Liveline Washing

[Pootnaigle]

Ummmmmm yep we hadda 69 kv lateral feed to the beach area and after a dry spell the salt spray would build up on the insulators and cause em to leak over. We had a rig that held about a thousand gallons of water and filled it from a fire plug. Basically just a hi pressure washer with a really long hose. Set up at every pole and hosed the glass down. usually worked all night for a day or so and soon as it rained the prollem was solved.
We had 2 of these rigs and leapfroged em down the line. One of em had a ground attached to the hose and it came into contact with the line and killed a man on the ground who was in contact with the truck.
Funny thing about it was we could wash down the 69 with no prollem but try washing down the 13 KV underbuild and it would flash over every time.

[Edge]

wow swimpy.... nice change up... usually you wait a week or 2 after some one posted some shit about CSPs or arresstors or CLFS or some shit to make a thread that makes you look like you know WTF your talkin about....


what ever I reckon...

time to talk about corn husks... and water....and salt... and what ever....

way to stay current Swimpstick... way to dodge another one...

wanna talk about CSP's I mean really....

hey thank you for keeping the board active... thanks great... but ffs man...

get over yourself...

Bill

[climbsomemore]

FPL would wash transmission along the beach as needed
They burn sugar cane south of Okeechobee.... They washed soot off those circuits to.
We would fill the tanker with steam distilate from the power plant at Riviera Beach

the substation department would wash and wax all the station insulators as needed

we were bead blasting PMH UG switchgear with a walnut shell medium and corn husks... The grit could jam up the mechanism if the operator shot it to high in the enclosure

[MI-Lineman]

Never done it! Just cleaned some switch gear and sh!t when it was denergized! Bay Rd area Climbsome!:cool:

[MI-Lineman]

I'd heard about that. They also had some Helicoptor hotwash of tranny Lines too I think. Do ya know HOW they washed them? Guys in Buckets with trailer rigs?

They had to wash the 115 and 230 KV Tranny lines in Saudi literally, on a monthly basis. Substations too. They had a whole fleet of trucks that had 110 ft extension booms and a 3000 Gal water tank on em, with tanker truck support along with them. Slicker than hell. Strictly desalinized water that had to be checked after each refill to verify the purity of the water.

One operator in the truck, would control the entire wash of a single 230 tower with a joystick, lookin thru the glass top on the cab. Never got out of the truck. Bout 10 min. for all 3 phases on one side of a double circuit structure.

There were also Live wash, substation wash crews too, that were on the same monthly schedule as the lines. That was with portable wash trailer rigs from the ground and out of a bucket.

They tried the corncobs....Holy crap, what a mess! Worked fairly well, but too expensive and messy. The desalt water was basically free.

That's what I was wonderin. How big linewash is here in the states, especially in places like Cali, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.

Any pictures?

Oh and not for proof either!:rolleyes: Just curious!

[Trbl639]

Had an International Paper papermill in my area..every spring they had a week long shutdown and we had usually 2 days to rework/repair, test relays, and OCB's, etc..usually on a weekend.......we cleaned every insulator/buss support or what ever with a liquid solvent, can't remember what it was but might have been lacquer thinner........then covered all insulators/all porcelain with a clear gel, came in a tube like silicone..........guaranteed your arms were worn out from rubbing them dang things all day for 2 days!!

[Trbl639]

You better stay the hell out of my old stomping grounds.:D You can't piss on a tree in East Texas than isn't on International Paper CO. leased ground.

Steve...........not sure about E Texas, about 85 miles away, but here in south Arkansas it was the same..different now, IP has almost completely gotten out of the leased Lands business!!! It's just another company name on the land now, like Deltic or Plum Creek.......

Like the papermill I mentioned......closed it in 2001, all of it is gone now, except for a few buildings used by other companies.....the other one in Pine Bluff was set to be closed, but was bought out by another outfit........right after IP built a big Co-Gen plant next door!!!!

