I TALKED TO A CO' IN SALT LAKE CITY UTAH.AND THEY BLOW OUT THEIR BOOMS WITH WATER,DOES ANY ONE ELSE, PUMP THEIR HOPPER ALL THE WAY DOWN, FILL IT WITH WATER AND BLOW IT OUT,THEN SUCK BACK THE WATER  TO  FINISH?

do you mean Waterwash?

YES, I THOUGHT SUCKING BACK THE BALL WAS THE ONLY WAY MOST OF YOU CLEAN THE "BOOM PIPES"

Yes,waterwash.It drifted into our area several years ago from Cal.It can be time saving in certain circumstances,only if mixer driver has the savy.Now days here the contractors want you to do it back into mixer.If one compared time I found I could pull a ball and folding before some mixer drivers found the wash out area.

We do it up in spokane all the time. I'll run it down, fill it with  water and take one stroke ahead then fill it full. Then i'll start stroking forward a little faster then your pumping speed for 5 to 5.5 strokes slam it in reverse and volume it up. I run a 42m schwing and it works consistently. I've heard thou that putz's seem to have a bad time doing it and just don't attempt it.You  can also pump into a mixer this way, just put cap on so as not to be a slob all over the mixer remember they like a clean truck too.

I waterwash my Putz, whenever I feel like it.  The deciding factor is my  cleanup options at that particular time. 

Sucking a sponge, is the fastest, but leaves a mess that is harder for the contractor to deal with.

99% of the time we blow out with air  and then blow a sponge with water ahead of it

Just suck a bucket.  its as fast,"faster if you hang reducers or reducing hose,"as sucking a sponge and makes less mess, plus i can wash my 36 z 3 times on one tank of water. and who ever is using air please don't i've seen those pigs fly as far as a football field.

how and what is sucking a bucket?

can you please explain the process

It s really pretty simple.  cut a piece of plywood (3/4 mdo works awesome) to cover your hopper,  also get your bucket(1/2 55 galon drum or 33 galon garbage can ) and set it where the mixer can fill it with their hose.   when finished pumping push concrete out of hopper and boom,  work your volume up to keep from hose whiping, and when you have pushed out all that you can you start stroking in reverse, full throttle and volume, it will draw most of the watter out of the bucket then lift the end just above yout bucket and it will pull it all the way over the top and clean your pipe slick as can be.  works all the way up to our 58. for the first little while it is good to ring it lightly with a hammer right before the elbow at top of 6-5 reducer. if end of deck pipe rings like bell all is clear.     ps been through full set of pipe with out build up.

so let me see , what your saying is

pump your hopper down and keep pumping till no more concrete or air starts coming out the hose

then you  reverse at full volume and rpm put drop hose in bucket full of water and water should show up in hopper

is 20 litres enough water?

Or if you do not have a bucket handy, you could pump out all you can lower the boom down fill the hose up with water and kink the hose or cap it and then lift it in the air pull it in reverse and it will water wash out like that,  with very little water involved. that also works real nice!!!

when we mix primer we use a 20 litre bucket to mix in

we dont have much room for anything much bigger then that 20 litres is about 5-6 gallons?

is that engough to clean the boom?

medium garbage can or half of old plastic drum, about 80-100 liters is best.  bucket will easily fit between cylinders under boom and most any where that you can get mixer hose to to fill it.

hi terence ere in ireland we always suck back two sponges one to take back the concerte and 5 gallons of water followed by the second ball  it works a treat on a 46 meter putz