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5850 Fails from a spring

Roof Cleaning Katy Texas (281) 392-2304 · Jun 23, 2013

I do not use a 5850 so I have not had that problem. I used a smaller pump many years ago. Sometimes things in them would break but the motor would still be good. My suggestion would be to keep the old pump, spray it liberally with oil to keep it from corroding any more, and put it in a box that you will call your broken motors box. It will become a spare part some day when you need one.

The other day I got ready to clean a roof on a 100 degree day. Normally before & after the roof cleaning job I take pictures and during it I take videos. I told my helper no pics or videos would be taken that day as the tile roof I was cleaning was on a 7,200 sq ft home and I wanted to get it over asap before the tile roof got so hot it evaporated the SH before it cleaned the tile roof. We got the ladders in position and the hose all laid out on the ground. When I turned on the Pentaflex pump it would not pump out SH at the end of my hose. I grabbed a spare brand new Pentaflex pump and installed it with the same results... Upon careful inspection I found a pin hole in the suction hose. It was allowing air into the system and the pump could not pump the SH through the hose due to all of the air. I covered it with duct tape and that fixed the problem so so. I got the roof cleaned finally but that was only because I had a valve on the pressure side of the pump that allowed me to pump the SH back into my SH tank. I put it there to assist me in priming the pump and getting all air bubbles out of the suction line. As long as I was pumping SH through the line there was no problem. As soon as I stopped for a minute to relocate to another dirty area on the roof my ground man would have to turn the switch for a minute to re-prime the pump and then turn it back so I would have pressure.

Lesson learned. Change your suction hoses from time to time as the SH will make them go bad eventually.

Jun 23, 2013

I agree Marcus [even though I use the 5850] I'd bet 90% of the problems I have had through the years, turned out to be air leaks somewhere on the suction side!

RCIA Founder

Stay Clean wrote:
I flip the switch to turn the pump on this morning and its completely dead. Banged on it to see if something was stuck and it moved a little then no power. Checked batteries, wiring, switches etc... Come to find out later in the day after taking apart that it had no power because the spring holding the brush to the armature had rusted away. So the positive brush was making no contact at all. One little spring kills the whole pump. And I rinse it out every time! The funny part(not so funny this morning at the job site) is that the other spring (negative side) looks brand new... see picture below of the good one. I rigged a piece of wire to see if it would work and viola its fixed. Already ordered 2 new pumps today. I learned my lesson, I'll be carrying a backup from now on. And if anybody has this pump take it apart right now and put never-seize on every bolt, otherwise you will break the bolts off trying to take them out.
Anybody else using this pump have this happen to them? If so have you found a replacement spring somewhere like an auto store? Its such a tiny light wire spring.

Now you KNOW why we preach air pumps for roof cleaning use! These springs are stainless steel, and contrary to what you have been taught, stainless steel is NOT good, for long term chlorine exposure!

You can rinse out a pump till your knuckles bleed, and it helps, but remember, the FUMES from the roof cleaning chemical are corrosive, nothing you can do about them, as you just found out.

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"Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"