I allways mix cement/water to prime my hoses to my linepump. Is it anyone who have tryed that "magicpowder" mixed with water, to prime long distance hoselines? I mean "slickpak" or something like that.

Is it just as good as cement/watermix when to start pumping, using 150 m (492 ft) 2"-hoses 8 levels up?

Convince me to use the "magicpowder" i´m getting tired to cary cementbags every day, and all that cementdust....

Try powdered bentonite! 1 pound of bentonite (1/2 a coffee can), in 2 5-gal buckets will prime 200 ft of line. Mix a little mortar mix in with it ( 3 coffee cans) and it will prime 200 ft of 4".Priming out needs to provide 3 ingredients; Slurry & Water! And little sand helps a WHOLE lot!  Put a LOOSE wad of newspaper after the first hose and instead of running ahead of the concrete, the primer will coat the whole inside of the hose. DON"T put it in the pour!! This is where priming into the pour got its bad reputation! Bentonite won't set up!

Sounds interesting. But where can i buy bentonite?

look to the right, my sponsors sell it. Acme America, EnviroSystems, Fritz-Pak and others.

Stuff works great.

I'm not to impressed yet of slickpack. It works but its not ''magic''.  Could be the bag of cement works better.. But since you use these super thin hoses and grout it could be it works quite well there.. But if you have a harsh mix I think its better with the cement water mix..

Betonite is a terrible suggestion!  You even stated that it won't allow the concrete to set up!  Betonite is cheap but if any inspector sees you adding to the lines you'll be in a load of trouble.  Using priming agents is cheaper than grout and both can go in the concrete with no adverse effect.

http://linaholgerssons.blogg.se/2011/january/avgiftar-med-detox-bentonit-lera.html

This is another way to use bentonite, a Swedish blogg-girl use it as a facemask to clean her face. She assert that bentoniteclay take out all toxins from one´s body (!??)......i hope she also eat the bentonite to get real toxicfree!

I found a company who sell bentonite in bags. That company is located only 7 km from my home.

http://www.multicap.se/

How do you know when bentonite is completely out of mix? Keep pumping and wasting mix til you're sure?  I like cement and sand in equal parts then just spread it out.

Leaddog et al: " Do not prime into the pour" with bentonite or any other priming material. What part was I not clear on?? Bentonite is used as a priming solution an many high profile jobs, especially as a long distance line primer! It suspends the aggerate in a viscous lubricant and is EASILY disposed of! It is used as a waterproofing and a drilling fluid. It is easily purchased and low cost! Like any other tool in this business, it must be used with care!

ALMIMA: Buy powdered bentonite, not granulated. Put 3 or 4 inches of water in the bucket, shake 1/2 a coffee can into the water, then stir it up with the water nozzle. Do this right before you start pouring, as bentonite will gel up if you leave it too long.Gelling is fine but you'll have to add more water to thin it to a usable consistency. I've found it more effective when used right after mixing it

Sorry, missed this part! If you use a 5 gallon bucket of bentonite, you only need to waste 3 5 gallon buckets before you have good concrete! 

I always use just one slick pack with a half a hopper of water in my A40.  Works great, have primed over 300' of 2" line up 70'.  What we do is add the slick pack and then water.  15 mins before the first truck is supposed to show, I start the pump and reverse it to mix the contents of the hopper.  When the truck shows, we pump full force.  Once the watter/slick pack mix is all but out of the hopper, the driver fill it with the grout or pump mix and we contuine pumping until we get a good shot of pure concrete out of the end of the hose.  We always prime into a spot that can be cleaned up easily, NEVER into where we are pouring.  There is only one job where we do not use a slick pack because our super and GC compain about it.  Its just not worth hearing that crap all the time.  Then we just use 3/4 hopper of water.  The Concrete we are getting there is real "light".  Its mostly shell so it flows great.

Once when i was on my 3:rd pumpjob same day, there was no water to get on the buildingsite (out in a wood) and the mixertruckdriver had forgott to load the watertank and all of my watercans where empty. The most idiotsituation a linepumper can be in.

 It was just to line up all the workers (include the mixerdriver) and pee in my bucket. Then i ad some cement and mix a slurry to prime the hoses. It realy smelled like old hangoverpee!

 It worked - the concrete slide through all the 30 m (98 ft) 1,5"-hose. But i was really scared to if it should be a plug, not so nice to hammered that out.....

Proud as i was i told my wife how i solve the problem to mix a slurry. She asked me why all constructionworkers allways has to behave like a neanderthal-man when they solve a problem!

Not a recomendable way to mix a slurry, but it works. 

