Some suggestions please (pump problem)

[Jim Martin]

pending on what size hose he has...put a hose barb at the end and screw in a foot valve...this type will filter and only allow the water to be sucked in and not siphon backwards and empty the line.....

 

[knoxclean]

Brand new pump yesterday. Still no water. Fred was wrong again.

 

[Jim Martin]

Brand new pump yesterday. Still no water. Fred was wrong again.

this could very well be nothing more then a simple gravity issue...take a 5 gallon bucket of water and set it on a shelf much higher then your pump put the end of the hose way down in it and see if it primes its self and takes off....if it does...then it goes right back to a foot valve to keep it from syphoning backwards....

unless there is something that you are missing or some one has totally screwed up that entire plumbing system ...there is no other explanation for this....

what is concerning about this is that from what I understand you did not have this problem until it blew a hose....

when it was replaced did anyone accidentally switch a line...

 

[Lee Stockwell]

I'm starting to agree with Larry

 

[Mikey P]

pending on what size hose he has...put a hose barb at the end and screw in a foot valve...this type will filter and only allow the water to be sucked in and not siphon backwards and empty the line.....

Doesnt Judson use those as vacuum relief valves?

 

[Jim Martin]

Doesnt Judson use those as vacuum relief valves?

I have no clue what he uses. ...

 

[dgardner]

Doesnt Judson use those as vacuum relief valves?

Yup...

 

[Mikey P]

so where exactly would that go in the plumbing?

 

[dgardner]

The one Jim showed is designed to go at the bottom of a well or sump, to prevent the water from emptying out of the vertical line up to the pump and losing prime. In our case it would go inside the fresh tank, with the pump inlet connected to the threaded end. The same thing is available with threaded connections on both ends if one wanted to install it inline.

 

[Blue Monarch]

Doesnt Judson use those as vacuum relief valves?

Yes, he does.

 

[FB19087]

Brand new pump yesterday. Still no water. Fred was wrong again.

No Fred isn't wrong. He gave you likely problems based on info you have given. The same likely problems Jim Martin has mentioned based on the same info.

Lets go back to the beginning here:

You blew a hose going from the pump to the heat exchanger.
You replaced that hose and the machine would no longer pump water.
You had the pump rebuilt and it still wouldn't pump water.
You took it to a distributor who suggested you have the pump looked at again.
You had the pump looked at by the guy who rebuilt it and he found nothing wrong.
You tested the pump feeding it directly and it worked fine.
On April 30th you say the problem was trash in the pump head and it is fixed..
Turns out it wasn't because om May 19th you say "OK I'm 3 weeks in with no water still. I need a suggestion from someone on where I can take this to fix it"

So what is the problem with the machine at this point? You have no water

I offer to come look at it and let you pay what you think is fair if I can find and fix the problem.

I arrived.and familiarized myself with the machine by going over the manual combined with a visual inspection. I removed the pump outlet hose, checked the inline filter, and went through the procedure of priming it from the waterbox. After a few minutes I had water pressure. I turned the unit off/on in different configurations to try and replicate the issue. I even opened up the supply side again to recheck the filter which would have caused it to lose prime. Looked it over for other issues/leaks and tightened the loose throttle. I showed Stacey exactly what I did so that she could show you. Then I made a little vid of the unit working to send to you:



Before I left I talked to you on the phone and said if you had any issues to contact me and I would return. Three weeks of issues later instead of contacting me you start posting in this thread again after the pump wouldn't pump water at all.

Tell me again how the **** I didn't fix the issue as it was known? How many ******* days should I have stayed to see if it eventually lost prime?

Now behind the scenes you're talking about what a dick I am because I said the possibility exist sthat you may have burned the pump up continuing to prime it over and over again? That I drove 4 hours each way just to make you look like an idiot....REALLY?

 

[Desk Jockey]

They said this was supposed to be a simple machine whuut happened?

Did Larry leave the country? He usually jumps right in to offer advice.
Maybe Cobb's service department could be of assistance. They do have one don't they?

At the very least someone needs to tell Larry his ass is hanging out on this one.

 

[FB19087]

It IS a simple machine. Solidly built too.

It is my understanding that the folks at Cobb's are helping him behind the scenes.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Good! It seemed strange the was nothing said from their camp.

 

[Blue Monarch]

Simple things can be such a PITA sometimes. Frustrating.

 

[BradFenstermaker]

There's no behind the scenes talk Except I said Fred sure sounds like a Big Prick toward you after repairing your machine on the board to David WTH? You come on here calling everyone in his biz idiots! Not everyone knows every damn thing like you about mechanical stuff. It's not a conspiracy trying to fix it himself for a few weeks. He knows your 4 hrs away.

And then I asked Mikey why your being a Dick the other day win he called me by accident. Sounds like there's behind the scenes BS talk on your side of the fence if where keeping track. That's all that has been said.

I don't recall David calling you a Dick to me. Do you make it a habit to talk smack about anybody that gets your help?

Long story short his machine is still down. Let's focus on what can fix it

 

[FB19087]

WTF does this have to do with you? You have no idea what has been said elsewhere.

 

[Mikey P]

Can we keep this on the technical level.


Brad is good buds with David so I'm know he is getting half the story. You two going at it here isn't going to help a damn thing.

 

[BradFenstermaker]

10-4 Mikey sorry for my expressions. I couldnt stay quiet any longer. Your right David is my good friend and he needs his truck fixed.

 

[BradFenstermaker]

Are the two half's of the story All that different??

