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PeakOfPerfection

Price Air Diaphragm Pump

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Until Recently, I have been buying, rebuilding and selling a LOT of air diaphragm pumps. For the reason that stopped for a while, see my statement from Peak of Perfection Post. I've had pretty much every pump through my shop at this point...Aro, Wilden, Sandpiper, Versamatic, All-Flo, Crane ChemPharma, Graco/Husky, etc. Or...so I thought. 

Then Chris, AKA Fearless Leader, mentioned a Price Pump as the best he'd ever seen. Hmmm...

 

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So...off to peruse the different suppliers, equipment websites and there it was...1" Price Pump, on Ebay of all places. Best of all, it was reasonably cheap and Buy It Now. So I clicked Buy.

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On the Left is the Price Pump. On the Right, the current 1" Champ (Sandpiper Kynar pump).  

Today, it arrived and there is a reason it was cheap. It was absolutely FULL of green, stinky, slimy, sticky goo, also known as printers ink. Ugh. There are few things worse to clean out than printers ink. It stinks like hell. It gets EVERYWHERE, you can't clean it with normal stuff like Simple Green, or water because it immediately reacts and turns ultra, uber sticky. And when it dries, you have to practically chip it off. Wiping it off with dry rags, paper towels, etc. followed by glue solvent is the only way to get rid of it. Worse, as the fluid chambers were removed, one diaphragm was all the way in and one was all the way out. Not good if there is no air or fluid pressure on it. 

Four HOURS later, it was reasonably clean and the fluid chambers were off. So, I  popped the diaphragms off and slowly, carefully worked the center shaft out. Turned it it was locked up bone dry...but fortunately undamaged. A thin coating of lithium grease and a reassembly, hooked up the air and it fired right up. Yes, it is supposed to be a greaseless/oil free design but you don't do metal to metal and not get friction so whatever surface was binding is now free and it works beautifully. 

Okay, so yes, Chris, these are IMPRESSIVE Pumps. They have an o-ringless design which means fewer air end failures. It does require very very precise manufacturing to pull off and in that, this is a heck of piece of engineering. The performance curve shows that it should do 50 GPM with 50 CFM open ended flow, which puts it at the top end of 1" pump performance, and it should do somewhere in the 36 GPM range with the head pressure. That is pretty darned impressive. 

Only drawback to it is that it is Poly. Thick virgin poly with Viton seals/diaphragms and Kynar seats...but Poly none the less. Also, as befitting a top end pump, the replacement parts costs are not insubstantial. That being said, I suspect this is a keeper and I may look into Kynar chambers for it. 

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I was a gravure printer for 18 years. Mainly water based inks. Pioneers in the gravure printing industry. The only chemical that would actually dissolve our dried inks was MEK, Methyl Ethyl Keytone. Its nasty chit but it works. Our "guys" never liked to rinse out the pumps and they clogged up over the weekend and had to be rebuilt A lot. It also has a B rating on Poly on the Cole-Parmer website.

Edited by ReNew Roof & Exterior cleaning

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Hey Kevin,..little off topic,..regarding pumps made from both Kynar and Poly?   Like the Sandpiper  pump above or the All-Flo. Correct anywhere I'm mistaken because I'm just guessing. 

When a pump is made from Kynar ,..the cost is way more than a poly pump. But these pumps have Kynar and poly,..although Kynar is much more resilient to SH,...what's the point in spending the extra money when there is a weak link in the chain (Poly)?  I'm not doubting the Kynar/Poly pumps are better than poly alone,..I had an All-Flo for 5 years,..so it did hold up,....but could you please explain why the poly isn't a weak point in these pumps,..considering SH is pumping through the poly?

I'm only assuming the opaque/white material is poly,...but the black I know is Kynar.

Thanks,

Jeff

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Price Pumps are right down in California. They are big in Ag Spray Pumps that spray Acid on soil.  I liked their one piece manifolds vs the bolted manifolds of other designs.

Of any air pumps for roof cleaning I have ever owned, it was by far the most impressive. I actually gave it away to a local roof cleaning company, who shall remain nameless, that did almost 100 % commercial roof cleaning. It too was a Poly Pump, but with EDPM Manifolds. I know for a fact it lasted well over a year, spraying all kinds of big commercial jobs.

 

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Hey Kevin,..little off topic,..regarding pumps made from both Kynar and Poly?   Like the Sandpiper  pump above or the All-Flo. Correct anywhere I'm mistaken because I'm just guessing. 

When a pump is made from Kynar ,..the cost is way more than a poly pump. But these pumps have Kynar and poly,..although Kynar is much more resilient to SH,...what's the point in spending the extra money when there is a weak link in the chain (Poly)?  I'm not doubting the Kynar/Poly pumps are better than poly alone,..I had an All-Flo for 5 years,..so it did hold up,....but could you please explain why the poly isn't a weak point in these pumps,..considering SH is pumping through the poly?

I'm only assuming the opaque/white material is poly,...but the black I know is Kynar.

Thanks,

Jeff

Jeff,

The portions of a Kynar....or any other material, pump which matter in terms of chemical resistance are the fluid manifolds, chambers, seats/cages, and ball valves. Those are the portions which can be negatively effected by chemicals. 

If you look at the pumps above pictured, the Price Pump on the left uses polypropylene manifolds and outer fluid chambers, while the Sandpiper pump on the right. Has Kynar fluid chambers and manifolds. The black sections in the center are not Kynar, they are Polypropylene center sections.  This is fine as those are the air handling sections which no fluid should go therough other than a little water from compressed air condensation. Because those center sections do not handle chemical liquids, there is little benefit from building them from Kynar. 

Edited by PeakOfPerfection

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Thanks Kevin,.for some reason I thought Kynar was always black,.but the fluid chambers in the Sandpiper that look like poly are actually Kynar,..unless I don't know what I'm looking at?   On my All-Flo it looks like the fluid is flowing through the opaque chambers or manifolds (Whichever the correct term),..so this is actually Kynar and not poly?  

Jeff

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Thanks Kevin,.for some reason I thought Kynar was always black,.but the fluid chambers in the Sandpiper that look like poly are actually Kynar,..unless I don't know what I'm looking at?   On my All-Flo it looks like the fluid is flowing through the opaque chambers or manifolds (Whichever the correct term),..so this is actually Kynar and not poly?  

Jeff

​Actually Jeff, Kynar is usually white. Only on the Yamada is it black, but has always been white on every other pump I have owned. 

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Thanks Chris,..I had wondered about that before,..and now I get it,Ha,Ha,.. And makes me feel better about my Kynar pumps.

Jeff

 

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Kynar and Poly are both inherently whitish plastics. But they can be dyed. I have an ARO 1" pump in black Kynar. But most are whitish. Takes some practice and seeing a lot of pumps to recognize the difference. 

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