I have been using Bentonite for 5 1/2 years I run a Olin ball valve I got a plastic feed scoop I mix two 5 gallons buckets with water one bucket in the Manifold with a wad of wet news paper at the discharge area then another wad of wet paper in the first hose pushing it into the hose then pour a bucket in behind the paper, last summer I primed out at 400 ft that time I put a third bucket at about 200 ft this year no plugs yet. bentonite copst about 6 dollars a 50 lb bag I have a tool box with a divider with about 100 lbs inside.

In my experience: SLICKPACK works well for priming small agg/shotcrete mixes. I find that when using large rock mix the SLICKPACK tends to seggregate the concrete and thus does not work very well, especially through rubber line. Bentonite, when mixed to the proper consistency works great, although you def. do not want it getting into anything finished/structural. My favourite is a bag of Sakrete motar mix with a coffee can of straight cement powder added to the mix, I have had by far the best results with this combo. This is just what I have found works well with the mixes in our region and I am sure results/techniques will very greatly depending on the materials used in a specific area...

Question: is it safe to pump SLICK PACK/SLICK WILLY type of priming agents into structural concrete? I have been told before that they are not but was never given a solid answer as to why.... Would be curious to here any information anyone has on this topic.

I have been told by a few finishers that priming in the pour leaves soft spots in the slab. The best thing for priming system is grout. All you need is 1/2 yard . Dump it in the hopper with your normal prime water, let it mix while you get first load of concrete ready. Then stroke a few times, start unloading concrete and start pumping. Has never failed me yet. The customer will be happy to pay a little extra for a little bit of grout, knowing that they won't spend their time busting hoses and getting out rock packs. I have done up to 1,500 feet of 5" pipe and hose with just one yard of grout to prime.

Super Gel X works the best. A sandwich baggie, or an extra full hand full to a 5 gal. pail well will prime 250' of 2.5" hose perfectly. Other types of bentonite will not work too well. If you put it in the hose first it is easy to capture at the point of placement so it does not get in the pour.

Leaddog there is nothing wrong using bentonite if there is plastic down just fold it back put it under  it cover it up if not prime out in buckets and dispose of it, and how do you know the other stuff will not effect concrete just because the maker say so,I have used it for 5 years even on Corps jobs.

The cement/watermix i use to prime out, is allways land in the mole and stay there - the concreteworker vibrate it so it disapear in to the concrete. That slurry have not any bad affect to the concrete because i use so much cement compared to water, so the slurry help the concrete to get even harder. And that small quantity of slurry is easy to vibrate so it disapear in the concrete.

That is the one and only reason to use cement/water to prime the hoses. Just put the hose into the mole and start the pump.

 The disadvantages is the cementdust when mixing the slurry - it´s a disaster when the wind blow the dust to my rainwet pump, and i don´t think it´s so healthy to inhale the cementdust. I have the cementdust on my workingclothes - my wife get very angry when i take them of at home and spread the dust all over....And our washingmachine don´t like cementdust. I have to buy a new washingmachine every 2:nd year. And all that carrying 25 kg (55 pound) cementbags several times a day.

I use just water with my line pump.  I use all 2.5" hose.  I had 500' out the other day and was nervous and added to much water and rock packed at 475'.  Broke it loose and dumped it out and hooked back up and went to pumping.

This time i tryed an idea from this post. I was (as usual) at the Stockholm-arena, 165 m (541 ft) 2"-hose 46m (151 ft) up and the last 30 m (98 ft) is 1,5"-hose  -  as usual, because the Swedish concreteworkers don´t want to carry a "heavy" 2"-hose....as usual!

 And - as usual the hydraulicpump scream for help every stroke, hour after hour. I realy have to force my pump to the limit to finish theese job, hour after hour.

 If my pump is proper after the Stockholm-arenajobs, i rise Putzmeister as the top of the line. My pump do realy eat shit hour after hour. Max idle and max Hydraulicpressaure.................then after 7 or 11 seconds the S-tube shift over, hour after hour.

 And over that, my pump gives 15 litres (3,9 gal) concrete a stroke. Even if my pump is brandnew and fully payed, i feel sorry for it, not a good start for it´s  life. But my costumers are very pleased, and that goes before... my poor concretepump. If the Stockholm-arena don´t kill my pump, then i will phone the germans (Putzmeister) and say that they have built "the impossible".

This week i tryed a new thing, i mixed (as usual) the cement 15 kg (33 pound) in 10 l (2,6 gal) water, and a gallons of clean water first in the hose, before the slurry. But this week i put in a 2-hand big wet paper in the 2"-hose after the firstwater and the slurry....as a protection from the gravel. 

I believe that the paper stop the gravel in the concrete to get free in the slurry, and tumble and make a starterplug. Maybe i have ghost in my mind, but it worked at that 165 m (541 ft) 2" and 1,5"-endhose linepumpingjobs i did, 4 days this week.

It maybe sounds that i´m a novice line-pumper, but i´m not - i´m the owner of my pumpcompany and i´m use to do all that idiotpumpjob that my competitors don´t manage.

