I have my eye on this… anyone who knows about powerwashing, please advise me if this looks like a deal:
Dont do it! I dont think that would be great for you. it is a smaller cold water unit with a bunch of stuff you really wouldnt need. What would you be using this for?
$4,000 sounds like a good price for a system, but not this one. If you want to do flat surface, or any fleet you want hot water. IMO there is nothing special about that rig.
I feel like a moron. I.assumed that because it was on a trailer that it must be a hot water unit. Hahaha. I’ll keep on looking.
Curt that’s a setup more for a car detailer… 4,000 can get ya a heck of a lot more if you are patient.
Keep an eye out on craigslist, and don’t just look in your local area. If you find the right deal, it may be worth driving 500 or more miles to pick one up…
Don’t forget you can lease rigs brand new for the 200 a month range…
Can you let me know where you can lese a rig?
Just about all of the major pressure washer dealers offer some sort of leasing option. It’s generally a lease with a dollar buy out at the end. The last rig I leased was a 5 GPM, 3000 psi hot water unit, it was right at 200 dollars a month.
Check with your accountant. If you lease, you may not have to depreciate the expense of the lease.
Hey Micah,
We’ve been pressure washing for 2 years now, but I want to get more serious and make it a more efficient process for us.
We haven’t used any chemical to this point in our PW, and often times just scrubbed the house with simple green and a water fed brush (this paid well, but took loooong).
Can you give me a quick, bullet-pointed list of what you do when you pull up to a house and PW it and what equipment you’re using to do that?
Thanks!
No Problem!
I softwash using low pressure. So after making sure all windows are closed and dry brushing any spider webs, I soak the house with my cleaning solution using a downstream injector connected to my pressure washer. I can spray my own hand with the amount of pressure I’m spraying on the house. I allow proper dwell time, usually around 10 minutes, and then just rinse with water at low pressure. It’s a very simple process; The cleaner does all the hard work.
So for this you’ll need,
-Pressure Washer, hose, wand
-Downstream Injector
-Low pressure tips (these are generally just larger GPM tips)
-Cleaning solution. Typical solution is Sodium Hypochlorite and a surfactant
You’ll be amazed at how fast this goes. You won’t want to go back to scrubbing again.
Feel free to call me if you’d like.
After I typed out my question, I saw your video on YouTube - very informative and clear. Thanks for the answer too.
How long did it take you to do that house? It looked to be a 2 story house, about 2500 SF I would guess. With setup and tear down, I would guess 2 hours?
Is this the PW technique that All County uses? I know that Chris has said they’ll sound out guys that can do 3-4 homes in a day, which seems like a
Yep that’s about the size of the house. Without gutter whitening, just cleaning the moderatly dirty vinyl siding, a house that size could easily be done within an hour and a half, even quicker if you have a higher gallon per minute machine.
I’m not sure, but I think All County uses x-jets. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
I need to do a new video. If you add a wand/lance to the gun, you get a lot more distance with a tighter spray. Even a 12 inch lance will do.
what would make Sodium Hypochlorite and a surfactant. Also what is the best thing used to clean curbs
Huh?
Hot water.
Sodium Hydrochloride is a fancy name for bleach. I use pool bleach w/ a 12.5% rating as opposed to household bleach which is 6% at best.
A surfactant is basically a soap. The soap foams up when shot thru the wand and it holds the bleach in contact w/ the surface longer so it’s more effective.
One should not confuse sodium hypochlorite with bleach though. SH (sodium hypochlorite), in the percentage we deal with for pressure washing, is MUCH stronger then the SH present in store bought bleach, which is usually 3% by the time you buy it due to it’s short shelf life.
I guess the point I’m trying to make is SH is what most pressure washing professionals use because it’s cheaper to buy in bulk and more effective. What people who have not dealt with SH should realize tho is how dangerous it can be. Pour a cup of 12.5 SH on your lawn in the very back of your yard. In an hour the grass and whatever else around it will be dead, and nothing will grown back for at least a year.
Now your house mix should be NO where near this strong due to dilution; so just rinsing the plants off will protect them. But when your mixing, be extremely careful. Wearing gloves, eye protection, and other PPE would not be a bad idea at all.
Never mix SH with other chemicals unless they are compatible. Not sure if they are compatible? Then assume they are not. You can never rinse out containers enough. Using SH, at any percentage, in a pump up sprayer is not a good idea. Always mix chemicals to water, never pour water into chemicals. When pouring from a 5 gallon bucket, pour with the spout towards the top. It’s natural to pour with the spout on the bottom… but it’s much easier to pour with the spout on top. It allows the 5 gallon pail to “breath” - reducing the chance of splashing.
Sorry for the tangent. SH is awesome for cleaning, I use it all the time. Just realize the precautions you have to use when working with it.
Great tips Micah !
Maybe a dumb question…maybe not. I’ve been reading up on downstreaming lately and I see here that you are using Sodium Hypochlorite and have went on to further identify it as “bleach” and surfactant as “soap”. On the Pressure Tek website they have a product called “Simple Cherry” and under that product they give a solution mixing formula as follows:
[COLOR=“red”]Q) What is your recommendation for a mixture of Simple Cherry and chlorine for house washing.
A) I am going to give you the formula I have obtained from feedback from my customers, I have averaged it out to come up with the most common formulas mixed in 5 gallon containers as this seems to be the most popular size.
Downstreaming: 3.5 gallons of 12.5% chlorine, 1.5 gallons water & (2) 8oz scoops of Simple Cherry.
X-Jet or M-Jet: 2 Gallons 12.5% chlorine, 3 gallons water & 10oz of Simple Cherry.[/COLOR]
So they say “chlorine” …is that the same chlorine that would be used in a pool? Did they screw up by calling it chlorine? I have no idea if this “simple cherry” is any good either. I’ve seen mixed reports on the product. What kind of soap do you guys use and is that formula correct?
One more question: The chemical injectors I just looked at come in “adjustable” and “fixed” the adjustable injector can be adjusted from 0% to 10% solution and the fixed is set at 20% solution all the time. I see Micah is using an adjustable injector but is 0-10 the only way they come or should I look for one that has more adjustment?
Buy some Simple Cherry and a fixed injector from Bob. You’ll be glad you did.
And in the instructions “Chlorine” is bleach or sodium hypochlorite.
Thats kind of what I thought. I had herd that the Simple Cherry clumped up into yellow gobs in the bottom of the pail (I’ve never seen it) but somebody else said that you should mix it with a little water before adding it to the chlorine and water solution. Matbe I’ll try some.
Yeah, premix it for sure. It’s funny how the people who say it doesn’t work don’t follow the directions.
