Dealing With Clogged Insulation Machine Blower Hose
Clogged hoses. They are inevitable. No matter how many years of experience, you will clog your hose. This can be a time-wasting ask and create a hassle to finish the job in a timely manner. This article will help you identify the causes and show a quick video on unclogging your insulation machine hose.
How to Prevent Clogged Hoses
Prevent kinks from developing in your hose. A hose reel will help keep your hose free from kinking which leads to many clogged hoses.
Related to the first point, make sure your hose is laid out as straight as possible. Don’t let your hose get all twisted and curled up. This restricts he diameter of your hose and can create the kinks.
Reduce your hose appropriately. If you want to reduce, for example, the last 50 feet of your hose, choose to reduce by one inch every 50 feet. Attempting to reduce the circumference of your hose, too radically, will create binding spots. For example, reduce from a 3″ hose to a 2″ hose, maximally.
Check how much material you are feeding through the hose. Make sure, if you are filling a wall cavity, that you do not have your airlock wide open. Consider this as a standard. If you are filling a 2×4 wall, then set your airlock at 4″. If you are filling a 6″ wall, then 6″ airlock opening works well.
How to Unclog Your Hose
Hose clamps are great, but they can be a pain to deal with when unclogging your hose. We use a hose clamp at the machine and at the beginning of one of the reductions to prevent the hose from blowing apart where the pressure is greatest. Duct tape is your friend! When you hose clogs, all you need to do is to run a utility knife around the connector, cutting the duct tape. Then you can separate your hose section quickly.
If you are using a translucent hose like Mark II, then you will appreciate the fact that you can locate the beginning and end of a clog in the daylight.
Remove the hose from the blower and reverse it. Connect the other end of the hose to the blower. Now you will be blowing the material backwards. Since the material will only further impact if you try to increase the blower motor, reversing the air flow and giving your hose a vigorous shake at the clogged point will 90% of he time blow out the impaction.
