Tank plumbing - any thoughts?

B

Bjoernar

New member
Hello from cold Norway!

I am about to build a enclosed PW trailer. The unit is a tank fed 8gpm 3500psi hot water machine. I have pretty much desided on the plumbing, but wont mind any input on it. I have made a very simple drawing on how it will be, and your thoughts on it will be appreciated.

Plumbing.png

Comments on the parts:

Hose will be 1" all the way. Wire reinforced.

A: 1" blue max water filter, 80 mesh

B: 1" T with a ball valve connected to a garden hose for priming and also draining the tank

C: Ball valve for keeping prime when draining tank

D: 1" T for dual feeding pump

I want the setup to be as little restrictive as it can be. I notice some use a 3/4" feed to one side of the pump, but can I as well use 1" to both?

Sorry if my grammar lacks, but I guess you'll get it.

-Bjornar Nordhaug, Norway
 
The setup looks fine, 1 inch to both sides of the pump will work fine, I am running that right now on a 10 gpm pump.

Steel reinforced hoses are a little overkill, the suction from the tank is not that strong. I use a 1 inch general rubber water hose, have some 5 years old without a single problem in the truck.

What you are not showing us is how close you are keeping everything. You live in a cold climate as do I, are you putting the trailer in a warm location when not in use? If you are going to anti freeze the setup I would move A and B around so you can anti freeze the filter. Also keeping the runs short is in your better interest for freezing as well.

I have side doors on the trucks so I have keep all the pressure washer components and hoses near the front of the box and use the water tanks as a heat buffer. The water will hold heat and I find keeping everything close allows heaters to work better and your equipment to keep from freezing. I don't open the back doors unless I need to, helps keep the heat within the box and to keep things from freezing.
 
Thanks for the input Benjamin!

The wire reinforced hose is maybe a bit much, but if it still does the job I like it that way.

When it comes to the lenght of the feed line this will be about 4-6 ft. Thanks for the tip on moving the filter on the inside of the ballvalve. Up here I can run the machine from approx medio april to the end of october. Then I will need to winterize it with anti freeze.

Do you think the T connected to a garden hose for priming is a good idea, or should the pump just prime itself from the tank once I start the machine?
 
No need to prime as long as you have a foot or so of water in your buffer tank. IMO Dual feed really isn't necessary for 8 gpm as long as your feed line is 1" or larger. I feel the more connections in the feed line, the more chance for air leaking into the system causing possible cavitation of the pump. Again this is only my opinion, but we've been running like this for years with no problems.....We currently run five 8 gpm units.
 
Bjornar, your plumbing looks great, but I'd move the ball valve "C" and put it between the tank and strainer so you can shut the water off if a filter cleaning is needed.
 
That or just add an additional ball valve between the tank and filter/strainer.
 
Can I just throw a quick question in here, instead of starting a New thread. Will a 20 orifice nozzle stop my soap draw? Im going to have 200' of hose, the injector will sit at the inlet of my hose reel. Also, do most of you use a 3-5 or 5-8gpm injector when downstreaming with a 8gpm machine?
 
Bjoernar said:
Can I just throw a quick question in here, instead of starting a New thread. Will a 20 orifice nozzle stop my soap draw? Im going to have 200' of hose, the injector will sit at the inlet of my hose reel. Also, do most of you use a 3-5 or 5-8gpm injector when downstreaming with a 8gpm machine?
Click to expand...

with 200 feet of hose, use a 3-5 gpm injector. thats all I know. Get an injector bypass, you won't be sorry.
 
Thanks Ralph! Is it worth going from the back of a building to the trailer to open and shut the bypass each time? Is the flow that much higher?
 
Same here Bjornar. Look at the orifice within the injector body and compare it to the inside dia. of the hose or crimped fittings. Very noticeable difference if you're running an injector bypass.

Unless you install another ball valve at the injector(which isn't necessary), You will be pulling through both the injector and bypass when you open the bypass ball valve however, You will not pull chem.
 
I will be adding the ds-injektor bypass for sure then, thanks guys!

Also I wonder if a (or two) 5" x 1" inlet/outlet water filter will be to restritive on the flow to the machine? Will a 80 mesh strainer be okay?
 
Don't run a standard water filter on the system. You can run the larger strainers with a 80 mesh screen.
 
I was thinking about those big blue filters sitting on the feed line. Wondering if a 5" with 1" inlet/outlet will be to restrictive? I will not use those sitting on the inlet of the pump.
 
I use those filters on the inlet side of the pump, they are about 1' away from the inlet of the pump and I have a pvc ball valve between the tank and the filter so I can block the water to clean the filter.
I will be installing one of those filters between the hose reel and the inlet of the tank as there are a lot of bugs/grass and other types of trash that clog up the filter in the Hudson float valve that needs to be cleaned about every month so I am hoping this filter will be faster and easier to clean than climbing up on top of the trailer and opening the tank lid to reach in and un-thread the hudson float valve to remove it to clean it and then put it back in. Hoping the filter will keep the hudson float valve screen clean for a long time.
 
As long as it's the larger stainless mesh strainer, You will be fine. Just don't use the replaceable paper or cotton based filters.
 
Thanks guys! I have read someone saying it should be a 10" filter for those bigger gpm machines. So I will be using one or maybe two of these 5" filters then.

Thanks again lads!
 
I use the 5" with stainless screens for the 5.5, 5.6 and 8gpm machines and no issues, they all have the 1" inlet/outlet.
 
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