Water Treatment FAQs

How much does it cost to treat the water in my wet spraybooth?

Impossible to give a full answer without some information about the water volume of the booth, the type of booth, the amount of paint being used, and the type of paint being used. However, for a paint spray booth with a water tank containing 750 litres, the running cost could be as low as £4.50 per day. Basically, the larger the volume of water that is being circulated around the spray booth, to capture your paint overspray, and the more paint that is being sprayed into the water then the more chemicals are required to treat the system.

How many different treatment chemicals are needed to treat my booth water?

Generally speaking only two products are required to treat the overspray within your spray booth water, this is a coagulant and a flocculant. There many be a requirement to add a defoamer (either Promousse or Anti Foam HSS) and some booths may need the pH of the water to be regulated to keep it around neutral. During very hot weather or if the spray booth is not being used for an extended period of time then additional biocide can be added to maintain low bacteria levels. However, pH regulator and additional biocide is not a common requirement.

We use water based paint and solvent based paint in the same spray booth. Can you treat this booth water?

Our water treatment chemicals can work with both solvent based coatings and water based coatings within the same spray booth. You treat the spray paint overspray in exactly the same way as you would if you were using only one type of paint within the spray booth. As long as we now the general usage and approximate paint mix at the start then we can recommend the most suited coagulant and flocculant for your water system. All we ask is that is you make major changes to your paint usage, such as changing the type of paint, then you just let us know so that any changes can be made regarding the water treatment chemical being used.

These are just a few of the most commonly asked questions but there are many more below. If you don't see the answer to a question that you may have then just CONTACT US and we will give you all the information you need.

What you do with the water within a wet spray booth has always caused people issues however this need not be the case.

You have two main options open to you; you can either pay to have the water pumped from your water tank or you can treat the water which will allow you to easily remove the sludge thus keeping your booth water. Should you decide to dispose of the water then a local company will come to you and remove the water and most of the sludge. However, in between disposals, you should be treating the water with a biocide to kill any potentially harmful bacteria.

We feel the better option is to treat the water, with our PROCO range of products, which will enable you to remove the paint/sludge from your spray booth. This means that you are greatly reducing disposal costs, reducing maintenance as the paint/sludge is kept soft therefore reducing blockages, and not wasting water.

Our products can be matched with your requirements so that you are having the best treatment to meet your needs and your budget. Please CONTACT US if you would like any further information or assistance.

There are a number of things that you can do to eliminate the smell that can be produced by your spray booth and which is the best option is really decided by what you do with your spray booth water and what if any treatment you do.

If you aren't adding anything to your booth water, other than paint, and allowing the sludge to build then you should be adding a biocide so we recommend adding Probio to the water, as an absolute minimum treatment of your booth water. Probio is a liquid biocide designed to kill bacteria, within the water, therefore reducing smells and making the water healthier to be around.

You also have the option of treating your booth water to enable the paint to be removed on a daily or weekly basis which is a far better option than leaving the paint to accumulate within the the tank. Removing the paint is removing the source of the smell, no waste paint then no food for the bacteria.

To remove the paint you will need to use Proco which is a liquid coagulant that contains a biocide. Proco keeps paint soft and the biocide treats the water as per Probio.

Over the 25+ years that we have been in business we have been asked this question on many, many occasions.

The answer is to use our water denaturant products and allocate a little time. It really is as simple as that. If these two things are done then you will be able to keep your spray booth water clean which means always running your spray booth with clear water, you will stop smells within your spray booth water, your spray will operate far better with clean water than when it is pumping dirty water which will greatly reduce production downtime caused by breakdowns.

The type of paint or coating that you use within your spray booth doesn't matter as our unique range of spray booth water treatment products allow us to recommend the right treatment product for your booth.

Water-based overspray waste (which includes glue and lacquers) is generally treated with our PROCO 301 whilst PROCO is normally used for solvent-based products, powder paints or spray booths that are used for mixtures of different types of paints or other coatings.

So how do you use the products? Well, you start by establishing the initial working concentration of the products within the booth which is a one off dose. After this you make regular additions to maintain this concentration (overspray and fresh water dilute the initial starting concentration). Frequency of these additions depend upon the size of your booth and the amount of overspray produced or how often you use your booth so an addition could be required to be made on a constant basis, or once a day, every few days, every week or every few weeks.

Following an addition you need to remove the overspray which can be done manually by skimming or automatically with our filtration plant.

How long does a treatment take? It takes a matter of moments to add the products. The range of water treatment chemicals designed to be used directly in a wet spray booth are all liquids so you just need to measure the dose and add it to the booth. After this you spend a couple of minutes mixing the water, a couple of minutes to allow the water to settle then, if you are removing the overspray manually, allow around 10 minutes to remove the separated overspray.

