Water Cooler.

[citizen kane]

After some advice about water cooler flow rates.

I've recently purchased a second hand water cooler from a well known welding supply company in the west country. The water cooler was sold as working but noisy. The quoted flow and pressure for the pump was 4 bar at 40 l/min. The cooler is also offered with a flow switch that can be interlocked to the torch or foot pedal switch to prevent the welder turning on if the flow is below 1.2 l/min.

At the same time I also purchased from them a Weldcraft WP20 torch, when I plugged it all in I could only get a max flow of 0.9l/min pumping into no head.

I've since spoken to the company about my concerns but they are are of the opinion that this flow rate should be OK and have suggested that I give it a go and see what happens and check the torch head dosnt get to hot

OK, my main concerns are not the torch head but the power cable/water feed line, I assume this will be the fist thing to die if the flow it to low.

Anyone any experiance with this that can help reassure me that I wont fry my new torch.

 

[hotrodder]

Figures they quoted for the pump were probably unrestricted flow rates? Weldcraft say the torch wants between 0.9 and 1.4 l/min @ max of 50psi (small print right at the bottom). Power cable is the bit that gets fried first if used without water but it's the water return not a feed

 

[citizen kane]

Thanks hotrodder, I guess I just need to stop messing around and weld.

 

[hotrodder]

Yeah it'll probably be fine... my kit, torch lead barely gets noticably warm even running 160+ amps AC. Water cooler has always been noisy but it uses a piston pump rather than a rotary vane jobby. A place i used to do the odd bit of work for had several abused/neglected Murex transtigs... power cables would get quite warm (i often drape the lead around my neck if working at a table) even at lowish amperage but they kept on going without problems. If you drape the leads around your neck/coil them around your arm you'll notice if somethings amiss before any harms done.

 

[derekm]

having just been round this loop designing my own cooler, here's my two p.
The amount of pressure required to achieve the flow of 1l per minute is nowhere near 40 PSI. Thats just the safe pressure the torch hose assy is rated at.
I have had a pump (indoor water feature pump) rated at 1.5m head ~ 2psi give more than a litre per minute through a WP18 4m torch.
It will depend on the hose length, hose diameter and the torch restrictions.

However you say its a pump with max pressure 4bar max flow 40L/min? If that was working properly I would have thought you should be getting a lot more than 1l/min.
At that low a flow rate the pump should be generating close to the 4bar = 60 psi at its outlet.