We've been buying, and replacing when rupturing, the cheapest 75 or 100 foot continuous pressure hoses on the market rated at 4000 PSI. The 75s are limited but that's the ideal length for us as we fork lift our equipment setups (we have two) to the middle of our work area and do our work 50 feet east and 50 feet west; 4 feet north, 4 feet south; and 30" vertically. I see these in my sleep we do them so often as do most fish hatcheries.
Sometimes the forklift goes away for other projects while one person sprays this 8X100X30" concrete raceway and this generally works very well for us. Our water supply for each is a plumbed 330 gallon IBC tote with no continuous water connection. So our entire equipment set up is completely mobile. Basically, we move everything in one trip, just like a trailer, van, or flatbed setup, but we don't have to worry about rolling out and back up an inlet hose. We fill the tank in less than five minutes, move our set up, remove screens, block off running water, open the raceway drain valve, unroll the pressure hose, start up and start spraying. We do this same project at 104 locations over 200 times per year. There are five us who share this task but two are much faster including yours truly, so the two best spend many hours per month spraying. The two fastest can always complete a raceway with one tank of water, but I've got six foot whips on the outlet end of the reel in case someone needs to refill while working the same raceway, which saves rollup and rollout. We fill up the tank with an 80gpm pump with 2" hose. Overall, compared to what other hatcheries are doing, for the amount of algae we deal with, we have the smoothest and most efficient system out there that I can find, at least with respect to the Feds. The best I can tell, from watching other hatcheries, we can pickup, refill, and reset faster than dealing with rolling out and up inlet hoses along various spigot locations. Our forklift could handle a 450 gallon tank and a 5.5 gpm would make us even faster, but I've been lucky to have gotten the 4/4000, belt drives that we've got. One has to keep in mind; we're gov't; labor is sort of fixed; equipment purchases compete with each other more than time efficiency, and so productivity does not have the same priority as the business world; but we're production, and that makes us an odd sort of operation, as very few gov't operations are production. Since growing fish drives our work, we have to be at least somewhat productive, but not to the level you guys understand it.
Usually, I have to prove to the supervisors over time,how spending more on equipment that supports operations is important to meeting station goals. It's a different mindset. I come from retail. So my mindset is different.
Now for our problem. Our hoses had been lasting a year or so, but we bought one two months ago that just ruptured. It already had abrasions sporadically throughout the length where the wire showed through and so I wasn't surprised. We have not been abusing them; just pulling and dragging as necessary. I just replaced two whips; same problem; wearing from the outside, but the whips have lasted over a year. Don't know if our last roll was wimpy-er and don't know anything about brands and types. We have to drag our hoses along pavement and concrete. I figured all the gray hoses were pretty standard quality, but I don't know now.
We don't care about marking or extra inner protection; ours always wear the covering off from abrasion, so I don't know if higher PSI rating would help. The whips rub/vibrate against equipment. I put duct tape on our new whips. Anything thicker will impede rollup on reel.
What's the toughest type of hose against abrasion that's not got much larger diameter? Spending more fore hoses that last would save us time and money.
Any other tips?
Sometimes the forklift goes away for other projects while one person sprays this 8X100X30" concrete raceway and this generally works very well for us. Our water supply for each is a plumbed 330 gallon IBC tote with no continuous water connection. So our entire equipment set up is completely mobile. Basically, we move everything in one trip, just like a trailer, van, or flatbed setup, but we don't have to worry about rolling out and back up an inlet hose. We fill the tank in less than five minutes, move our set up, remove screens, block off running water, open the raceway drain valve, unroll the pressure hose, start up and start spraying. We do this same project at 104 locations over 200 times per year. There are five us who share this task but two are much faster including yours truly, so the two best spend many hours per month spraying. The two fastest can always complete a raceway with one tank of water, but I've got six foot whips on the outlet end of the reel in case someone needs to refill while working the same raceway, which saves rollup and rollout. We fill up the tank with an 80gpm pump with 2" hose. Overall, compared to what other hatcheries are doing, for the amount of algae we deal with, we have the smoothest and most efficient system out there that I can find, at least with respect to the Feds. The best I can tell, from watching other hatcheries, we can pickup, refill, and reset faster than dealing with rolling out and up inlet hoses along various spigot locations. Our forklift could handle a 450 gallon tank and a 5.5 gpm would make us even faster, but I've been lucky to have gotten the 4/4000, belt drives that we've got. One has to keep in mind; we're gov't; labor is sort of fixed; equipment purchases compete with each other more than time efficiency, and so productivity does not have the same priority as the business world; but we're production, and that makes us an odd sort of operation, as very few gov't operations are production. Since growing fish drives our work, we have to be at least somewhat productive, but not to the level you guys understand it.
Usually, I have to prove to the supervisors over time,how spending more on equipment that supports operations is important to meeting station goals. It's a different mindset. I come from retail. So my mindset is different.
Now for our problem. Our hoses had been lasting a year or so, but we bought one two months ago that just ruptured. It already had abrasions sporadically throughout the length where the wire showed through and so I wasn't surprised. We have not been abusing them; just pulling and dragging as necessary. I just replaced two whips; same problem; wearing from the outside, but the whips have lasted over a year. Don't know if our last roll was wimpy-er and don't know anything about brands and types. We have to drag our hoses along pavement and concrete. I figured all the gray hoses were pretty standard quality, but I don't know now.
We don't care about marking or extra inner protection; ours always wear the covering off from abrasion, so I don't know if higher PSI rating would help. The whips rub/vibrate against equipment. I put duct tape on our new whips. Anything thicker will impede rollup on reel.
What's the toughest type of hose against abrasion that's not got much larger diameter? Spending more fore hoses that last would save us time and money.
Any other tips?
