High Speed Pulsation/Vibration in wand?

[577-Jersey 8]

I noticed I can feel a high speed vibration in my wand sometimes when trigger is squeezed,,it does not do it at first but after an hour or so I notice this happens and is most noticeable with low pressure tips.

 

When the water hits the house or surface you can even hear it,,sounds like a buzz splash.

Its pumping out the water in high pressure spurts.

 

It feels like you can feel every pump of the piston in the plungers,,the water pressure and flow is good and strong.

 

Is this normal,,maybe not enough water supply from hose spigot causing the plunger cylinder to fill with some air??

 

Maybe cause Im not running the Honda up to WOT?(I didnt even try to check it at WOT)

 

I have no idea but is this normal,something I can fix,or just dont worry about it?

 

I have felt this in the past on other units as well,,vibration flutter.

 

 

Thanks!!

 

Tom :)

Edited November 4, 2015 by 577-Jersey

[John T 744]

No that's not normal. First off you don't want to starve your pump for water. If your running into issues where the spigot on the houses is not supplying enough water then you should have a buffer tank setup where your powerwasher is running off of that. Starving your pump for water causes it to cavitate which you might be feeling when you squeeze the trigger. If you don't correct this problem you'll eventually have to rebuild your pump.

Also check your filter to make sure the screen is not clogged because that to can cause your pump to cavitate as well as any air in the water feed line so check that as well.

If everything checks out fine & your still having problems then most likely you need a pump rebuild.

[577-Jersey 8]

Thanks John,,

 I will check all of that,,guess a rebuild will be on my Winter project list.

Its an AR pump(belt drive) so it shouldn't be that expensive to do,,at least i hope not.

 

A buffer tank,,

 Could that be as easy as putting a 30 gallon tank in the truck and running a line to the inlet on the pump,,will that just gravity feed?

Guess I could run the home owners hose into the tank while Im working to keep it full.

 

Not sure exactly how to set it up.

 

Tom

Edited November 4, 2015 by 577-Jersey

[577-Jersey 8]

Hey John,,

 I pulled all my valves out tonight high side and low,,the O-rings that the valve head sits on looked good,the brass under O-ring looked great,,the valves looked good also.

 

No signs of cavitation that I could see...the filter screen was clean,,I am just going to run it till it blows now,,i only have a few more jobs before Winter.

 

It was not vibrating or hammering violently,,it was subtle,,you really had to pay attention to feel the light flutter in your hand under low pressure.

 

Thanks again!!

Edited November 5, 2015 by 577-Jersey

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Possibly a worn check valve.

If it gets worse, the problem resides in your pump and would require new check valves and possibly new seals.

 

Rod

[577-Jersey 8]

Possibly a worn check valve.

If it gets worse, the problem resides in your pump and would require new check valves and possibly new seals.

 

Rod

Yes Rod,,

 I was reading that worn or dirty check valves would cause this high frequency vibration that i feel in the hose/wand.

 

I am going to get a check valve/O-ring kit for it possibly next week.

 

Thanks guys!!

 

Tom 

[577-Jersey 8]

Hey Rod,

 I used it today to clean a vinyl decking for a couple hours,,it ran good...afterwards I went to ACR and picked up a check valve kit for it.

 

I am going to remove the old ones and see if I can suck any air through them later tonight.

 

Gonna replace them with the new ones anyway just to be safe.

 

Thanks again for the wealth of info you guys share freely on the site.

 

I really appreciate it,,huge help!!

 

 Tom :)

[577-Jersey 8]

Possibly a worn check valve.

If it gets worse, the problem resides in your pump and would require new check valves and possibly new seals.

 

Rod

You where right Rod,

 I could suck air through the top left check valve,it was also the dirtiest one,,I replaced them all.

 

I believe that one leaky valve caused the problem,,will find out tomorrow.

[577-Jersey 8]

I wanted to add I replaced all the packing seals today,,the old HP seals looked like they where falling apart,,the LP seals looked good.

Now the wet end of the pump is completely rebuilt,,should be good for a while....no more vibration :)