Blower was sticky stuck

[GCCLee]

Was busy busy last week and we left for a mini vacation over the weekend so I half assed and just dumped the waste tank not cleaning the blower filter or any other maint.

First job yesterday morning and the blower was stuck, had some spray lube so I shot it down the pipe in the tank, let it sit a few minutes and it fired right up. Last night when I got home I did the hot soapy water trick and put a dab of lube in the hole. No weird noises or anything so... there was a nice nasty brown spot where I cleaned it out on the driveway : (


Is it common maint. to flush your blowers once in a while? Im at 93hrs now
Chris.

 

[bob vawter]

WTF ever tol you hot soapy water........SOAP is what yor trying to get RID of...........JHC...you kids kill me!

and put a dab of lube in the hole

WHAT HOLE???
i swear to god the end of the world CAN'T be far off.........

 

[Newman]

WTF ever tol you hot soapy water........SOAP is what yor trying to get RID of...........JHC...you kids kill me!

Please oh master and wise one - enlighten us not so smart ones on the proper blower flushing process.

 

[bob vawter]

not so smart ones

how many times i gotta tell yous yahoos the proper way....?
FIRST OF ALL.....slide the waste tank lid back enough to pull the SS filter up an' off the blower intake.........pour a gallon of hot clear water straight into the blower.........go have a coffee as it'll prolly take a half an hour to loosen up! 90% of the time this will fix the problem......once its spinning.......THEN take yor garden hose and kink it so as jus a little water is running thru at first..........slowly increase rate of flow till theres no soap coming out the blower exhaust at all......THEN let the blower spin 4 or 5 min till it's dry........then wd 40 into the filter opening for 15 sec or so..........put yor blower filter back on and slide the WT lid closed........
If this procedure doesn't loosen it up...you need to loosen up the end plate bolts a tad till it turns over....then tighten back up once its loose!
PUT THE DAMN PIPEWRENCH DOWN!!!!!

pray that you didn't put a flatspot on yor belts..........

 

[GCCLee]

So I was close, just minus the soap if it happens again. Fyi it was only a few drops of dawn in the hot water, wan't like I was trying to make a Gigantic Bubble Machine, lol
The Hole Bawb ya know (Blower Intake Tube) where the WD40 goes. Sure as heck din't try to put any liquids in the exhaust side, I know better!

Yea them belts have been abused : ) but it's a Dang Genie. Rock Solid Contraption I tell yuns. If it has survived a year with me then it is Good 2 Go : )
Changing belts this weekend Sir.

And Hey, atleast I didn't flip the switch and punch the gas pedal, sheesh

 

[bob vawter]

Dawn soap is for gulls .....loons...and ducks...don make me choose......lol!

pEE s


Gates green belts

 

[jcooper]

So Bob,

I know foam has got in my blower before(still works fine) should I flush it out once in a while?

 

[John Olson]

what machine jerry? A bigger issue is clogging your blower HX

 

[Lee Stockwell]

John Olson" data-source="post: 4229340" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch">

what machine jerry? A bigger issue is clogging your blower HX

Like a brick!

Speaking of experience with a half dozen Performer 405s.

Should be a slide out filter like on a clothes dryer.

 

[shadygrady]

What if you have a silencer and muffler after the blower, will you still be able to perge all the H2O

 

[bob vawter]

Holy Jehoshaphat.....what kinna third world country machines yous all running......all silencers that i seen have a drain plug on the bottom......being that as it may you can blow any water out in less than 10 min anyway.......
fellas....we ain't landing on the moon here....jus simple carpet cleaning

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Bawb most non-garage built HX machines have post-blower radiator type exchangers that wouldn't fare well with your advice.

 

[Shawn Forsythe]

Bawb's recommendations here should be followed by the disclaimer that for all blower manufacturers, and nearly all TM manufacturers, the practice of running water through the blower is INSANE.

