I don’t know how long the hose will last with bleach running through, but I have read post that say you will replace them atleast once a year when downstreaming 12% SH.
Also, always wet down plants and windows before applying a sodium hypochlorite solution and keep wetting them occassionally. Letting them wet on windows could cause steaking.
I’ve read that some guys will downstream F-13 gutter bomb from pressurtek and them change chem buckets to a housewash mix immediately after so to not cause any paint damage or fading from the gutter bomb or other similar gutter products on the siding of the home. Then they put on a scrub brush on an ext. pole and go to town on the gutters. That gives the approximately the proper dwell time to a housewash mix (5-10 minutes) and then they rinse it all together.
Thanks man for the input. This was helpful.
Dragging the hose on the concrete will do more damage to it than running chemicals through it. A good hose should easily last a year. I know of contractors that are getting 2 plus years of life from their hoses. Like anything else it depends on the care you take {don’t overpressure, don’t allow people to run their vehicles over your hose, don’t allow them to freeze, don’t pressure up your rig without un-rolling all of your hose from your hose reel, don’t drag the pressure hose by the trigger gun, etc.}
You know, I have never been in this area before. This thread was like a seminar.
I will need to pay attention to these other topics…
Do you recommend the adjustable injector or the fixed. I’m using a 2500psi machine w/ just under 3GPM.
I have the Adams adjustable injector, but I keep it open up to draw the max all the time.
Downstreaming is tough enough to draw alot of chem so there is really never a need to draw less than your max. I’ve seen hi-draw downstreamers advertise a pull of 5:1, but I’ve heard from these distributors that its really about 7:1-10:1 at best.
Hope that helps, I’m still learning more everyday so please correct me if you guys hear otherwise
I’ve thought about trying more downstreaming but since I bought my X-Jet last year I’ve been using it exclusively. I started out downstreaming and found it effective.
I limit most of our house washes to vinyl siding and masonry so the X-Jet is perfect for that.
Question to Micah: When you downstreaming chemicals onto a home. Are they hitting the surface with less velocity than what an X-Jet would put them there? I ask because sometimes it seems X-Jetting is a little too much to be soft washing.
Dwight, with the tip pictured it’s not quite as forcefull as a “regular” x-jet. However, if you’re using the “M-5 x-jet” - the one with the adjustable spray - The “fanned” setting would be softer then the downstreaming tip.
I just step a few steps back away from what I’m cleaning with the downstreaming tip to reduce pressure. Nothing hits the house that I wouldn’t spray with my hand, even tho I wouldn’t want to put my hand in front of the nozzle right at the gun… if that makes sense.
Yeah, the X-jet M5 does fan out really well for a soft spray at ground level. But as time goes on the X-jet M5 fans out less and less for some reason. It still fans out pretty darn good but I find myself backing up from targeted surface a little more than I did when it was new.
It still puts the soap on as well as it did when it fanned out more.
I was talking on the phone with Micah yesterday and he was telling me that he had trouble with his downstreamer probably from sporadic use as opposed to everyday use.
He basically said if you aren’t power washing every day then it’s best to use the X-Jet because you’ll have less trouble with X-Jet than the downstreaming with sporadic use.
I like the X-Jet M5 and plan to stick with it. After talking with Micah about his experience as a window cleaner also doing power washing my thoughts have been re-enforced as far as sticking with the X-Jet.
Thanks for sharing that. I’ve been on the fence about the xjet, but I’m leaning towards getting one now
When I used the downstreamer everyday it worked great. Very few times would it need attention. Either it would need a new spring or just a good cleaning out, but those times were few and far between. Even with that little bit of “downtime”, it still made sense to use the downstreamer as opposed to the xjet.
But since I’ve concentrated more on window washing, and just kept pressure washing on the side, I found that the downstreamer required a lot more attention then before. I’m not sure why this is, but everytime I went to use it I had to do something to get it working properly, sometimes even replace it.
So now, since I’ll only use the pressure washer once every other month or so, I just use the x-jet. It works everytime like it’s supposed too, even though it is a hassle to carry the bucket around.
I hope this doesn’t discourage anybody from trying out downstreaming. It quite possibly was the brand of injectors I was useing, I only used 1 kind, and just had several replacements on the truck. If you plan on pressure washing a lot, you should really give both methods a shot.
Why have you started concentrating more on windows? I’ve heard from others on this forum and pt state that one can make a lot more per hour pressure washing. Is that not true? Or is there less demand in your area?
Sorry to hash an old thread, I’m just reading up on the topic.
Isn’t it regarding water restrictions and recovery requirements?
Kind of a mix of things. Around 4 years ago, I realized that nobody in the area was cleaning concrete. There were tons of residential guys, but there was a hole in the market for commercial hot water concrete cleaning.
So I did my research on how to clean, bought the equipment, and it was pretty successful. I had a two large grocery store chains that were regular, and had several other jobs. It was great money. But then the economy hurt those grocery store chains, and pressure washing was one of the first things to go.
So without the regular income of that work, I decided to go after the high end residential market. It was working well, but then we had a terrible drought. Even in places that we could legally wash, the general public thought that it wasn’t allowed, or were concerned about how their neighbors would view it. So that dried up as well (pun intended). I sold all the equipment to a friend.
What I then realized is that if I had focused on window cleaning the entire time, although I wouldn’t have made all that money up front, my window cleaning business probably would have been bigger and more profitable with less overhead. Less travel, no night work, and I don’t get as wet.
I can make way more money now with the WFP then I did pressure washing, and it’s easier.
Huge BUMP!!!
Micah, how have things changed in the two years since your comments above? And by that, are you still focusing primarily on windows or has PW crept back in the game? Is the drought/ban/negative view of PW still around in South Carolina?
If I recall, you were changing the name of your company because you felt it limited peoples impression you only cleaned glass.
I’m glad Clear View brought this back up. Interesting thread. I have just stated to advertise pressure washing, so this is timely for me. Thanks for the information.
Yeah, me too Phil. Trying to eat up as many tips as I can while avoiding the “fake it till you make it” approach 
I hear ya. “Fake it till you make it” can be costly. I’d hate to have to replace siding or a deck…
