Foamer failure

mbryan

mbryan

New member
Alright here is your quarterly "Foamer Update".

This is a 60 day chinese joint with a long lateral that snakes through the building. We decided to give "la máquina de la espuma" a try on it with no pressure washer, no duct spinner just foam and rinse. The chemical was a mixture of sodium and potassium with a foaming agent. It foamed up nicely and ate through most of the grease but the results left a lot to be desired. Needless to say, we will be heading back out there with a pressure washer and duct spinner in tow.

On this area of the lateral we had let the foam sit for about an hour and it was still wet when we came back to check it. That was the nice part, unfortunately it did not live up to our expectations. The job ended up taking longer and gave us worse results than normal.

So foamy no worky on chinese grease? It appears so from these pictures. We will be giving it another shot on some other regular service jobs to compare, so stay tuned. We will be back with another update, same pimp time, same pimp channel:cool:
 
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Here is a picture of the foam in action and an after photo
 

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Nice! Do you have a before pic? It looks like it was fairly toasty. I have had some very good results on other types of grease but the Chinese was, well Chinese, that pretty much sums it up.

Oh and by the way: Brian Penney is running for BOD of PWNA so anyone here that is a PWNA member should vote for him. Anyone showing proof that they voted for Brian will be invited to the victory party (when he wins) and there will be illegal gambling, plenty of hookers and strippers and enough liquor so that everyone will have plausible deniability of any events that take place at said party.
 
Mike didn't get a before on that one but it was pretty dirty. Matt is my new campaign manager. He has set a no limit on spending for the party any and all expenses will be taken care of by Bryan Exhaust. Thank you for your support.
 
Matt,

That second picture above looks like waves of grease covered by white caustic. When you went back was that grease melted off? Hope none of your guys have to go into the duct on their belly and scrape. How did the foam work on the plenum?
News Release from: Ecolab
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial Team on 8 August 2000
Foam cleaning makes high pressure jets obsolete!
A new, and what is claimed to be, unique foam cleaning system for application in the food and beverage processing industry, has been introduced by hygiene system specialists, Henkel-Ecolab
Note: Readers of the Editor’s free email newsletter will have read this news when it was announced. Send us a blank email now to join the circulation. It’s free!
A new, and what is claimed to be, unique foam cleaning system for application in the food and beverage processing industry, has been introduced by hygiene system specialists, Henkel-Ecolab, based in Swindon. The P3-TOPAX Integral system is based on a new and innovative technology that makes high-pressure jet application obsolete. Using low-pressure foam technology, surface cleaning and disinfecting no longer requires violent mechanical action, but the silent strength of foam.

The unique method of combining detergents, water and compressed air guarantees an optimal foam structure, ensuring there is sufficient contact time to loosen all soil from process equipment, work benches, walls and floors.

Too much foam is difficult to rinse away.

If the foam layer is very thick or too wet it will run off too quickly, causing inefficient product consumption.

Foam produced by the P3-TOPAX Integral System, however, has an optimal consistency and ideal structure consisting of millions of tiny bubbles.

As these bubbles burst they allow a slow release of detergent solution onto the soiled surface.

After this action the foam and loosened soil are easily rinsed away.

Another very significant advantage is that due to this new low pressure foam technology, soil and bacteria are no longer re-distributed throughout the plant.

In addition, the low pressure/wide jet saves considerably on the rinsing times necessary.

Cleaning processes usually focus on removing visible soil, whereas the unseen effects of bacteria are often ignored.

The P3-TOPAX Integral System combines both of these crucial hygiene tasks.

Several P3-TOPAX satellites, placed in different departments of a plant, can be connected together.

Rinsing, cleaning and disinfecting can be carried out simultaneously, with cleaning and disinfection being performed with different products at variable concentrations from each satellite.

The Henkel-Ecolab range of chemicals and equipment is central to the P3-TOPAX Integral system.

This is a totally integrated system that offers guarantees for verifiable and concise fixed costs, effectively cleans and disinfects.

The P3-TOPAX Integral System covers all chemistry, procedures, services, and transport requirements.

The P3-TOPAX Integral system equipment is offered on loan as a packaged deal at a fixed amount per month to provide easy budgeting.
 
The plenum came out pretty good. Our main goal was to try it out on an area that we couldnt scrape and see if it actually took everything off without using a duct spinner.

That article is the exact one that turned me on to the foamer idea. I bought our first one back in 2000 or 2001 but had never got them to work right until I got the right chemical.

The pictures from left to right are before, after foaming, after leaving the foam on for 1 hr, and after rinse.
 