 What´s new in this case is the concreteplant who deliver the concrete, and their concrete has more smallstone/gravel - wich makes a starterplug, not more than a 1 minutes hammering hose, but anyway. It fears my pride as a pumper. But that protectionpaper between the slurry and the concrete, did it´s work...this week.  

Gel-x is the best prime I have ever used. We used it at Pioneer and at Pumpco. I took the knowledge with me to a small line company that placed structural grout to hieghts of 550 ft. for a masonry company in Florida. The results were great, it never failed. I know some may say its just grout but I can assure you structural grout in S. Florida is very close to pea gravel and vertical pushes of 550 ft, it proved itself. If you used 5 gal. of gel 4.5 gals came out up top. Gel-x is a high yield drillers lube sold by the pallet. relatively inexpensive. Great stuff

Best part about gel-x is, that it does not suck moisture out of the concrete. As so many primers do.

Sounds interesting. I found an American company wich have a branch here in Sweden, and they sell Super gel X

http://www.cetco.se/LeftSideNavigation/DrillingProducts/Borrv%C3%A4tskor/tabid/2618/language/en-US/Default.aspx

thats the stuff, Super gel-x.  about 64 oz. in a five gal. bucket mix with water till it full, poor it in the hose at the pump just before starting and your golden. that is how I used it anyway. Good luck with your long push.

Cement and grout slurries add to a lot of cost and demand extra trucks. !!

One should rather use the portable Primers (Magic powders)
Here's a video on how to use it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy6QpqvO0vo

Magic powders are deleted from my trick book.. Ok.. The mixture comes through prefectly but the pulgg comes anyway.. and than you stand there wondering.. You got 300 liters out of the endhose but still you plug.... Where the hell is it plugging?? Water, grout and sement slurry is the way to go... I,ve done more than 400m with cement slurry without plugging..

Cement Slurries will ideally work.

But once the mud has reached the mouth of the hose, isn't the role of the Priming powder/Cement slurry/Grout finished? if After puming a several trucks of concrete, we find a plug, Should we blame the initial Primer? It muct have been eroded away and replaced with the fine particles of cement. Now since the cement is the ideal primer, it won't allow plugging.

But if proper care is not taken, such as if the cemet.concrete layer inside dries up or sets due to the heat generated, it might add to the plug.

please enlighten.

a 9 sack grout mix , about the consistency of a milkshake with 20-25 gallons of water in front works everytime if you have a pumpable concrete mix and lines are clean, we use slick pak or similar polymers to prime boom pumps and short distance line pours , but any line to the end of a boom and any 4" line jobs over 150 ft we use grout and and small line pours over 200 ft we either mix a bag or two of cement with water or ready mix brings grout, I used gypsum to prime 350 ft of 2 1/2" system coming off a boom and worked awesome. 

Leaddog I owned a line pump for 7 plus years and Bentonite is all I ever used like these guys say don't put it in the pour under the plastic is best a 50 lb bag is good for about 10 primes at 10 bucks a prime that 100.00 at a cost of 8.00 per bag.

Of course the primer is gone after pumping your first yard.. I had a customer that believed the slick pack was helping to lubricate the pipes throughout the whole poor.. Can you believe something that stupid??

But I told him he could mix the slick pack through the load and that could help but he wasn't to convinced about that

I've used many things, grout, mortar water, simply rinsed down the mud and used that water, even oil in a panic... But when line pumping if I have slick pak I'll use it!

Say your running 450 ft of 3 in line... Half bag of slick pak in the hopper with water up to the cylinders( I've found with slick pak if you use to much water it can screw you.

at 170 feet out, use the outer pastic baggy that the slick pak came in and put it between the 2 hoses using the rubber to hold it there.. Then take another half bag of slick pak with a half if a 5 gal bucket of water pour it into the hose in front of your plastic seal you made then seal it off with another baggy in front of that!

repeat process every 160-170 ft depending on the mix and your hose size this also works good if your pumping down hill!

prime at low volume and increasing throttle the further your out

thats why I always save a couple of those baggys your your handy duct tape will work too

Hi Guys.

Greetings from Europe.

We supply the best concrete line primer available designed specifically for long length applications. Our market is geared around CFA piling where 200metres of hose is not unusual. Pumps used in this sector are normallyy statics ranging from Putz 1005 thru to Putz 2110. We also supply this primer to the UK's 2 largest Mobile pump companies. The name of this product is "PRIME A PUMP". interested? please contact info@pcpgroup.co.uk

Your empty coffee cup in front of the prime also helps.

I don't understand, how much half a bag slick pack is. 250g?
If I am not supposed to dillute it much what is the optimum dilution if I want to pump , say, 100meters.

Please use metric terms.

Just eyeball it, doesn't have to be a perfect amount