Hick Hargreaves Blowers

If you are reading this, the chances are you have a Hick Hargreaves air blower and may even be at your at your wits’ end.

How can you maintain your vital plant equipment if the company who created it no longer exists?

It’s true: you will be hard pressed to find replacements and the necessary castings to repair a badly damaged machine. But do not fret: all is not lost!

2000 Blower Range

The 2000 range of blowers has not disappeared completely. Another manufacturer is still producing this machine meaning that new replacements are available to purchase and spare parts are on offer to repair this range of little blowers.

4000, 4200, 4300, 9000 Blower Range

Now this is where things get a little trickier.

New Machines

I’m going to stop you right here; unless you or we are lucky enough to unearth a new machine that was bought surplus to requirements many years ago, and remains untouched; new machines are now the stuff of legend. Even if you have miraculously obtained a new machine, it would be good practice (and in your best interests) to have it checked out by a specialist; such as ourselves, prior to using it. The blower may have sat there for many of years, possible contamination or rusting may have taken place along with brinelling of the bearings meaning that if the blower is commissioned, it may fail immediately and bang: you’ve lost your new blower. Sad times for all and one less Hicks machine in the world.

Currently we are unaware of any companies (or countries) that have mimicked the Hick Hargreaves dimensional and performance features, which in many ways is unfortunate for those wanting an easy, new replacement.

Reconditioned Blowers

Now reconditioned machines are a different story. We pick up many of our reconditioned Hicks blowers if a customer (unfortunately) closes down a factory, or upgrades their system and opt for a new, current-range machine. We purchase these blowers and recondition them to put on our shelves, ready for when you need it.

As Hick Hargreaves blowers are rare, we offer most of our stock blowers on a service exchange basis only. That is a one-in-one-out system. To fulfil the transaction, we would need a blower in return which is able to be reconditioned and put back on to our stock.

If you are fortunate enough to enquire and we have surplus on stock, we may be willing to sell one outright.

Hicks Interchangeability

The ranges 4000, 4200, 4300 & 9000 range of blowers are interchangeable with each other. So, if you have a 4052 machine, you can fit a 4252, 4352 or 9052 blower. The difference between these machines is not in the dimensions or performance, but in the mechanical parts which help lubricate the internal components, and prevent migration of this lubrication in to the oil-free rotor cavity or out in to the surrounding environment. As such, the only draw backs you may encounter by switching to a different version is that you may sacrifice the positive developments that the company implemented in its later versions that help prevent oil leakage.

Upgrade to a Current-Range Blower

The final option is to upgrade your current system to a new one.

There are many benefits to this which include:

• Owning a machine which is fully serviceable
• Knowing that the parts can be obtained quickly and easily, which also means the blower can be repaired with more ease
• The ability to be able to purchase a new machine should things go wrong, or as a reserve blower for peace of mind

Yes, there’s some working out to do here and rejigging the pipework there but in the long-run, the above advantages are more than worth it.

If you’ve finally made the decision to upgrade your system, you’ll be needing to know what information we require to be able to present you with an acceptable alternative.

As mentioned previously: there is no one machine which matches the Hicks range dimensionally or in performance. As such, there are several blowers which could be chosen in place of yours. To make sure we can offer the most economical and best suited replacement, make sure you know the following:

• The model number of your Hick Hargreaves blower
• The system pressure (mbarg)
• The required airflow (nominal m3/hr)

If you do not know the airflow, we should be able to work out the approximate airflow your current blower is outputting if you can tell us:

• The blower speed
  or
•  The motor speed
• The motor pulley size
• The blower pulley size

We would select the blower that fits your requirements, and then offer you technical assistance and information which will include the dimensions of the new blower. This is so you can check that it will physically fit in your system, and allows you to see if pipework needs to be modified or moved.

Summary

Although you may think that having a Hick Hargreaves blower leaves you at a dead-end, this is not true.

Current range blowers can replace them and many can be repaired.

So if you have a Hick Hargreaves machine that you would like to discuss with us, feel free to contact us and we’ll be happy to help.