can someone please explain possibly the best or most effective way of sucking 2 sponges for a boom 32m

how much water dop you use between sponges and volume of strokes and rpm , A- frame etc

when i used to run a 34 i used a five gallon bucket. put one ball in the end of the hose put the hose in th bucket suck first ball and water then second ball.

Listen in the tip elbow,you will hear burbling when your sponge gets to the transition.If you use two sponges(1gallon is about all the two elbows will hold) pull 2 strokes pour in water then put in the other sponge and listen for the burble! Tapping the deck pipe won't work anymore,because you've cleared it with the first sponge.Try listening when pulling 1 sponge first,so you'll know how it sounds!

A-frame,25% throttle 10-25% volume!!

so do you fully suck the first one straight back to thge transition, then put the second one in , or can you do this:

put first sponge in reverese it till the pump sucks up the sponge somewhere in stage4, then fill 1 gallon water and suck the second one?

can that work also?

can i use two 5inch soft sponge balls instaed of 6inch?

Waterwash!  Waterwash! Waterwash!

put your first ball in hose then put hose in bucket kick pump in reverse when water is gone then put second ball in then listen thruogh hose for gurgling and then go two more strokes in reverse then you have balls in transition

or waterwash like james said . thats what i do now, just be carefull

I have heard it said  that water washing can't get a boom as clean as sucking a sponge or ball,  you can't water wash certain mixes etc. etc.  I have pumped concrete in a few different states and have never failed to get the boom clean.  I was not taught how to suck a sponge when I first started pumping only how to water wash.  Nay sayers have their opinion and I respect it, however, once you learn how to water wash it will give you one more option in a time of need to get a boom clean.

i water wash then suck a ball back just to be on the safe side

When I suck the sponges back I break the reducer and hose off first. Then I will tip the elbow down and spray water up in it to wash any residual concrete out.  I then tip it back up fill it full of water then I fill a bucket with about 2 gallons of water put my 5 in soft in the tip and put it in reverse. rpm is about 1150 to 1200 stroke 50%. I will then watch for the 5 in soft to clear the tip then I dump the water in the bucket in followed by a 6 in soft. then I just wait for the deck to ring clean at which point I turn the pump off idle down to 750 and turn the stokes down all the way, and then put it in reverse again for 3 strokes and the balls end up right where the elbow breaks every time.  It also will clean the 6 to 148 mm reducer and the elbow for you.

I use two sponge balls.  After pumping hopper completely down into a place exceptable by the contractor or back into the mixer, I then reverse stroke about 4 times.  Swing the end hose around to the back of my pump.  Lower end hose to ground.  Place a shorty 4x6 under the reducter and disconnect the reducer.  Rotate the elbow skyward and insert first sponge.  Suck it into the elbow until it just goes out of sight.  Empty my sponge buck (approx 3 gallons water) into the elbow.  Insert 2nd sponge and suck it back until it is just past the first elbow.  I rotate the elbow back down level with the reducer, connect up the reducer and endhose.  I raise the end hose up and with high pressure water clean the hose.  Next, I raise the boom up so that all sections are verticle or at least horizontal.  I then suck the sponges back at the lowest rmp and the lowest volume.  The slower you suck back the cleaner it will be, and you wont' collapse the sponges.  I tap on the deck pipe and listen.  Makes a Dull sounding tick, tick, tick with mud in the pipes.  It takes about 9 strokes on my pump.  I can hear the dull ping of the first sponge go past and then the second sponge, a loud hollow ping.  It then takes just two strokes more and both sponges will be sitting in the elbow when I open up the back of the hopper.  Works everytime like a charm.  If you suck really slow the sponges won't end up inside the cylinders and sliced up.  Sponges last me an entire season.

water wash

This must be the most popular topic on this board. What get's me is the amount of time some of you guy's waste. Come on, 2 sponges, water wash and then suck a sponge? Geez, I know most of us are paid by the hour but, my customers would be pissed if I was bilking them for all that. Plus the mess sucking a sponge leaves. Learn how to water wash or suck a bucket and quit leaving pump pods laying all over!

if youve got a stiff mix will sucking back 2 sponges have any effect?

I started sucking two sponges about four months ago. Works like a charm. I keep the balls soaked all the time and put one in after the other with no water in between. Seems to work great.

Pumpon:  has never made a difference when I use a sponge, just suck back slow so the sponge wont' collapse. 

I never leave a mess either, I wash out the hopper at the clean out area or back at the plant.

Suck the sponge and then go to the clean out...simple easy, no risk.

Idza, this forum is where I learned a lot of the techniques I use, I think its great that we discuss this, even if it has been discussed a jillion times.....operators/owners can make their own decisions based on the info here.  Water wash vs sponge.....

Vasa

That seems like a lot of work as opposed to filling up the hopper with water and pumping forward until water comes out of the end of the boom and then sucking it all back.  More than one way to skin a kitty though! 

hey what ever works for you or just take it back to the yard and have a boom party whats $10,000 lol . one day after the pour i had no balls (haha) wash out balls but one i use to put at the end of my hose when iam folding up after i suck a ball or water wash any how i had to use that ball and my shirt hey what ever works. 

I Have a 32M, I have a 65 gallon drum cut in half. I fill it with water when im filling up . I put a sponge in my tip hose then i put the tip hose in the bucket suck all the water down then raise the hose. about half the water comes back and half goes into the hopper. then i suck one more sponge and put on in the end of the hose so it doesnt drip on my truck. I've tried water washing but i like this method the best. I used to bend my tip hose over my hopper, put about 10 gallons in then a sponge another 10 gallons and another sponge. and suck it back about half rpms and half volume.

a good way is pump your hopper empety fill a bucket of water place the boom hose next to bucket put pump in reverse stroke place first ball up hose lift hose into bucket still i reverse with the second ball in the bucket of water lift the bucket it will suck water followed by the ball it watch for the water rising in the hopper  open the hopper and the concerte just flows out

I saw sucking a ball back with a stiff mix somewhere in all these posts to whoever asked about that, by the way i did not see this metioned, if you are going to suck a ball back whatever happend to recirculating first? espcially on a stiff mix. As far as the water wash goes, if that is your thing and it works for you go for it, if in an emergency situation, i would do it in a min, But why would you do that (you can all agree with me) If not an emrgency when there is a chance however slight it may be that you could rock pack, i know someone will say I done it a hundred time it hasent happend, well it will sooner or later those who take the quick way out get bit sooner or later, water washing is an awsome thing, IF it has to be done. Otherwise do it right, recirculate (add retarder, sugar if you want) pump the hopper down take the tapered hos off rinsie it out and suck a darn hard ball back you will NEVER have a problem with build up. 

i never leave a full or of half hopper at end of job cause no one wants waste concrete on site , so we cant recirculate a stiff mix to soften it up

Thats what enviromental bags are for, no mess

Why waterwash?    

My #1 reason is this.      If you are an owner operator, and paying all costs, fuel, tires, and all the other general maintainance costs.   Ready mix yards with the dump sites being either 30 miles north, or 30 miles south of here.  It makes cents to be able to entirely clean out pump on job. Rather than the hour round trip to ready mix yard.  

 In residential work here, dumping hopper of mud on site is unacceptable, dumping hopper of rocks and grey water, is accecpable.   So I waterwash.   Is it a shortcut that will bite me?    I hope not.  My assurance is at the end of the waterwash, insert a soft sponge into the end of 4# hose, or reducer, and suck it back while boom folds.  does 2 things.    wipes out the water drips, and tells me that there are no rocks left hanging up in turret.    Once in a while it will bring back about 3 rocks from the through pipe at the top of the second section.