 

[GeneMiller]

I got a little lizard jammed in my water feed hose once.

I'm ashamed to admit I removed the pump before I found it.

One of my guesses for that reason.. It would fill so slowly the machine would shut off and I would loose water pressure. I don't remember but I don't think it had a low water shut off. It happened my first week of cleaning. My supplier found it. Thankful there was a inlet screen.

Gene

 

[Mikey P]

Are the two half's of the story All that different??

well...the fact that Dave thinks the only reason Fred went up there was to prove that he is smarter than Dave, tells me something.



Fred never even reported back on the issue until three weeks later when Dave says it's broken again.


Sure Fred could use some help with his bedside manners, but I know he did what Dave paid him to do. If Dave wanted Fred to go run the truck for a week to make sure that his fix was permanent than he should have written that into the contract.



I worry that with Dave's now set in stone ungrateful reputation, he may need to start training his guys to deep clean with Kirbys.

 

[GeneMiller]

I know lots of guys who can't fix there machine and I do understand. However I'm a firm believer you need to learn and understand how they work and be able to fix them. To many thing to go wrong that are easily fixed in the field. Perfect example was Yesterday when I had my helper take out the tank drain. He couldnt figure out how. I left him alone for a while to see what would happen. He tried to dig out the polyurethane caulk using a five in one. I ran two inch PVC through and caulked it in solid. After about 30 minutes I handed him the 2 ft pipe wrench and showed him how a little twist breaks it loose. What's easy and obvious to one isn't to another.
This job seems to beg for a jack of all trade type.
Gene

 

[ronbeatty]

You cannot rely on distributors or manufacturers. The machines we run are designed on computers in air conditioned offices, most of the time they are not run in real life until they are sold to us. If you want to operate a carpet cleaning business with a truck mount you better know how to hold a wrench.

 

[JS41035]

That machine should have had a cat pump. Or a transfer pump.

 

[Mikey P]

Why would a Cat be better over the Gp?

 

[Jim Martin]

You cannot rely on distributors or manufacturers. The machines we run are designed on computers in air conditioned offices, most of the time they are not run in real life until they are sold to us. If you want to operate a carpet cleaning business with a truck mount you better know how to hold a wrench.

what ever machine you like ....you don't have to learn how to break down and rebuild the engine...but take the time to at least learn the process of how it works and the basics.......it is not even funny how much time and money this will save you in the long run...there is a large percentage of people that call them selfs mechanics that are more suited for sitting in a cubical at a call center...and your getting charged big bucks and holding your breath in hopes that they are actually fixing your problem....then there is the google mechanics...lack of experience and think they know everything and make shit 100 times more complicated then it needs to be...because everything has to be precise off of some random chart that is only accurate for what ever process that someone did and not for the ton of variables that are out there in reality land....... theses are the worst ........

and then the perfect example of what is going on in this thread...Dave who admits he has no mechanical skills..nor has any desire to learn them...comes on here and describes the best he can to people a bazillion miles away..problems he is having with his machine.....so people have to decipher what he is describing...and with out physically standing in front of the machine..fix it.....

so now you have 8 people processing what they think he is describing...9 people googling it and a chart....20 people reaching around and pulling something out there ass...3 arguments...8 pissed off people...a handful of misunderstandings...and still after all this time....its still not working.....and it is probably something so stupid and simple that if he would just learn the basic process of his machine and basic mechanics......it would probably be already fixed..............

 

[knoxclean]

Jim you are right and over the past month I learned more about this machine then I want to know. I find it odd that I take heat for not being able to figure out the problem when 2 tm distributors have had it in their shop and can't figure it out and yes I have been through every scenario with Cobbs serviced dept at least 5 times trouble shooting ideas while on the phone. Ray and Larry have been very helpful and are always there to answer questions. Thing is I don't want to know what or why. There are more important things to do. Once we try all the basics on a tm that needs service and can't figure it out we just take somewhere and to fix it, Done end of story and we go do what we do best, make money and build a business I'm at my shop maybe 20 hours a week and problems like this I just want to take it somewhere and have it fixed. It shouldn't consume so much of my time. I appreciate all the suggestions and some sound good but without seeing what is really going on you can't offer a real guess as to how to fix it. The problem is not that it will not prime (although it won't most time) sometimes it will but won't last. In the end I'll find someone that just by sheer luck will stumble across a fix.

Last year I had a new heat and air system put in my house and from day one it didn't work. The company installing it could not figure it out so the manufacture had 4 service companies out before this one guy who looked about as Redneck and backwards as could be figured out that a tiny valve in the copper line going to the air handler in the attic was not opening to let the Freon flow through to the system. This is just how the tm situation will play out. A simple fix hiding in plain sight.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Once we try all the basics on a tm that needs service and can't figure it out we just take somewhere and to fix it, Done end of story and we go do what we do best, make money and build a business I'm at my shop maybe 20 hours a week and problems like this I just want to take it somewhere and have it fixed. It shouldn't consume so much of my time.

That's how we handle it. Fix the easy and obvious but we are not mechanics. I don't want one of my cleaners trying to be one. Let them do what they do best and pay the mechanics to do what they do best.

 

[Jim Martin]

That's how we handle it. Fix the easy and obvious but we are not mechanics. I don't want one of my cleaners trying to be one. Let them do what they do best and pay the mechanics to do what they do best.

I would not want my cleaner to be one either...it is not there responsibility...as the owners..it is ours.....we can learn the basics...and know the things to look for...or we can waste a lot of money and hope the " mechanic " knows what they are doing ......