FAQ

What we’ve done is place metal on top and bottom. That way the plastic isn’t rubbing up against the ground grating and the metal takes that abuse. Then, the plastic itself allows the concrete to just pop-out. We have the best of both worlds.

We’ve designed the Porta-Pit to be easy – a one man operation. You’re going to want to make sure that you have the area clear and then you simply put the forklift underneath and turn it over. As you do, the rungs on the bottom allow you to control the speed in which it falls. Then, you just turn it upside down and the contents fall right out. Then, you turn it back over with your forklift and get it ready for the next load.

Quite frankly, we’ve used the best plastic we can come up with called Cross-link Plastic. It’s very soft and pliable, so it doesn’t crack, break or become brittle. It’s got the UV inside of it. It’s actually five-times stronger than the industrial ethyl propylene that everybody’s already using in the rotomolding. This is just five-times stronger. We expect great results.

The lid was designed with a lot of things in mind. First, of all it seals, so you can travel around confidently that you’re not going to spill any water once you strap it down. There’s also a hole on top to allow you to pump hoses and such inside. And, the Halo allows you to tie things down to the pit itself so that if you were pumping, a hose wouldn’t have to be held by an employee. The other thing about the lid is that we can create a vacuum head on the top of it and you can suck the water in, from wherever you would like easily with a shop vac. But, the water would never go through the shop vac. It would all end up in the Porta-Pit. So, the lid is a great thing to own when you by the Porta-Pit. It also keeps animals and children out of the water when it’s not in use. You put the Porta-Pit lid on top, secure it, and then feel confident that nobody is going to get inside without quite a bit of effort.

We use a 7-inch wide fork on the bottom right now and we have our turning rungs on the bottom to keep the plastic up above that. We found that the 7-inch wide fork has been big enough for big forklifts.

Not at this time. You will have to order a special rung for that. We put a rung on it to strap it down. It’s got 18-thousand pounds of breaking strength, but it’s not OSHA approved to go overhead.

Yes. The Bull-Pits will fit in the back of a truck or a van. That’s one of the things we designed it specifically for. We also designed it for someone who might have a pick-up service who could put a number of these on the back of a truck as they drive from jobsite to jobsite.

Yes, we created a trailer that can take from job to job. We think our Little-Dog Pit would be good for that. It’s a nice little setup.

We have two processes right now. One is SlurrySep. This product separates all the products to the bottom so that we have clear water to work with. From that clear water, if we need to lower the PH, we have a Porta-Pit water clarifier, which is a CO2 machine that can also put the SlurrySep in and use that whole process. What if we have just a little bit of water and a lot of materials? The second option is SlurryDry, which may be a good solution for that. SlurryDry just turns into a dry material that you can dump on the jobsite. A number of our clients are very interested in just how to handle the water on a jobsite and we have those solutions. If this interests you, we should talk to you personally about your unique situation (i.e. your area, the permits you have, and what they demand, etc.)

What we’ve done is place metal on top and bottom. That way the plastic isn’t rubbing up against the ground grating and the metal takes that abuse. Then, the plastic itself allows the concrete to just pop-out. We have the best of both worlds.

The answer to that is a resounding “NO”. Using our system correctly will take less time. Why? There are three main reasons:

1. The driver does not have to drive to a pit or wait for someone to bring a container to wash in. They have all they need at their disposal to handle the washout.
2. It is designed to be extremely efficient. When the driver uses it as it is intended, they grab the bucket on the way to the back of the truck to washout, it drains while they are rinsing down the fins and then they return it to the rack on their way back to the cab.
3. Back at the plant – the bucket and tank are designed to be emptied and maintained after they are loaded for their next round. It takes less than 60 seconds to drain, empty and washout both the bucket and the tank. This can all be done while they are rinsing down the truck and setting their next load. It is designed to be a simple, fast, long lasting and easy to maintain asset to every ready mixed company and their drivers.

No, with the Washout Watchdog the water is stored in a tank mounted on the rear of the truck or on the fender of a front discharge (we have several options). Many of our current clients started out with a system that deposited the water back into the drum, but found that they had a high failure rate on the job site and required a lot of time and money to keep them maintained.

Actually, we’ve found that it is not. The drivers are still going to have to wash and maintain the receptacle when they return to the plant. With a gravity fed system, the water is disposed of in the tank even quicker than with a pump or pressurized unit (saving time). Back at the yard, the tank empties while the driver is working on the receptacle. After a quick wash out of the tank, he’s ready for another round.

Many of our customers have found that the Washout Watchdog performs better than any other system in extreme weather. The tank is insulated (similar to an ice chest) so the water returns to the plant as water, not a frozen solid. It has commonly been reported that many of the mechanical systems freeze and are unable to perform in extreme cold.

No. The system includes one of the largest hoses in the industry for draining that is extremely efficient. We don’t have a plugging problem because our system is not pressurized nor is the washout water having to be forced back into the drum. Also, if the driver uses it correctly, the bucket drains very rapidly while he is up cleaning his fins, so they are not standing around waiting for the bucket to empty. When the driver comes down from the ladder, the bucket is empty and ready to be dumped or placed in its traveling rack. So there is absolutely very little extra time needed, if any at all for the washout process.

I would have to say that the opening valve is at the most risk of being affected by cement slurry water. Our customers have discovered that the valves are easy to keep clean and if they do freeze up they are easy to repair in about five minutes. We sell the handle, the stem, or the ball separately in case you want to rebuild the valve or we also sell the entire valve with the gasket and nut for less than $70. The truth is, we have very few moving parts and because our system is made out of heavy duty plastic, concrete does not like to stick to it. The Washout Watchdog system is durable and easy to keep up and maintain.
This driver never washed it out. It took less than 60 seconds to remove all the build up.