Replace Check Valves : Transcript

Josh Lee, The Original Josh (00:02):

Kranzle pressure washer perfection

Josh Lee, The Original Josh (00:07):

Hi everybody. It's the original Josh back again with Kranzle USA, pressure washer perfection. So we've diagnosed the issue with your pressure washer is pressure loss maybe not full pressure loss, partial pressure loss most likely with pulsation. Now one thing I mentioned before is that with an obstructed check valve, you're going to get pulsation. Now, if you have pressure loss, you shouldn't ever rule out that it's the check valves, even if it's complete pressure loss, because if more than one is damaged, that can be your root cause as well. Some conditions that can cause that failure are debris being sent through the pump or really harsh freeze conditions. In some cases can damage the check valves. Now the valve housing is freeze proof. Think about the Kranzle pump. We do say that it is freeze proof, but some of your wear parts can suffer as a result of a freezing condition.

Josh Lee, The Original Josh (01:06):

So there's a couple of things that can lead to check valve failure. And what we're going to do now is look at how to remove the check valves, ultimately how to replace the check valves. And most importantly, how to diagnose that the check valves are in fact, the problem to begin with. So on the pressure washer pump, we have our pressure gauge right here. This is where we start to try to.. If you're not familiar with a pressure washer pump, this is where I'm going to tell you to look in order to then find your check valves. So your pressure gauge threads right into the center of the top check valve plug or cap, depending on what name you may refer to it as there are three across the top, and there are three across the front, the three check valves across the front are your low pressure or your intake check valves.

Josh Lee, The Original Josh (02:00):

The three check valves across the top are considered the high pressure or discharge check valves in the case of the Kranzle pump which is the case across all their existing models at the moment. All six of the check valves are identical. So when you take your kit part numbers in your, your manual this part number kit is four one six four eight one Kranzle USA of course puts a prefix of nine, seven in front of it. So ours would be nine seven four one six four eight one that is going to include all six check valves as well as 12 O-rings. And on this particular pump, the other nice thing is that the O-rings that go beneath the check valves are the same as the O-rings for the check valve caps. So right here, we've got six check valves and 12 identical O-rings.

Josh Lee, The Original Josh (02:58):

Now the nice about Kranzle part kits. They also include a diagram on the kit itself so that you can see the general placement of the parts that you're installing. It's not the case for any loose parts, but it is the case for the kits. And one of the complaints that we deal with is that it seems like nothing is ever in English, but the drawing is in a universal language. You should be able to read it no matter what language that you speak. So that's it right there. There's your pressure washer pump with your check valves. So because this is a brand new pressure washer that we are performing this demonstration with the check valves that are in it are still in good condition. So I don't intend to actually put the new ones in. I'll be able to show you for removal and installation with the existing parts. So I'm gonna set this aside for the time being.

Josh Lee, The Original Josh (03:56):

So like I said, we're going to start with the pressure gauge. Now the pressure gauge is important to remove because you don't want to damage it in the process of trying to remove any of the other caps. So for that to remove it, we're going to use the 14 millimeter combination wrench. You're going to have to give it a little umpf to break it loose because the Germans do install lock tight on this particular set of threads. I like to leave my protective cover on the pressure gauge so that we don't damage it. So you'll see, we have some, some Loctite on the actual gauge itself right here. So you'll want to wire brush that and clean it up before you re-install it. You can use Teflon tape if necessary, but Loctite pretty handy to use. There are also some ceiling O-rings or excuse me, there are also some ceiling aluminum washers for getting the gauge to line up just right with your Loctite, as long as you haven't had to remove it.

Josh Lee, The Original Josh (05:03):

And re-install it several times you can generally get it back to about the right position, but in some cases you may have to dig out those and put fresh ones in. We do carry those as well. We'll have further information on that in the description below. So now we have the pump head pressure gauge removed the all six of the caps. Well, five of the six caps are identical with the exception of the one that has the pressure gauge. I like to remove it first because it just gets it out of the way. I'm not going to strip the, the hex on any of the other caps. That's going to be a 22 millimeter wrench.

Josh Lee, The Original Josh (05:45):

Now you can use an impact gun to remove them. I encourage to be very cautious when both removing or installing these with an impact gun, easy to cross thread, or to round off your hex on your cap. So be cautious of that. So we've taken off the one valve cap. We're going to set this aside. And once we move past the check valves, we're going to leave this stuff un-installed, but I'll show you generally how to remove the check valves and then re-install them. So we've taken out our large valve gap now for the remaining five.

