Welcome to the UK Window Cleaning Forums

Starting or own a window cleaning business? We're a network of window cleaners sharing advice, tips & experience. Rounds for sale & more. Join us today!

Have I bought a bad Pump/Battery combination?

Bernard

Member
Messages
33
OK I've just noticed something on the Pump and Battery I've bought, I need some advice.

I bought a...

"StreamBoard Shurflo Pump Kit 100psi with Digital Flow Controller SB100-SFC5"

Then to go with it, I bought a...

"12V 110AH Numax XV31MF Ultra Deep Cycle Leisure Marine Battery"

I've just noticed written on the pump (but no mention on the website I bought it from) that it says

"12 Volts 8amp Max"

I know next to nothing about electricity but is this pump with an '8amp max' safe to use with the 110ah battery?

Any advice would be great.

 
It should be fine

The 110ah refers to how long the battery should last

You should have an inline fuse which would blow if it was too high

A gardiners backpack has a 12ah battery for a pump rated at 8 amps it is just how long and how much the battery can supply before charging

 
I believe, though as said I may be corrected in a moment, that the 8amps max rating on the pump means that if you connect it without a controller and run it flat out and block the water flow with a tap that the maximum current it will draw just before the pressure switch cuts the power to the pump is 8 amps. However, a decent controller will limit the current supplied to the pump based on your setup and usage. So in reality your pump will not operate anywhere near 8 amps most of the time if at all. Even without a controller it shouldn't draw that much current in use.

I use a pump that is rated at 6.5amps max on my trolley if memory serves, and I get a solid day's use out of a 12v 7ah battery. I do have to charge every night though.

 
I am using a sureflow 100psi 5.2lpm pump with no controller as i bought a duff one and waiting for a replacement with 100m of microbore and still get 2 days out of an old backpack 12ah battery but charge it daily to be sure

You can run that off a car battery with no issues without a controller

As long as you have an inline fuse no harm will come whatever battery you use

 
Ah is amp hour. Running at 8 amps you'll get 13 hours in theory, however some energy is lost through heat etc and you should only really use about 40% of the battery if you want it to last. Around 6 hours ish before charging.

 
I've just got in and see other posters have answered this.

I don't think I have even seen our Shurflo pumps drawing more than 4.5 - 5.0 amps operating them normally with a flow controller. Williamson Pumps had a pdf document on their site once stating that the 100 psi pump would draw 6.2 amps at full output.

We all work differently but I estimate that on reasonably compact residential cleans we spend approx 50% of our working time actually cleaning glass. The rest of the time is taken up with hose management, wiping sills, drying doors, getting payment or writing out slips and occasionally talking to customers. That figure seems to tally with the amount of water we use at our flow settings.

So if we worked 6 hours then the most we would expect is 3 hours of pump running time. So we would use about 13.5 amps a pump.

If you start with a full charge of 110 amps on your own you would have 96 amps left. So in theory you will have enough charge for 8 days of 6 hour work before your battery is flat as @Solarpanelcleanington has noted.

But you want to keep your battery fully charged as often as possible. It will serve you well if you keep the charge above 75%. Son's 85 amph Numax battery is 6 years old and still going strong and SIL's was 5 years old when he sold his van.

My 110 Numax lasted for 4 years. It was still fine for a single operator, but I started to mistrust it on big jobs with both pumps running. Numax make a good battery, but beware, they don't give a warranty on their batteries if they find out you are a window cleaner. They lump all window cleaners together in the same pot and label us as battery abusers.

I have a 110 amp Oldham Leisure battery now which is 2 years old. What I like about the battery is that it isn't maintenance free - I can top it up with water as and when required. I haven't needed to do it yet. We have to wait and see if it lasts as long as the Numax did previously.

Also we sometimes forget that the winter cold is hard on batteries. They can loose up to 25% of their capacity because they are less efficient. We found it helps to lift the battery off the steel floor of the van. We use a thick piece of rubber conveyor belt cut to the size of the battery holder.

When I first started wfp I had an open trailer with the leisure battery on the draw bar open to the elements. I replaced that battery every year.

 

Latest Posts

Back
Top