Did I buy a f#*%king lemon?

Ron K

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My Mastermatic would fire (growl) blue smoke, when water was flowing K1 was burning and Temperature was below setting on Thermostat. Enough water had to flow to make the ignitor ignite and heat water, that's why Steamway hand tools had a pin hole in the copper supply line encased in the vacuum hose.So water was always flowing. Cooling down the coil to a tolerance and then heating it up. Never had a problem with over heating.
 

rwcarpet

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Robert Hodge
You could also use a warm up/hot water hose just flowing on the ground so that you have hot water for the upholstery tool. Steamway had one real easy to make yourself I don't have one anymore maybe someone could share a picture.
Also You really need a manual and some lessons.
Steamway had "Henry" he could diagnose anything over the phone.

Henry and I had a close relationship. Usually weekly, between my Powermatic and my Mastermatic......especially the Mastermatic. Mine was one of the first MM's.
Great hot machines when running well, headaches when not.
 

Hack Attack

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fuel burners and plastic tools. sigh..
20180707_131805.jpg
 
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Scott Turknett
Bob savage touched on it. There are different flow switches for different volumes to control on and off. It comes with a pressure washing high flow switch new because that is the industry the burner comes from and a carpet wand can just barely flow enough to make it go. But an upholstery tool doesn’t, so it actuates a safety and kills pressure. Get a lower flow “flow switch” in it.
 

Hack Attack

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You could also use a warm up/hot water hose just flowing on the ground so that you have hot water for the upholstery tool. Steamway had one real easy to make yourself I don't have one anymore maybe someone could share a picture.
Also You really need a manual and some lessons.
Steamway had "Henry" he could diagnose anything over the phone.
this is easy to do

put a line splitter off your main water out connection

1 side feeds your main solution line

the other side is a short courtesy hose for mixing chems with hotwater, and left open a crack to discharge hotwater onto ground and keep water flowing
 
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jack zerkie
this is easy to do

put a line splitter off your main water out connection

1 side feeds your main solution line

the other side is a short courtesy hose for mixing chems with hotwater, and left open a crack to discharge hotwater onto ground and keep water flowing
Be very careful where the Hot water is draining while your working. lots of damage from the hot water to unknown areas.
 

Kenny Hayes

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I can see how innocent dreamers like Stockwell, Vawter and Boyle fell for it
I fell for it, but only in a porty sorta way. Added the little giant on it to get the heat. At least I didn’t try to make it my truckmount. Had since 97 and still works.
 
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Steve Lawrence
Ok thank you. So now I know exactly what the unloader does, new question, is it necessary for the machine to run properly? If I were to remove it would it cause me trouble in any way?
Yes, unloaders are necessary. Without it your pump would break from overworking (no place for the pressurized water to go.)
 
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We are looking at a Butler that had it's hx removed and replaced with a burner system...why in the world? If we get it we have a couple of Graham HX to put back.
When my Ballweber tube heat exchangers went REALLY bad we bought a couple Graham Heliflow heat exchangers that were GREAT. Lotsa heat and very little resistance and NEVER a repair!
 
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Lee Stockwell
Whats a Graham hear ex'r? Never heard of them.
Used in other industries for many decades. Almost round, about 18" diameter by 10" thick, two piece cast iron housings bolt together.

Inside: the solution goes through copper coils, but not a single continuous tube. Instead it splits into several parallel tubes and then back to one at exit.
 

Anthony E

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Back with some more problems. I was cleaning again recently and my TM just started bogging down intensely. I’d try starting it back up and it would crank but wouldn’t turn over, or it would turn and bog right back down. I’ll post a video. Took it in to get looked at and the mechanic ran it for an hour with no issues. (Story of my life) So I take it back to finish my work, it starts right up and runs like a champ. I turn the heat up to 220 and start hearing a loud booming when I held the wand trigger down (sounded like a subwoofer in a car). So I’m guessing that’s a bad pilot light not igniting the gas instantly and instead letting it build up. Obviously I need to fix this, but would this cause any immediate problems if I continued using it in this condition?

I’m scared that if the pilot light gets worse it could cause an explosion haha
 
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Cleanworks

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This is the machine bogging down, no booming in this.

View attachment 100736
Sounds like it's not getting enough fuel. Your heater won't cause any major problems. It'll just burn your van down or maybe the house you're cleaning. Have your truck mount guy check it out. There is no pilot light on those as far as I know. It works on a spark igniter system. You need to have sufficient voltage and the system has to be sparking efficiently. You engine needs to always run at the recommended rpm to provide enough current.
 

Zee

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.
Choke on?
It could be vapor locking in these hot days....


Loud boom? Gas? I thought it was a diesel burner...there is no pilot flame.
I wouldn't run the machine set at 220. Not needed, mainly because of the dial usually being inaccurate. It could be running much hotter...
 
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Hack Attack

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The bogging down as mentioned sounds like a fuel problem or possibly a blocked vacuum filter

More likely the fuel as a blocked filter wouldnt be intermittant
 

Anthony E

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Anthony Edwards
Choke on?
It could be vapor locking in these hot days....


Loud boom? Gas? I thought it was a diesel burner...there is no pilot flame.
I wouldn't run the machine set at 220. Not needed, mainly because of the dial usually being inaccurate. It could be running much hotter...
Is there a choke on Diablo machines? Still figuring things out. Well, it’s a series of loud booms. Like multiple in a row. I didn’t know it wasn’t a pilot light, I just assumed that’s what was lighting the fuel, so thanks for letting me know! Didn’t know the knobs were inaccurate either, so I’ll probably just run it at 200 from now on.
 

Cleanworks

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Is there a choke on Diablo machines? Still figuring things out. Well, it’s a series of loud booms. Like multiple in a row. I didn’t know it wasn’t a pilot light, I just assumed that’s what was lighting the fuel, so thanks for letting me know! Didn’t know the knobs were inaccurate either, so I’ll probably just run it at 200 from now on.
You need to know these things. There should be a choke on your machine. Now that I know that you don't know, it sounds like you're starting it with the choke on but not pushing it back in. Which is why it runs great for your mechanic. You usually pull out the choke to start and push bit back in when it has started.
 

Anthony E

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Anthony Edwards
Sounds like it's not getting enough fuel. Your heater won't cause any major problems. It'll just burn your van down or maybe the house you're cleaning. Have your truck mount guy check it out. There is no pilot light on those as far as I know. It works on a spark igniter system. You need to have sufficient voltage and the system has to be sparking efficiently. You engine needs to always run at the recommended rpm to provide enough current.
Hahaha great. Ok thanks for letting me know that it’s not a pilot light. I’m gonna try running it again with less heat. Is it possible that since I had it too high it was pumping in too much fuel for the igniter to keep up with? I didn’t have that problem before and it was my first time trying the machine with that much heat. Or the voltage thing being too low and since I was just having issues with the motor that would make perfect sense.
 

Cleanworks

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I'm just looking at the engine they use and see that newer models have electronic fuel injection. In that case, there's probably no choke. If it's carbureted, it has a choke.
 

Anthony E

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You need to know these things. There should be a choke on your machine. Now that I know that you don't know, it sounds like you're starting it with the choke on but not pushing it back in. Which is why it runs great for your mechanic. You usually pull out the choke to start and push bit back in when it has started.
God damn it. The guy I bought it from didn’t mention a single thing about it. He knew I’m completely new to this and have never used a TM before and the dude runs an entire fleet, and when I asked him the steps to starting up and running the machine it was never mentioned. I’ve seen so many different machines on YouTube where they pull the choke out and push it back in after starting but there’s no clear indication of one on my machine, so I assumed it didn’t have one
 

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