Calibration and flow rate

hi all,

Not long ago I bought a pump and flow controller from Gardiners, set up a system using microbore hose.

has worked with no complaints on a setting of 50.

Two things bother me though, one is that it auto calibrates at 19, which seems very low and also the flow rate at 50 is only putting out 1 litre a minute.

Looking at other cleaning vids etc they seem to have a stronger flow, 

My system does DE but seems to take a while to do this.

All may be ok! just thought i'd ask if anyone sees any obvious errors?

Thanks.

Theoc said:

hi all,

Not long ago I bought a pump and flow controller from Gardiners, set up a system using microbore hose.

has worked with no complaints on a setting of 50.

Two things bother me though, one is that it auto calibrates at 19, which seems very low and also the flow rate at 50 is only putting out 1 litre a minute.

Looking at other cleaning vids etc they seem to have a stronger flow, 

My system does DE but seems to take a while to do this.

All may be ok! just thought i'd ask if anyone sees any obvious errors?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Good morning

First thing to say is that each system will have a different calibration value. This could be due to the pump, Hose ID, How much hose, different hose makers and a host of other factors. For example 50 meters of 6mm micro bore would cal differently when compared to 50 meters of 6mm mini bore.

2nd before running auto cal set the flow rate to 50. ( Cal can be run at any flow rate, we just use 30 as a common start point)

This will give a more accurate cal value and the control will likely DE the pump a little quicker.

In terms of the flow to the brush the and without getting to deep into flow and pressure dynamics any hose will have a maximum carrying capacity. Also any hose connectors, Changes in hose ID, valves and brush jets will have an impact on the amount of water that reaches the brush will vary.

The question here would be " Is 1 LPM allowing you to work the way you want " In the end there is a balance between having enough water to do what you need efficiently.

The max LPM rate shown on the pump label for example 5.2LPM, would be the maximum flow at the pump out with no nose, no restrictions at all and the pump working at 100% efficiency. This means the moment a hose is connected or we introduce a restriction this will go down. 

http://springltd.co/blog/84/flow-resistance-and-volume

http://springltd.co/blog/49/water-dynamics-within-water-fed-pole-systems

Your set up with the 6mm hose will probably give a max of 2 LPM at the brush with the controller set to around 80.

The pump controller is very flexible and means the pump will produce only the water you need for each job.  

We find a noticable difference in flow rate between 6mm microbore and 8mm minibore hose with the same controller, pump and water temperature @Theoc(We have 2 reels on the van, one with minibore and the other with microbore.)

This is understandable as the microbore is half the internal volume of the minibore.

Many years ago I had a pressure guage on my system and found that I could happily work with approx 2lpm of flow with the controller dead end set at a calibration value that translated to 55psi. We were using (and still use) 100psi Shurflo pumps with 100m of minibore hose most of which was still coiled up on the hose reel.

That’s brilliant thanks very much.

fully explained and I understand it now.

Actually I do have enough water, works ok for me and no complaints from customers so happy days.

brilliant device - a tank can now last me two days on regular cleaning.

 Thanks for your help.