There are 4 ways to mix sealer inside a tote prior to application or transfer to your sealcoat tank:
1. Use one of our portable spray systems to connect to the tote's suction port and the tote's return feed. Recirculate the sealer for 4 to 5 minutes.
2. Use a compressor with a long 6’ lance to stick down in the top port of the tote. Push the air from the compressor throughout the bottom of the tote to bubble and agitate the material for about 15 minutes.
3. Do both of the above together for optimal sealer agitation results.
4. Use an IBC electrical tote mixer that is mounted on top of the tote. The mixer has a long shaft with a mixer head on it that spins inside the tote to agitate. These electric mixers are quite costly so option 3 above is generally the most commonly used.
Yes it does.
This system includes a 50 foot 3/4" diameter hose, rated to 275psi.
Yes, but not out of the box - you need to purchase the optional Tote Connection Kit.
Yes, simply close the main valve on the bottom of the tote. Disconnect the suction hose from the bottom of the tote and then put that end of the hose in a 5 gallon pail and turn the valve above the pump to spray mode and then start the engine. The pump will suck the water up out of the 5 gallon pail into the pump and down the spray hose out the gun and then spray the water out of the gun back into the 5 gallon pail you just sucked up and you can recirculate it in the pail like this while having the engine on low idle.
We cannot warranty a system if sand has been used in it as it will wear and ruin the seals. We do however, suggest applying the sand by hand with a grass seeding machine after applying a thin wet coat of sealer and then applying a second coat of sealer over top of the sand layer as a final coat.
300 gallon metal tanks with sweep agitation blades mostly move the product contents near the outside walls of the storage tank. The heavy paddles usually rotate very slowly and are driven by cumbersome gears, chains, and pulleys. The product near the center of the tank may never even get mixed at all!
To observe this, try this revealing experiment:
First take a can of paint, secondly take a paint stir stick. Now stir the contents using the stir stick only along the inside edge of the paint can slowly. Try to emulate the speed of a paddle moving around the inside of a storage tank. What happens to the contents in the center of the paint can? Hardly moves or mixes at all doesn't it?
The re-circulation system that comes with the AK Tote, Drum, Portable, 130 and 230 Sprayers is absolutely amazing. Your sealer mixes up in 3 to 4 minutes and ready to apply.
These systems are field-tested with our own brand of Coal Tar asphalt sealer and can be used with specific brands of Asphalt Emulsion sealer. The systems cannot spray sealer with sand.
Approved Sealers:
We can't guarantee the performance of the systems with other people's sealer because they may add additives that we don't know about that could affect the performance of the pump, hoses, circulation, etc. We use the industry's best-quality sealer and we can assure you that you will not have any issues with it; if you wish to use another brand of sealer please contact the manufacturer to guarantee performance with your spray system.
If a chunk of sealer, a stone, or a rock is blocking the output of the tip, it would create a blockage in the tip that would create a trickle or a pressurized multi-stream spray. Sealer sitting in the tank for a long period of the tank can dry on the side walls and form flakes. These flakes can fall into the rest of the sealer and get suctioned through to your spray tip, causing a blockage.
We heavily advise investing in a filter kit, as it filters out unwanted chunks. See more troubleshooting tips for if you lose pressure at the spray tip.
This usually happens due to the tip clogging or if the tip is worn out past a usable point. Make sure to clean your spray tips after every sealcoat job. Buy new spray tips and invest in a filter kit to prevent clogged spray tips.
Any standard 4-stroke motor can be used. Like the ones used for lawn mowers, snow blowers, etc.
For Launtop engines, 5W-40 is recommended and you can fill up to the level of oil gauge which is about 0.5 Liter. For Honda engines, you can use 10W-30 or the 5W-30 during the cold season - around 0.55-0.6 Liter depending on the model.
Please refer to the manual included with your purchase.
Pump priming is simple. As long as there is constant liquid reaching the pump, it will prime and pump. The less air in the suction hoses the better the pump will prime and work.
When transferring sealer from drums to the main spray system tank make sure the transfer kit hose is completely full of water. Connect the barrel pipe to the transfer kit and then the other end of the transfer kit to the suction port of the pump and make sure the transfer kit hose remains full of water. Put the barrel pipe into the sealer drum. Make sure the ball valve handles are in transfer mode. Start your motor and begin your transfer.
The pump only needs to be primed the first time you use it or if you haven't used your pump for longer than 24 hours. Use 1 gallon of water in the pump through the pump orifice allows the machine to immediately push that liquid through, creating enough force to start pulling sealer from the tank.
If air is hitting your pump at anytime it will lose prime and the chances of burning up your seals are high. Make sure water or sealer is always reaching your pump.
If the pump is leaking between the engine and the motor, it's usually caused when the pump overheats, due to running the pump dry. The main master seal heats up and shrivels up, creating small cracks. Always make sure you run some kind of liquid in your pump, whether it be sealer or water during priming.
We recommend that you clean it before you store it - it's always best to clean your unit at the time you put it away. However, if you have stored it for a while without cleaning, you will have problems if the sealer has cured in the hoses and pump.
No. You will need to prime the system first before using it, then mix your sealer with a drill mixer prior to turning on your machine.
It comes down to your weight and convenience. Totes weigh a grand total of about 3,000 lbs. As it sits for periods of a week or longer, the sediment and the clay in the sealer will settle to the bottom leaving a thick sludge at the bottom of the tote. This means that when you go to suck from the bottom of the tote with a spray system, it will suck the sludge through the pump and put a lot of strain on the pump. But it will suck it up and then recirculate it back to the top of the tote if used with one of AK's Spray Systems. In recirculation mode, when the sealer reenters the top, it - of course - settles down to the bottom again and sucks from the bottom. The thing is the suction point at the bottom of the tote has a one-way output valve and so when it sucks from that area, it will suck the sludge from that given area with a circumference of, approximately, or a diameter of, approximately, one foot. And what happens is the sediment will remain at the back corners of the tote and unless you can get down there with a long broomstick or a long drum mixer for totes, it can get very challenging to get the sediment solids moved to the suction feed of that tote, which means that you would end up with sealer that doesn't have the right amount of solids in it because, of course, when a tote's originally filled, it had a right amount of solids. A Tote is heavy to move around so you need a forklift or you need a very strong power jack to be able to move it around like a skid steer. Drums weigh about 650 lbs. You can use a dolly to move it around. It has a ring lid at the top, and the lid pops right off. You can use one of our drum mixers to mix up the sealer. It’s easy access and is a simpler to operate from and also to mix. Make sure it's mixed to its proper water to sealer ratio where the solids are mixed back in the water. It makes it a lot easier for you to pump the sealer without strain and allows you to spray a consistent, final product that is ready for application. Any time you leave sealers sitting in totes or drums, it does require full agitation of the material before it is sprayed on any surface or applied via buckets with brooms and/or squeegees.
Depending on the pump that you have, installation of the replacement seal kit is easy. Please watch the instructional video on how to replace the seal kit for your Aluminum pump and Cast Iron Pump.
