Reposting here on request. What this topic is about -
People have different connection setups for their water fed poles. This is about making the connection setups simple and robust so if anybody sees a better way they should holler.
Websites have lists of fittings and photographs but you are expected to know the context. I am critical because MVS is a simple system but you can be several hundred dollars in before you found the fittings were the wrong type - size or you didn’t buy enough.
My personal MVS or minimal viable setup is -
Starting from the water flow at the customer’s tap to the water fed pole.
At my vehicle there is a box that contains adapters for customer taps. This is in Europe so Americans might connect in different ways. The most common is the 3/4 inch tap adapter. You want spares for common adapters and do not use brass for the adapters changed the most because they get stuck.
The other tap adapters are a large diameter smooth bore, 1/2 inch, 1 inch - all female threaded, two types of indoor facet adapter - large square mixer tap connector and one male threaded 3/4 inch.
- Smooth bore - get 2cm and wider
- Female thread 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch
- Female thread 1 inch
- Square mixer tap connector
- Male thread 3/4 inch
You will need disposable gloves, thread seal tape for leaky taps, spare rubber gaskets, stainless hose clips, spare female garden hose connectors, multitool because customers can have quirky or damaged taps.
- Gloves
- Thread seal tape
- Rubber gaskets
- Stainless hose clips
- Female garden hose connectors
- Multitool
You might add a torch to find your equipment in the winter evenings. I lost my multitool and have been cursing since.
After the customer tap is dealt with you need to be able to connect to the filter(s), reel(s) and wfp brush(es).
Introducing Yellow Adapter. YAs are 1m quality hoses 12.5mm-12.6mm diameter with quality female hose connectors on the ends. You can use cheap garden hose and hose connectors found everywhere but know they will be in the bin in a year.
Yellow Adapter
You need to make 2 YA - I carry six. One goes from the customer’s tap to the inflow fitting on your DI tank. If you station the DI next to the customer’s tap it could be 1m long but if the DI tank is in your vehicle you would need a garden hose reel to get back to your vehicle, one female hose connector and one YA to hook to the DI tank. You need a male/male connector if you have an Unger DI tank because the outlet is female.
- Garden hose reel.
- 2-6 YA = 2-6m hose and 4-12 female hose connectors
- Male/male hose connector
The pure water outflow of the DI tank accepts a YA and this connects to a 3/4 inch tap adapter on the reel. The reel can carry pole hose, microbore or minibore. That is hose with internal diameters of 5mm, 6mm or 8mm. Before connecting the YA you should unspool the reel to the run you need for your job. This reduces resistance and problems with dragging hose.
One important connector I use is the Claber 9-13mm Coupling. 9mm-13mm means the hose outer diameter and it goes down to 8mm. This coupling lives inside the reel barrel and changes flow from the YA to your choice of hose size.
- Reel 2
- Pole hose, microbore or minibore
- Claber 9-13mm Coupling
At the end of your reel 2 hose you need a way to connect to the pole hose of the water fed pole. I use two 6mm tails and a YA. Some use Rectus Series 21 couplings or the Slick connects but in all types you will need a male/female coupling and this coupling should have barbs that fit the diameter of your reel hose.
- Reel hose tails
- Rectus 21 Coupling
- Slick Connects
This assumed you are one operator - used 1 DI tank and 1 reel. You would need five or six YA and a hose splitter for two wfp users.
- Hose splitter
You would probably want hose repair barbs and o-clips to secure the reel hose connections.
- Repair barbs
- O-Clips
- O-Clip clamp
Tails, o-clips and couplings all need to be checked for fitting to pole hose, microbore or minibore.
