First off - I love you folks, in all sincerity…tons of great info on this site.
More importantly though…I am gaining a ton of interest in the pw’ing end of things. Curious to know about hot vs cold machines. Obviously I can get into a used cold setup for around $500 - not finding many good deals on the hot end though. Advantages, disadvantages? I would mainly like to start out as an add on for residential - houses, decks, driveways.
Also, how many of you folks run with a trailer setup? And what all goes into a mobile setup? I am guessing gas powered pressure washer, water tank, trailer, hose reel, hoses, etc…Reason being is I know of a place to get dirt cheap poly tanks - like .10 cents on the dollar type cheap. Also I have a connection for dirt cheap steel for a trailer…like almost free. All that is left is some hoses, reels, and chemicals…right? Plus a down streaming setup.
Well once again, any info would be much appreciated. Thanks
Hot water is awesome, and great to have. But for residential work it’s not needed. The only reason you would use hot water on a residential job is for a driveway, and even then it’s not exactly absolutely needed unless there’s a ton of oil on the drive.
Now for commercial pressure washing, anything short of a hot water unit is going to end up costing you money. Hot water, or steam, is the only way to easily remove gum on concrete. You’ll be able to use less chemical using hot water, and be able to clean quicker.
So for residential, a cold PW’er will do fine. If you find that you need to start cleaning a lot of concrete, you can always add a hot box. As far as pressure washing goes though, get as many GPM as you can afford, that’s where you really start saving time.