We also recommend 15 minutes per week (or less frequently depending upon how much your spray booth is used) of general checking of the booth so make sure that nothing is in the water that shouldn't be there, wipe the water curtain wall, check that the pump filter is clean etc.

We will help you at every step; we will recommend the most suited products, the size of the initial dose and top-up doses, frequency of dosages and the most suited method for overspray extraction. We will also train your operatives how to use the products and how to keep your spray booth clean. If you want to keep your spray booth water clean, have no more paint sludge in your spray booth, stop smells from your booth water and want to stop having to pay for tankers to remove your waste water then contact us.

You really can keep a booth clean. You can stop wasting water and stop disposing of booth water and all you have to do is use our denaturant products and follow the instructions. To start the process all you have to do is Contact Us.

If you are like many other companies then you are currently collecting a number of IBC and waiting until you have enough to have them all taken away. If you like to do this then carry on but most companies would like to stop as it takes up a lot of space, disposal is expensive, and becoming increasing difficult, is very wasteful and a leak is always a possibility.

Using our products will enable you treat this waste water, separating the paint or glue or whatever is mixed with the water then filter so that you are left with clear water and waste solids. The solids can be disposed but the water can be used to dilute the next treatment or used for future cleaning.

If there is no requirement or potential use for this filtered water then it can even be possible to dispose of it to drain with appropriate authorisation. We have customers to dispose of their water, others that use it for cleaning and some that use the treated water to dilute the next treatment so the choice depends upon your requirements.

You most certainly can. All you need to do is collect the water then mix it with our Proco 416P which will separate the glue from the water. This can then be filtered through our Aspifloc filtration sacks and the clear water disposed or used for future cleaning or diluting the next treatment.

As the vast majority of this water is produced by cleaning machinery or PVA application equipment it can be easily stored until a sufficient volume is available to undertake a treatment. This volume really depends upon the amount generally produced as some of our customers can produce in excess of 1000 litres per day and others 100 litres per week.

Many of our customers choose to use our Fusion 800 mixing tank which acts as both an 800 litre storage and mixing tank. This is definitely the best option for mixing as the Fusion has been designed precisely for mixing industrial water contaminated with glues or paint.

There is a lot of talk about bacteria and a lot of scare stories about bacteria hiding within the water of your spray booth. We have found that many chemical companies use the word bacteria in order to frighten people into buying a range of products that probably aren't necessary. We have never done that and we will never do that. We prefer to give honest information and advice.

The first thing to remember is that bacteria is everywhere; its on every surface we touch, on everything we eat and, without it, we wouldn't live a very healthy life. So, it is harmful bacteria we need to be careful with not just bacteria.

The water within your spray booth will obviously contain bacteria but does it contain bacteria that could harm your workforce? There is always a very, very slim chance that harmful bacteria could be present which is why we tell our customers that, at the very least, they should be adding a biocide (Probio) to their booth water. Probio should be added to the booth water on a regular basis and will kill bacteria that could, potentially, be harmful.

In addition to our Probio biocide, we have additional treatment options for your booth water ranging from keeping the paint soft (no blockages) to a number of choices that allow you to remove all of the paint but keeping your water. This also means that you will never have to dispose of your booth water. Many of the products for these treatments contain a biocide so you are not only removing all of the paint from your system but you are also treating the water with a biocide.

If you would like further information or advice then please CONTACT US and we will be happy to help.

The quick answer is yes. Using our products can certainly reduce the frequency of water changes and, if required, our products can eliminate water disposal completely saving water costs, disposal costs and downtime.

To eliminate the disposal of your spray booth water completely you will need to spend a little time each day/week to remove the paint following each treatment. This need only take 10 minutes or so, depending upon the size of the booth, so it isn't something that takes up too much time but the small time invested in this cleaning can bring huge rewards.

The removal of the paint can be done manually by skimming the treated paint from the surface of the water or by pumping the water through our Bigfloc filtration unit. The filtration bag held within the Bigfloc removes the separated paint from the water allowing it to be returned to the spray booth.

Whichever method of paint removal you decide is most suited you can be sure that our products will help you to keep your spray booth functioning as it was intended so that you can concentrate on your production.

We can help and you will be able to treat your spray booth and remove the paint which will allow you to keep your water clean and your booth running.

The problem with mixing these types of paint is that the powder will want to sink and will not float along with the wet spray when the booth water is treated. So this requires a slight change in the way that the booth water is maintained but you will still have the same result which is you will be able to remove the paint solids leaving you with clear water.