Pneumatic blowers are air pumps, not water pumps. The density of water puts enormous stress on the blower and driving components doubling or tripling the load. As well, the flow of material is sure to clog any downstream heat exchangers present on said equipment. The units on which Bawb usually worked were overbuilt, and had no downstream exchanger. How do i know? I helped design them as former VP of R&D, Steam Genie, Inc. Therefore, his anecdotes were the luck of the fool.

Unsticking a blower is a simple task of manipulating the lobes directly, using wooden dowels and mallets. No wrench should ever be used to spin the blower shaft. You run the risk of either marring the shaft or breaking the lobe timing.

99% of blowers that are stuck, are so because ofthe failure of the user to adequately protect the lobes from excess moisture during drying, and/or inadequate filtration of particulate and detergent matter. If you get the blower to spin, it will clean with a small amount of penetrant oil and use. It is disuse and moisture that probably caused the problem.

 

[bob vawter]

lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala


uhhh Shawn....HTH do you get the "sticks" on the lobes of the blower...
cuz you an' i BOTH know you can't get the inlet/outlet nipples off the f***ing blower

jesus i think we have our 1st candidate for the looney bin........

'cides
shouldn't you be washing some binkys somewhurr....?

 

[GeneMiller]

I can't believe you stuck a blower with only 93 hrs on it. In 25 years I have never stuck a blower or cleaned one with water. I unused to squirt a blast of wd40 daily but gave that up years ago. I would guess that rust is the main reason blowers stick so I would avoid running soapy water through which would remove oil and probably cause rust, just saying.
I have one in my shed that I turn once a year and so far it has never been washed or stuck.

Gene

 

[jcooper]

what machine jerry? A bigger issue is clogging your blower HX

Sapphire 370... So generally, no cleaning of blower is needed?

If foam or a little water does get into blower, I always figured - run it til no more water comes out of the blower and put a lot of wd40(or like) into the blower lube tube. Would this be correct?

 

[bob vawter]

ya....wtf do i know.....
i only been spinnin' blowers for.....let's see.....

FORTY YEARS

 

[GCCLee]

Bawb ain't steered us wrong yet and trust me when I say I have asked plenty of questions. I think it was all that bong water I sucked up last week out of those rental units : )

 

[bob vawter]

note to Shawn.......wit all respect........i realize that yous has worked wit CC machines alot.......but considering age and ACTUALLY being ON the job.......WORKING......i would bet you that i've seen a LOT more blower RPM's than you....by a long shot!
what'ya think.......

and clean ups in aisle 3 don count!

 

[shadygrady]

Ya,Ya,Ya lightbulbman. FYI I run AQUA-TECH pto machines with Roots to Cowl Silencer to an automotive muffler which are all located beside or behind the drivers seat and exhausted thru the floor and under the van. There are no drains and the auto muffler is installed on its side, so it would be very difficult toevacuate any crud that was blown thru the system. I install the nipples on the blower only to hand tight, then seal with high-temp silicone for easy assembly/disassembly. Visual checks of the lobes when needed are easy.

 

[bob vawter]

Ya,Ya,Ya lightbulbman. FYI I run AQUA-TECH pto machines with Roots to Cowl Silencer to an automotive muffler which are all located beside or behind the drivers seat and exhausted thru the floor and under the van. There are no drains and the auto muffler is installed on its side, so it would be very difficult toevacuate any crud that was blown thru the system. I install the nipples on the blower only to hand tight, then seal with high-temp silicone for easy assembly/disassembly. Visual checks of the lobes when needed are easy.

how do you get crud into the blower......i propose that you don have an adequate filter system if yor getting crud into the blower

then seal with high-temp silicone for easy assembly/disassembly

Nick??

 

[shadygrady]

Waste tank has a SS filter with 3inch inlet to blower piping. Sorry, I thought you were suggesting this procedure for removing crud from blower wheras in re-reading it is only for stuck blowers. I have never had any issues ond only lube very infrequently The screening on filter catches any fine particulate that gets by the inlet filter basket.

