I have the patriot proportioner I put together myself. It doesn’t pull more than a weak stream of water now. I did nothing but clean out the truck and move the pump and proportioner a little lower in the truck bed. The only thing that works now is if I put a short piece of hose (no proportioner) on the intake and pull from a bucket. I found a cracked check valve and took it out of the equation. I took everything apart and checked for leaks using a bucket of water. Blowing bubbles all day. Filling up buckets of water to test again & again. I’m ready to shoot myself. It 's been 2 days str8 working to find out the problem.
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You know the answer. Got an air leak somewhere, just have to keep eliminating the good ones
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We should just make it so threads close once Racer answers…but yep, something is cracked somewhere. Spare parts on hand for all those pieces.
I have it set up w/banjos. I got rid of the cracked chck valve but still same story. Here I’m bypassing the hose reel.
if you’re getting bubbles, 99% chance it’s on the intake side. Shut off your valves and check suction on each one with the other 2 closed. total time to determine should be about 15-30min. Same as when you prime it for the first time. It’s literally a 1-2 min deal. I re-prime mine anytime I haven’t used for awhile.
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I think I came up with 14 leak points that you could get on that design! Ever thought of running a manifold block so you could eliminate plenty of the possible leak points?
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I’d ditch the pentair valves…they’re notorious for hairline cracks. So definitely check them, I used them once and they didn’t last long…threw them out and went with a beefier metering valve, have had no problems in years. A solid manifold block would help too.
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I fixed mine (Pentair) with marine epoxy last year after building it and sealed it up good. I think I had 5 leaks. I have seen past threads with people designing solid manifold blocks but have never seen for purchase. Any sources to research it out??
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Oh man, what a nightmare those pentair valves are. I chased air leaks forever with those stupid things.
Part of the problem is the Teflon tape, you’ll need plumbers putty to even think about chasing down a leak somewhere. Soon as you can get rid of those and get one of these.
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I took the whole thing apart but don’t see any visible cracks
I probably do need to upgrade those valves
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I’m tellin’ ya, it’s not a crack issue. That Teflon tape won’t seal air leaks very well. I had to practically weld everything together with putty before it would draw decently.
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How do you have it mounted?
I have the cross on the bottom
Ok I had to go look at my proportioner.
Mine is janky, but I do have the check valves ABOVE the metering valve. Not sure if that makes a difference.
Those check valves can break a spring really easily, causing all kind of havoc. I did notice the one on the left doesn’t have a check valve.
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I meant more like in terms of stability and protected, not orientation. 
It’s wired to a piece of metal which kind of just floats in between the battery & buffer tank.
I should mention that it was the same as before except I oriented it lower than it was before. Same w/the pump.
I ended up taking mine apart and using both tape (which is a lubricant not a sealer) and thread sealant. I have a Midwest Proportioner - I believe they sell the manifold blocks separately if I’m not mistaken.
I went ahead and put everything back together like I know nothing about it; then I opened up all the valves and ran the system; closing them one at a time etc. It looks like I got it & the system was just airlocked. When I was running all of the tests before, I only used the water intake, leaving the other two closed because I didn’t want to spray any chemical or soap in the yard. From now on I bleed the entire system after not using for awhile.
Téflon tape not a sealer??
Interesting.
Teflon tape is a friction reducer. It helps mating surfaces together easier