We strongly recommend that you have your tank emptied and start a treatment with a clean booth and with clean water.

Before you empty the booth you should add Detartrol to the water (best added 3-4 days before emptying the tank) which will soften paint that has dried both inside pipes and on surfaces and make the whole cleaning process much more effective and leave you with a very clean booth.

Once the booth is clean and filled with fresh water the ongoing treatment can start and you will be able to keep your booth and the water clean going forward.

If you are allowing the sludge to build-up within the water tank of your wet spray booth then the water must be changed when the pump starts to have problems. You will notice that the pump starts to surge resulting in a lack of a constant water flow or even stops pumping water completely. This is the last point at which you should be changing the water in your spray booth. However, if your spray booth gets to this point then you have left your booth water far too long and it should have already been changed.

We have seen many booths in which the paint sludge is allowed to build up until there is almost no water left for the pump to circulate and indeed waiting for the spray booth tank to fill with sludge tends to be the point at which many owners decide that the water should be changed.

There are a number of reasons why booths are left until the last possible moment before having the tanks emptied:

Actual cost of removal - bringing in pump trucks to remove the water is not cheap.
Time - loss of production time or paying overtime to have the cleaning done at weekends.
Inconvenience - it is a job that nobody wants to do as it is dirty & the water generally smells very bad.
Lack of alternatives - leaving the booth to fill is the way it has always been done.

Leaving the spray booth tank to fill with paint sludge is not the best option as it will reduce the lifespan of your booth, the water therefore your spraying area will smell, you will loose production time to small repairs or blockages, dirty booths does not create the best working environment and you are not getting the best operation from the booth.

So if the spray booth isn't allowed to fill with paint sludge how is the booth kept clean? There are options when it comes to the cleaning and maintenance of your spray booth and we always discuss them with customers so that they can get the results that they want however keeping the spray booth tank free from paint build up is one of the options and this means that, if dosages are maintained, you should NEVER have to have your spray booth water removed because of the build up of sludge.

By using our spray booth products you can eliminate the requirement to have your spray booth emptied and have your spray booth running on clean water.

There are two things that you can do; the first is to address the production of the waste water and the second is treat the waste water.

Many of our customers produce their waste water through the cleaning of spray equipment such as spray guns and paint lines. Over a period of time this waste water mounts up and it isn't particularly unusual for us to be contacted when a company is running out of space in which to store their IBC's.

We offer many solutions which allow for the treatment of this waste water that will allow you to separate and filter the paint solids leaving you with water that can be recycled for disposed. This means that you will no longer be storing waste water.

There are plenty of factors that will determine which type of booth is best suited for you so tat could be budget, volume of work, type of work, size of items being painted and the amount of space you have available.

However, if you want to know which type of booth gives the best air filtration and removes the most dust/contaminants from the air then the answer has to be a wet spray booth. Historically, people have moved away from wet booths as they were under the impression that the water was costly to maintain and water changes were a frequent necessity. This is not the case as the water is easily treated and doing so properly can eliminate water changes completely.

As you can see from our site, we manufacture spray booth filters for dry spray booths and treatment chemicals for wet spray booths so hopefully you can accept us offering impartial advice.

If you are using only water-based paints or lacquers within your spray booth then you would normally use Proco 301 to treat the water. This will result in the paint being separated from the water and the paint being kept soft but if you wish to remove the paint from the booth then you would also need to use Proflo+ to pull all of the separated paint together so that it can be easily filtered.

It is always a good idea to have the water tested prior to starting a treatment so we normally recommend sending us a few litres of your dirty booth water so that we can check which of our products give the best results when working on your particular mix of paint.

You can easily stop the sludge from collecting in the tank of your wet spray booth. You can't stop the sludge from forming, as it is simply your overspray, however by changing the way that you look after your spray booth you can remove it with very little fuss and never have to change your spray booth water ever again.

If you want your spray booth to be clear of sludge and to stay clear of sludge then you should use our spray booth water treatment products. These products contain a biocide which will keep the water fresh by killing any bacteria, they will also keep paint soft therefore no blockages, make the paint 'non-sticky' so that it won't stick anywhere within your spray booth (inside pipes, pumps or nozzles) and separates the paint from the spray booth water which allows it to be removed (either by skimming manually or removing by automatic filtration via our systems) thus you are able to keep the spray booth clear of sludge.

We can advise on the best products to use, when to use and how to remove the sludge. We want to work with you and help you to achieve the best results possible so, if you want to stop sludge from collecting in your spray booth please CONTACT US.