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!

Varistream Flow Problem....

Messages
293
Location
Essex
As title suggests, I seem to have a flow problem on my Varistream digital controller.

I normally work on position (3), and went to do a 'first clean' the other day and tried to increase flow to position (5).

As soon as I increased to (4) or (5) it seems to keep pressurising (p) and interrupts the flow so drastically that it keeps turning the flow on/off, and hence defeating the point.

Obviously, I can carry on using on position (3), but somewhats defeats the point of having a contoller to increase/decrease flow.

Any suggestions/advice greatfully received!

 
Yes you can Tuffers - if it is a Varistream. The O/P needs to tell us what model it is. (No he doesn't - its a digital one as I reread the initial post - sorry.)

The first analogue models had an adjustment pot on the circuit board. You had to carefully remove the front panel with the 4 screws and 'prise' it open. There is a blue adjustment pot. Using a small screwdriver in the slot, turn it up in the dirction in the increasing letters to increase cut out pressure.

If its the later digital one, he needs to switch the controller on with the water flowing. He then must then press both the + and - buttons simultaneously for around 3 seconds. If he hasn't done this before it's likely that a letter 'C' will come up. He then needs to press both + and - again simultaneously again for about 3 secs and the letter will start to flash. He needs to then press the + button a couple of times and the letter/or number will get higher.

Switch the controller off. It will store the higher adjustment. He would then switch the controller on again and increase the flow to 4 or 5 and if the same pulsing occurs, he needs to redo the process and raise the cut out pressure a little more.

The contoller usually comes preset from the factory on pressure setting 'C'.

Pressure setting range is 1 - 9 then A - F. 1 is the lowest pressure setting and F is the highest.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Great detailed advice thanks Spruce. Will have a play about and let you know if it does the trick- thanks mate!
Hmmm....! Tried your advice today Spruce with trying to calibrate my digital Varistream today- unfortunately didn't seem to work.

Held +\- for 3 secs as suggested while water flowing.

Number 8 showed and began flashing(I assume this is what it had been previously programmed to calibrate to?). Adjusted the number to 6, and turned off. When switched on again adjusted from my normal 'working' flow (3) up to (5), but again as soon as gets above (4) it keeps cutting in and out.

Repeated process as above, but tried calibrating to max(9), same result.

Any suggestions/ideas mate?

 
Hmmm....! Tried your advice today Spruce with trying to calibrate my digital Varistream today- unfortunately didn't seem to work.
Held +\- for 3 secs as suggested while water flowing.

Number 8 showed and began flashing(I assume this is what it had been previously programmed to calibrate to?). Adjusted the number to 6, and turned off. When switched on again adjusted from my normal 'working' flow (3) up to (5), but again as soon as gets above (4) it keeps cutting in and out.

Repeated process as above, but tried calibrating to max(9), same result.

Any suggestions/ideas mate?

You will need to start again but raise the figure to C. Going from 8 to 6 is the wrong way so the outcome will be worse. It sounds as though you got it to work so you are the right track.

It will go 6 then 7, 8, 9, A, B, C. We usually run C during the summer and D during the winter.

You will find you have to push both + and - at exactly the same time. Once 6 comes up then leave it a couple of secs and press those + and - buttons again. It's only then that the number will flash and you raise it using the + button.

It works, trust me! It just takes a bit of practice. We've been doing it for years now and sometimes we battle to get the pressing of those buttons right, especially as both our controllers are not in the best place to make this adjustment easily.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Nice one spruce

Glad i'm not the only one who has to alter the settings due to climate, i seemed to be chewing through my water the other week on settings 9 and 4

So had a mess and after a couple of settings settled for B and 3, the flow rate looked nearly identical but water consumption went right down!!!!! Makes no sense but it works lol

I bet in march i'll need to fettle again lol

I think how fresh your resin has a part to play too, when my resin is new, whilst packing up and unclicking the hozelock to my reel the back pressure is sky high, but as it gets older the back pressure seems to reduce.

P.s. Shine......when you adjust up to A,B,C or higher you may notice that when you switch your water back on after stopping for a bit for a natter or a brew it will come out alot faster for few seconds, it can be a pain if you dont take it into consideration, splashing everywhere lol

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Oh yeah, do you have plastic or brass hozelock connectors? I found the plastic ones blow off when going up the alphabet

 
You will need to start again but raise the figure to C. Going from 8 to 6 is the wrong way so the outcome will be worse. It sounds as though you got it to work so you are the right track.It will go 6 then 7, 8, 9, A, B, C. We usually run C during the summer and D during the winter.

You will find you have to push both + and - at exactly the same time. Once 6 comes up then leave it a couple of secs and press those + and - buttons again. It's only then that the number will flash and you raise it using the + button.