 

[Shawn Forsythe]

note to Shawn.......wit all respect........i realize that yous has worked wit CC machines alot.......but considering age and ACTUALLY being ON the job.......WORKING......i would bet you that i've seen a LOT more blower RPM's than you....by a long shot!
what'ya think.......

and clean ups in aisle 3 don count!

On the contrary. Your experience is limited to yourself and the handful number of customers you have outfitted.
I dare say, that I have the accumulated experience of several thousand users who have purchased equipment that were designed under my tenure, as well as followed under my role as warranty service coordinator.

Furthermore, your grizzled nature tends to mischaracterize a great many attributes of your equipment (saying that you have built any that are "new", with all pre-owned and refurb used parts). It is consistent that you would also presume that your skills extend to equipment with included design elements you have never even seen, and which are sensitive to blower waste products.

Your experience is personal anecdote, as well is limited to a particular machine for which your advice may only partially apply(e.g. fools luck again). Your advice is wholly inapplicable to the other 99% of users who have equipment that would be likely be damaged (downstream HX) is just one example.

We had a mechanic who smoked like a fool, and was adamant that smoking is not unhealthful and would point to his own personal experience, and non-smokers lack of experience to comment in this regard. Furthermore, he contended that smoking near gasoline was completely safe (his evidence?, himself again). That would be the extent of your proof in this matter, as well.



A far better follow up for you would have been: "with all due respect, Shawn, I walk to the beat of a different drummer and prefer to do it my way, as opposed to the manner of which is recommended by blower and truckmount manufacturers. I know of no other way, and am always open to one that is safer and better"

 

[bob vawter]

parDON my lack of precisness Shawn but we WERE talking about a Steam Genie...a BRAND NEW GENIE to be absolutly correct...
jus because another manufacture decides to construct a qwagmire of hoses and belts and off the wall plumbin' has no bearing on what i was saying......
BTW i've been flushing blowers out since Methusellah was a baby..

and never had a problem because of the Steam Genies uniquic way of construction

and SHAME on you for building all them Genies "in a garage"..........

 

[Shawn Forsythe]

and SHAME on you for building all them Genies "in a garage"..........

You confuse Steam Genie with E Z Truck Mounts. Our 21,000 square feet bldg. on a 40,000 sq ft lot was a tad more than a parking spot.

 

[GCCLee]

All I know is if I had to disassemble the thing to get it going again on the job site, ida been pissed.

And if a blower can't handle a shot of H2O every once in a while, well thats a whole nother ball game of engineers vs the guys in the field saga.

I appreciate the pickle swinging contest though, makes for good banter on here
: )

Still suckin harder than the competition
View attachment 2426

 

[bob vawter]

Chris....if you're gonna let it sit for more than two or three days.....flow some clear water thru it to wash any soap that's gonna dry an' lock it up........you heard Shawn...

The units on which Bawb usually worked were overbuilt

 

[Lee Stockwell]

You've heard the expression "Rode hard and put away wet" with regard to horses. Likewise don't shut down a machine WET and then leave it for a long weekend.

Always let the machine "air itself out" at the end of the day after dumping the waste tank. Just let it run for a few minutes so the blower lobes dry.

 

[bob vawter]

......THEN let the blower spin 4 or 5 min till it's dry........then wd 40 into the filter opening for 15 sec or so..........

yaaa.......we have our FIRST volunteer





for the old folks home!

 

[bob vawter]

All I know is if I had to disassemble the thing to get it going again on the job site, ida been pissed.

And if a blower can't handle a shot of H2O every once in a while, well thats a whole nother ball game of engineers vs the guys in the field saga.

I appreciate the pickle swinging contest though, makes for good banter on here
: )

Still suckin harder than the competition
View attachment 2426

lookin' good Chris........