Hi everyone, I’m new to the pressure washing game. Getting my first rig set up and testing it out.
I have 135gal buffer tank with a float valve at 100gal. 2inch outlet that goes down to 5/8 at the pump. Pump is 4gpm 42000psi.
I did a test and my outlet is only giving me about 2gpm at the pump. Is this a problem? I was worried about making the pump pull in the water, and also about priming the pump.
Do I need to raise the tank, or get a bigger one?
Thanks in advance!
Is your tank vented adequately? When I setup my buffer tank, I initially was getting like 3-4gpm gravity fed. I realized my vent was too small. So I opened up a larger port on the top and put window screen over it to keep out the debris. That resulted in 7-8gpm free flow. I even tested what my pump was actually being fed by removing the inlet plug on the other side of the pump, and measured the flow from there. Probably overkill, but this was my first setup, and I wasn’t taking any chances, lol.
If your vent is too small, you’ll be able to hear it sucking in the air if you get close enough to it.
You really want 5+ gpm of free flow coming from your tank.
Oh, and for reference, my buffer is a 55 gallon drum, that fills to about 50 gallons with the Hudson float valve. I got that full flow of 7-8 gpm with the drum only half full, though.
I have 1" plumbing straight to the pump, no bends, just a y-strainer before the pump.
Remove the stock inlet strainer on your pump, and replace with one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00CHI10AC/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I didn’t notice any sucking noise, but I will double check that. Thank you for the feedback!
No problem. Just take the lid off the tank and see if there’s any difference.
Just to check back with my question. I plumbed in a 1in suction hose to my pump. and raised my tank slightly. Now have plenty of flow. I pre-primed the pump with a garden hose then got all the air out of my line from the tank, and it works just fine. No problems so far. Thanks for the help everyone