It works, trust me! It just takes a bit of practice. We've been doing it for years now and sometimes we battle to get the pressing of those buttons right, especially as both our controllers are not in the best place to make this adjustment easily.
so just out of interest then Spruce, do you mean that u don't use any of the 'numbered' settings and just © for summer and (d) for winter?
I've yet to play about with adjusting the settings, I suppose I've just got used a setting and stick to it and only noticed a problem when trying to adjust....

 
If you use the numbered settings, you will find that at low flow rates it works fine.....nice steady flow

But when you go up the settings the flow rate out of the jets will flow ok till the pressure in the di drops, the pump will kick in but will then stop quite quickly too, so it will look like you're running out of water.

Also rinsing will take a lot longer and will be hit and miss on quality

 
so just out of interest then Spruce, do you mean that u don't use any of the 'numbered' settings and just © for summer and (d) for winter?
I've yet to play about with adjusting the settings, I suppose I've just got used a setting and stick to it and only noticed a problem when trying to adjust....
I like to run the Varistream at 5 as its great for rinsing, but I do waste water on the scrubbing phase. Hence the higher pressure setting. Williamson Pumps have the Varistream setup to work with a 100 psi Shurflo Pump and their standard factory setting is C.

I can't understand why it would be set so low TBH. The only advantage to a lower pressure setting is that it does reduce battery useage, but I can't imagine the saving being that great.

I also can't undertand the design reasoning as to why they have so many pressure settings but fewer flow settings. When I built my first 2 man setup, the old analogue Varistreams were no longer available so I fitted two digitals units. Where the analogue units had what appears to be an infinite range of flow setting, the digital ones didn't. To begin with I used setting 3 which I felt was too slow but 4 was too fast.

As we didn't have a 'bottomless pit' of pure water, especially in winter, wasting water was a no no. So I stuck with 3.

Now the old 450 GPD r/o has been replaced with a 4040, there is plenty of water for the 3 of us, so I tollerate a little waste and find I do get the same job done quicker although I use more water in the process.

 
Well thanks for all your advice Spruce and Kier.

Managed to adjust pressure settings relatively successfully today after changing my resin.

Plastic hozelock connectors haven't blown off(yet!), but will keep my eye on that.

I adjusted it from (6) up to (d) for the winter and will see how that goes for now. Straight away I was able to adjust the Varistream from (3) to (4) once set without cutting in and out, although it still doesn't seem to like (5) for some reason?

Bit more fiddling probably required- higher or lower guys what do you think? (shout out to Mr. Forsythe!).

 
I adjusted it from (6) up to (d) for the winter and will see how that goes for now. Straight away I was able to adjust the Varistream from (3) to (4) once set without cutting in and out, although it still doesn't seem to like (5) for some reason?

Any thoughts....?

 
Well thanks for all your advice Spruce and Kier.
Managed to adjust pressure settings relatively successfully today after changing my resin.

Plastic hozelock connectors haven't blown off(yet!), but will keep my eye on that.

I adjusted it from (6) up to (d) for the winter and will see how that goes for now. Straight away I was able to adjust the Varistream from (3) to (4) once set without cutting in and out, although it still doesn't seem to like (5) for some reason?

Bit more fiddling probably required- higher or lower guys what do you think? (shout out to Mr. Forsythe!).
You could push it up to E.

But like anything, the pump can only do so much. All our pump does is pumps through 100m of minibore hose and 2mm jets in the brush head. Microbore is small and will create more resistance. Pushing water through a di vessel will also add another obstruction.

As I mentioned on another post, I had warm water pumping through my system yesterday. The water in the tank is 9 degrees and the water after the pump was warmed to 35 degrees. Flow 5 on the Varistream had the water shooting out across the road with the pole lying on it's back on the drive way. I have never seen that before.

 
Have you tried running it without the hose connected to the reel to see what the pump does? I do this to fill my bucket up sometimes and whack it up to 9 to speed up the process. It shouldn't struggle or cut out when its on D i wouldn't of thought

 
Have you tried running it without the hose connected to the reel to see what the pump does? I do this to fill my bucket up sometimes and whack it up to 9 to speed up the process. It shouldn't struggle or cut out when its on D i wouldn't of thought

I got a feeling that a di vessel is involved in the equation.

 
Yeah i was thinking the same thing brains....i would do a split type diagnosis, do as i posted above, then check the flow on various settings, then disconnect the hose into the di and do the same. Basically remove all possible restrictions

Spruce if the top cup/basket came unglued on the tube inside the di could that affect the pressure running through and out of it?

Mine did the other month but its always been that way but what it also did was horribly contaminate the output water, but that didn't happen till after over a year of using it

 
Back
Top