I verify the flow by using my foamer hose to fill a 5 Gal bucket and time it right?
Measure your pump flow as it will be used. It's you're using an foamer normally, use a foamer. Ideally, they all flow at their rated capacity, but that's not always reality. Take a few minutes once a year and check it.
If you have a tank, this is easy. Run out 25, 30, 50 gallons (About 5-10 min, depending on your tank's markings) and divide. You now know you're pump averages X gallons/minute under a working load.
Now repeat that with your chem line (5-10 min) in a marked 5 gallon bucket. You can use water instead of chems, or you can do this at a job. If your chems have a different viscosity that water (like spray wax), use real chems. How many gallons of chem did you suck in that time? Just divide by minutes to get gals/min of chem. If you're smart, you've already figured out that you can do water and chems at the same time.
If you don't have a tank, you just need to put the output into a container for measurement. total output - chems used = water flow. I'd recommend a 55'er as a 5 will lose a lot of output as splash/spray. Also, 5 gal is a pretty small sample to gauge flow rates. Try to run 5 min or so to get a good average.
Now that you know gals of chem per minute and gals of water per min you can figure your ratio. Obviously, Water:chem = your ratio. For those with x-jets, repeat this with all the restrictors you use.
It sounds like a lot, but it only takes about 20 minutes. Once you know your machines working ratios, you can easily use the absolute minimum necessary to get the job done .