[Squizzy]

Line washing here is pretty big during summer as the first rains tend to start alot of poletop fires. They also get into spraying the insulators with silicon which is a crap job as tends to get everywhere. When I was doing Substation work the Maintenance guys would shut down circuits and go around and polish all the insulators in the yards. Mainly in Industrial areas where polution built upon the switchgear. Have put Denzo tape over connectors and painted flexi tails with silicon as well its all good except on a hot day when you walk under it and it drips off down the back of you neck lol...

[thrasher]

We have had to do some here near fertilizer plants or cotton gins. The fertilizer issue is obvious but if people haven't been around a cotton gin, don't build overhead close downwind of the "trash" pile. In the ginning process the machines seperate out leaves, stems, and debris from the field and dumps it outside before seperating the seed and fiber. The seed and fiber or lint are both stored and shipped out as product. However no matter how good the process some of the cotton fiber called lint seperates out as well with the trash. At this stage the fiber is still slightly oily and will stick to about anything; bells, insulators, bushings, xarms, conductor, etc.. If it doesn't rain frequently enough the entire structures start looking furry then with a light mist rain, or heavy fog it will flash over.
The washing rigs around here just use tap water thru a high pressure nozzle that includes a spinning rotor in the stream of water. This makes the water come out as short pulses not a continuous stream, this way it can't track back the water to the hose and operator.
We finally put in padmount transformers at both gins and the closest overhead is about 700 feet away, that took care of the major problems.

[climbsomemore]

yea... down wind of a concrete plant.... every thing along the downwind fence was always coated with lime and portland cement dust....

We did'nt wash that line... but you had to have a welder's chipping hammer nearly to get the wire clean enough to sleeve...

[wtdoor67]

Never did it. Worked with a couple of guys who did at So. Cal. Edison. Said they had the towers piped in some instances. Just had to climb up and attach your wand and nozzle. Said they also used a wash truck in some cases. One referred to it as "slick water".

One worked there for 6 months or so. Said one day he showed up and they said, well we're gonna wash insulators today. He was already sick of it. He said. Is that all we got to do? Replied. Yep it is. He drug up. Said he couldn't stand to do anymore of such boring crap.

Oh yeah. Swamprat Greggo eats boogers.

[Trbl639]

Amen to the overhead close to Cotton gins or Cement plants.........

Have all kinds of problems in the south with that, most places don't want to pay to put the ovhd to UG...and the company says money is better spent somewhere else!

[lewy]

We hire these guys for our washing
http://www.k-line.ca/DIVISIONS/MaintenanceConstruction/PowerServices/tabid/77/Default.aspx

[barehander]

I've done it all......

Drywash.
2700

Production washer....
2701

Helicopter wash...
2698
2699

[PK270]

Done it out of helicopter a bunch and been on crews that washed from the ground from wash rig. We always used de-mineralized water, NEVER heard of using straight tap water, didnt know it could be done that way. We had to test every batch of water, got it from the power plants. Made it tough when the jobs were not close to a plant. Also that water seemed to dry out your hands after prolonged use.

[thrasher]

The places where I have seen straight tap water used were all on 15kv distribution. Practices may be different for washing higher voltages.

[skylifter]

At transmission voltages, the conductivity of the DI water, and the temperature of the water, are constantly monitored, because little changes can mean flashovers.

[boyakasha]

We really have to line wash here in West Australia.

The amount of bush fires and back burning we have over here leaves no option.

Its a great job to do when its 40+ degrees.
When I first started doing my time I ( my brain was in my ass) I washed a Drop out fuse insulator and dropped out the blue phase to a large steel mill.

:eek:

[Squizzy]

We really have to line wash here in West Australia.

The amount of bush fires and back burning we have over here leaves no option.

Its a great job to do when its 40+ degrees.
When I first started doing my time I ( my brain was in my ass) I washed a Drop out fuse insulator and dropped out the blue phase to a large steel mill.

:eek:

Ha ha ha you kept that one quiet:D