How To Solve Problems With Water Fed Pole Pumps and Air Locks
Nothing sends your blood pressure up, as quickly as the water pressure from your water fed pole going down. Many times, decreases water flow can be the start of a good half hour of about. Is it the pump, is it air trapped, the battery? If you don’t address the problem and elect to carry on working in spite of the pump problem then it will probably drive you mad within a few hours. So here is our guide on what symptoms to look out for and how to best overcome water fed pole pump problems with your pure water window cleaning system.
Symptom - water flow drops to half or less than its normal flow.
Action - Turn Ip your pump controller with the pole unplugged or turned off until the pressure switch kicks in. Plug the pole back in (or turn it back on). If the water is still slow then you may have a kink in the pipe. Even if you think that you haven’t, unravel the entire hose and try again. Also check that there are no kinks in the hose that connects the hose reel to the pump.
If the water comes out under greater pressure and then drops back down again to the half flow then the chances are that you have a block in the strainer. Check this first. If the strainer looks clean when you take it apart, then you may have a blockage in the tank outlet or the pipe that connects the tank to the pump.
Symptom - water flow and pump stops
Action - First check the battery. If the battery is fine the you may have a blockage in the hozelock aquastop fitting. This problem could also be caused by the controller needing to be calibrated. You will know that this is the case if the pressure switch has kicked in causing the pump to stop. This is often indicated by a letter ‘P’ being displayed on the controller. Follow the manufacturers instructions to calibrate your controller.
Most problems relate to air trapped in the pipe or pump. You can often sort this problem out by turning up your controller to run the pump at maximum speed for a short amount of time. Then turning off your brush and letting the pressure build before reconnecting the brush to let the water flow. Do this two or three times. Whilst the water is flowing you may see it splitter and then flow steady again. This is often an indication that the air lock is passing. If you can’t sort the problem of the air lock, then after a maximum of 10 minutes of trying, I would recommend disconnecting everything and starting from scratch. This will save time in the long run.
Occasionally you may get air trapped in the pump it’s self. This is worth remembering when planning out the installation of equipment in your vehicle. It may be ideal that you have the flexibility to have enough pipe connected to the pump and the option to be able to lift away the pump so that it can be turned upside down to help remove air locks.
Most other issues that you will get with pure water systems may relate to water and water quality. These can be prevented or detected early by monitoring the quality of your water using a TDS (Total Desolved Solids) Meter. You can pick up a TDS metre inexpensively read our HM TDS Metre Price guide here.
I usually reccoment carying a small selection of tools in your vehicle in case you hit any of the listed issues.