well today i pumped 300 yds reduced 5inch to 4 inch pluged over  20 times .was told it was due to hot water added to mix.it makes old concrete build up in redi mix trucks brake loose bad for pumping bad for pump operator wore me out.any body have this happen to them.ive only pumped in south florida never had this problem.first year in north carolina.make me hate winter.LOL

happens here to.  You really find out which drivers don't take care of their trucks.  I have talked to the batch men and they try and work with me by sending the drivers who don't clean as well to tailgate jobs first thing in the morning to save a pump.  It doesn't help the mud company if the pump is plugging up all day long from their trucks.  Wait until you have a fin break off that you have to jack hammer cause its stuck at the back of the truck, that fun.

put another screen over the hopper that goes horizontal. enough to let stone get past but not the chunks of fin

That's the time of year when fin fish run,get your nets out 

Yes, Hot water does bring out the mixer fins. We have been using hot water in Ohio for about 5 weeks now. Im with Mr Perkins, I have A horizontal grate on top of the factory vertical grate. Its made of half inch rebar. Do A search on this site an you can find pics of them. I will post A pic of mine Monday night. They do stop plugs.

3 times is a charm,that hose man will be pushing a 5 inch hose............glad it plugged rather than snapping the hose mans head off

Today it was 4 degrees F - 6 wind chill makes a tough day when they park the RM trucks outside and load with hot water. Last week i made a horizontal grate but i need to revamp and make a bigger one. Cold weather pumpiing its a challenge.Frozen water lines and fingers are also a topic.

Hey Putz: Yes , Ive had it happen here! Get some slab wire and cut it to fit in your hopper. You can best decide how you want it to fit, but I give it short legs and stagger it (when you look at it, you'll know what I mean) to keep the vibrator from floating anything in! And jump all over the drivers... they're supposed to watch for that crap!!

Thats the trick yes.. Extra grate on the hopper and your out of trouble.. No need for all that beating and swearing

ill be trying it out tomorrow i have the same pour again ,this time with wire to catch the chuncks' thank s for all inputs

A pic of my grate, Crete an all. 

Extra grate good idea  better idea is having a clean mixer inside and out !

yeah but you can't fix stupid or lazy. lots of stupid and lazy drivers make the good drivers look crappy

I totally agree with mudslinger on this one they should be watching what is coming out of rthe truck and yeah every once and awhile one will sneak by. The that bothers me is when they laugh about it cause they dont know the serious danger of what can happen when it does plug and launches the pipe holder. With the company I work for we are a forming company so the concrete company works for us always so it was pretty simple to stop it from happening we told them for every minute I am plugged up we are going to back charge u guys. Worked pretty Well its been 2 years without a plug unfortunately I cant do that to the rest of them but I do lose my shit sometimes cant help it lol