Were you able to get hold of the Ecolab chemical - was it priced like liquid gold? Also, if that's oriental every 90 days I guess its a chain. Also what size compressor did you end up with to run the foamer, one the pancake ones?
 
We were able to get some foaming agent from a local chemical distributer that works very well. That way we could just add some to our regular mix. We also have a foaming degreaser that works well. They run about $8 gallon and you need about half a gallon per five gallon mix.

Yes that is a chain of famous chinese restaurants. I think we have a grand total of 2 out of about 80 here in LA.

The compressor was a 2 hp 6 gallon pancake that puts out about 4 cfm at 90 psi. Frankly it is not enough and I am already looking for a larger model that will work better.

Heading out tonight to try it again, hopefully this will be the final test before we start advertising the new "Bryan Foaming Technology". Might as well if it works, it certainly beats the hell out of lugging around a 5gpm 3000 psi hot water rig.
 
Matt,
Do you feel that it's just one more piece of crap to carry into the kitchen or do you see great advantages. Do you just foam on - wait an hour and then spray off with restaurant's hot water? If so this could be a whole new day for kitchen exhaust cleaning. Do you use a lot less water and not have to tarp the hood? I can see guys showing up to clean hoods driving Minis stuffed with cold water PWs, foamers and 40 ft of light hose.
 
If your really interested in foaming your chemicals you should give matt a call. He will give you a real education in what works and what doesn't. It will shorten the learning curve for you it did for me. Thanks again Matt
 
indiana jones said:
Matt,
Do you feel that it's just one more piece of crap to carry into the kitchen or do you see great advantages. Do you just foam on - wait an hour and then spray off with restaurant's hot water? If so this could be a whole new day for kitchen exhaust cleaning. Do you use a lot less water and not have to tarp the hood? I can see guys showing up to clean hoods driving Minis stuffed with cold water PWs, foamers and 40 ft of light hose.
Click to expand...

The idea is that you just spray it on and wait and just wash it off but from that last experiment you can see that is not the case. I found that we use much more water than normal. I see it as an add on right now, not so much a revolutionary new technique. Back to the drawing board as they say, I'll see if we can make it work so that the systems can be cleaned to bare metal.

One drawback I have found is that the foaming agent seems to make the chem burn less when it gets on you so you dont really realize how much you have on your skin and are less likely to wash it off right away.
 
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Brian Penney said:
If your really interested in foaming your chemicals you should give matt a call. He will give you a real education in what works and what doesn't. It will shorten the learning curve for you it did for me. Thanks again Matt
Click to expand...

Make sure you call the 976-FOAM number. $3.99 per minute, ask all the questions you want:D
 
yaa, umm i want in on the party. im always up for a good time. But ya i use the foamer on certain applications. i wish i had got a before pic of the same angle on the fan.
 
I hate the Chinese grease, forget those jobs, lol, I'd rather stay home. Its like tar and then when you do get it to move it flys somewhere else and gets stuck, errr. Just alot of work.
 
After much research and testing we are going with the foam as a new service. Ideally, once ALL of the bugs are worked out, we will switch to this for our primary means of spraying chemical and cleaning. No more big machines to get the tuff stuff off, less scraping, less mess; what more could you ask for?

We will be launching our marketing campaign for this soon but I thought I would give you guys the first preview:

http://media.putfile.com/Bryan-Foam-Tek

No complaining about the music:D
 
I used to live for Rage Against the Machine. I have since found better things to live for. Killer tune though, no complaints here. Maybe we can get a soundtrack from the Bryan Exhaust videos.

How much set up time is involved for the foamer use?
 
Matt,

Where do you buy your foamer from? I cannot find anyone in florida that carries or even knows a whole lot about it, even my distributor says he is interested in using some. I bought a attachment that quick snaps to the end of a wand with a chemical resivor suposed to pull chemical and arriate to create foam. It does, but the dwell time is less than 5 min. Customers seem to love the show but it doesnt help me much. What type of equipment do you need to apply, not sure what a flattie is? Thanx for any help you can provide.
 
Agree

I would love to know more, I thought about it in the past while using some ovenoff cleaner. But soon let the idea go. I live near Delco, and I think they have the additive to add to your chemical to create foam, guess I need to call them and acquire some info about it.

If you care to share some of your secrets, I would much appreciate it. I have also complained about dwell time when using the standard chemical practice on real dirty jobs.

I have looked at pump-up spray foamers, but I have a feeling you have a better way by the looks of your video.

I read this board everyday, just don’t post much :(
 
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