Josh Lee, The Original Josh (06:31):

So we've removed all six of the check valves or excuse me. So we removed all six of the check valve caps to remove the actual check valves themselves. You'll need an needle-nose pliers. One of the great things about Kranzle pumps over most other brands is that they have these nice little nipples on the top of the check valve for you to be able to grab with your needle nose pliers. In some cases, if it's a particularly old pump, you can have some difficulty trying to get them out. But, when you go to do so, if you struggle be cautious that the plastic cage can actually comes, becomes separated from the seat, which will take it. Yeah, here we go. So the valve cage has a metal seat on the bottom and it clips together right there.

Josh Lee, The Original Josh (07:33):

So if you are having trouble getting it out, if, if there's been a lot of cavitation, the check valve might be stuck down inside the housing. You may have to break the cage off of the top of it and then use a pick to dig out the seat from inside. It takes some finesse. It's going to take a little bit of effort, but most of these pumps for your lots of commercial applications in residential applications, you're not going to see a whole lot of crud in there that prevent these from coming out. But if they've been running some really harsh water through it sometimes oxidation or calcification can build up and make these kind of difficult to remove. So you might, in some cases have a little bit of struggle. So here are There all six of your check valves. Now under each one of the check valves is an O-ring that seals the check valve to the valve housing. So we dig each one of them out,

Josh Lee, The Original Josh (07:33):

Josh Lee, The Original Josh (08:39):

So there we've moved, removed all six of the O-rings for the check valves. Now, like I mentioned before, we're going to just, re-install this kit, and I'm going to show you how to do one of them right now, just so that you can see how it's done. The other task will go along with installing the new check valve. You're going to take the old O-ring off of the valve cap. You may find some Loctite on these threads as well, not to mention some oxidation is always possible. So this is a good time to take and hit these with wire brush. Don't, you know, put them on our wire wheel for too long, because of course you can start to wash away the brass, but you want to clean them up nice and shiny if possible. So then when we go to re-install the O-ring, another reason why I liked this particular pick, I set the O-ring on the valve cap, like, so using my thumb, holding the side of the valve cap, going right through the center of the O-ring. There's another look at it.

Josh Lee, The Original Josh (09:44):

I take the pick and walk the O-ring around and slide it down onto the valve cap. Like, so. Then your new O-ring will go down inside the valve housing, making sure that it gets all the way seated down on the bottom of the cavity. You can use the check valve to actually get it to seat down in there. And I just drop it down in and push just a little bit. Then it is wise to hand-tighten these on to the valve housing. If for some reason your O-ring doesn't get underneath the check valve in the right position or in, especially in other pressure washer pumps. If the check valve slips a skew, while you're trying to install the valve cap you can crush the check valve and you're back to square one again. And you probably won't find out until you fire the pressure washer back up.

Josh Lee, The Original Josh (10:43):

So I like to throw them in by hand, the cleaner, the threads, the easier it is to do so, use my ratchet to snug it up, and then you can snug it up with the combination wrench, but I like to hit it once or twice with the impact on, and then I know I have a good seal. So there we have the removal and the installation of your, your check valves. Now the diagnosis part, when we pull our check valves, we're looking for debris or material preventing this check valve from opening and closing all the way and the spring pushes it downward. So anything that is keeping it like the pick is right now, preventing that valve plate from seating, that's going to cause a check valve not to operate correctly. Most times you can see the debris that's in there, but we've always recommended.

Josh Lee, The Original Josh (11:43):

What's called the suction test and not a lot of people are turned on and by this particular test, but it's very effective. So we take the check valve, take, put the seat to your lips and suck and you should feel almost no air if any, come through the check valve from that direction because it's only permitting flow in one direction. So that right there is a good check valve. The pulsation the pulsation accompanied pressure loss will only happen if one or two of these is obstructed. If you have more than if you tend, if you, if you have two or more that are obstructed, then most often you're going to lose all pressure completely. So other things to look for, like I said before, if freezing conditions may have caused these cages start, start to warp, or if you've been running hot water or maybe a lot of DIY water through your pressure washer pump, you can start to get some wear on the check valves that will cause them to not want to actuate properly.

Josh Lee, The Original Josh (12:45):

So this is what we're, we're looking at. Whenever we find pressure loss to also be accompanied by pulsation. So there you have it, we've gone over personal loss due to check valve problems. And we've done the diagnosis of the check valves as well as how to remove them. And re-install them. The next segment is going to be on, un- loader valve related pressure loss. And we'll dive into that next. So if you have any questions, leave it in the comments below. Don't forget to like and subscribe and thanks for joining me. The original Josh with Kranzle USA, pressure washer, perfection

Josh Lee, The Original Josh (13:23):

Kranzle USA pressure washer perfection.