A few of you have asked how the drip stopper works. I did my best to explain it with words:
There is ball and spring and cap inside each jet that acts as a drip stopper or ‘check valve’ preventing water from dripping from the jet when the trigger valve is closed. the spring pushes on the ball and the ball gets pushed up against the inside surface of the cap forming a seal. It’s called a ball & seat.
Likewise, there is ball & seat ‘check valve’ inside your trigger valve. There is a spring in there that pushes on a ball and the ball gets pushed up against a deep dish ptfe (Teflon) disk. The ball ‘seats’ against the disk forming a strong seal that prevents water from flowing through the trigger valve even under the high water pressure coming from your high pressure solution line. This ball & seat forms a strong seal when the trigger valve lever is in the closed position.
These two ball & seat check valves work together to keep water from dripping from your jets when you let off the trigger.
Here’s how it all works…
When you want the water to flow, you pull on the trigger lever of your trigger valve and all that water flows down to the jets and pushes on the springs inside each jet. The pressure pushes on the ball in each jet and breaks the ball & seat and water flows through the jets.
But when you let off the trigger lever of the trigger valve, the water pressure drops inside the line going down to the jets. The drop in pressure is enough for the spring inside the jet to take over and push the ball back up against the cap forming that seal again. (When the jets are new you can hear a humming sound which is caused by the constant battle between the spring fighting the water pressure, trying to push the ball back up against the cap). When you let off of the trigger lever, the little springs inside the jets win the battle and the seal is created that prevents the jets from dripping. So your jets should not drip when the trigger valve lever is in the closed position.
If any of your jets continue to drip when your trigger lever is off then maybe you need a new ball & spring and cap installed in that jet. If ALL of your jets drip when the trigger is off then you need to install a new spring and deep dish disk rebuild kit inside your trigger valve. Most trigger valves need a new Rebuild kit installed once or twice a year, so get used to it. It’s not hard to do if you are prepared. I get you started when you buy my wands with a free rebuild kit. You just need to watch my video on the store – Installing the Soft Touch Rebuild Kit and you will be a pro. Drippy jet problems will never be a problem for you.
You should get 2-3 years before the check valves start leaking, But the jet itself should be changed once a year.
Seriously.
Most guys don’t change their jets near enough; more than a year of daily use and you start to lose the fan pattern so important to even cleaning. You get what we call the “cat’s eye” effect. That’s where the high water pressure erodes the edge of the jet orifice and turns the opening into an oval shape like a cat’s eye.
The result is that most of the water flows out of the middle of the jet instead of evenly like the fan pattern when the jet was new. Once the fan pattern is lost, you get a type of streaking called ‘corn rowing’ where most of the water hits the carpet directly out in front of each jet instead of being spread evenly left to right. Four or five or six of these jets with cat’s eye effect and you have a nice field of corn rows on your jobs.
It only takes a a year of daily use from your main wand for this to develop into a real problem so be careful. For sure, never use brass jets because the fan pattern is lost to erosion in a matter of weeks under the high pressure of daily cleaning. Even stainless jets only last a year before the cat’s eye sets in and starts causing you corn row streaking.
So, I recommend new jets yearly for your main wand. I make high quality ss304 stainless jets including drip stoppers and jet screens for less than my competitors charge for the jet itself.
When you think about how important your jets are to good cleaning, it makes sense to keep a fresh set installed in your wands.
Joe 253 653-7209
