they do not protect the piston oil seals...
frequent oil changes, and using synthetic oil will.

I wouldn't warranty water seals againt bypass overheat,
unless you paid us to add Bypass Overheat Shutdown.
 
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