For all of the soft washers out there, I see alot of vinyl siding and painted homes being cleaned on the forum, but are you also using soft wash to prep log homes and wood decks before being re-stained?
90% of my washing now is prepping for stain, and delicate is important so I was interested in switching from upstream if others have had luck with this.
Thanks
Bleach on wood in general is not what you should be using. An exception would be if the deck is slippery and you are just looking to get a thin film of mold off of stain.
A deck cleaner should be used if the deck is gray or a deck stripper if the deck has had a previous stain.
This is not really a soft water washing project, but it is a low pressure one.
Since I’m new to this softwashing stuff can you tell me the difference between a soft wash and low pressure wash.
Tony,
Soft water would be like using a something other than a nozzle to create pressure. You can use a number of things. But what you are trying to achieve is water much like water from a hose with just a tad more pressure, but in reality you could just use a hose. Water doesn’t have any uniformed shape but more a cascading waterfall (soft).
Low pressure would be for example a 2gpm pressure washer washing between 700 to 1000 psi with a tip. This is where water volume is important.
Like others have said there are many ways to get the chemicals on the house.
Yeah, I keep the pressure dialed down, but it is a 4gpm, so I knew I had the volume most of you all were talking about.
I haven’t used bleach since leaving the moldy vinyl sidings of Arkansas, but from your comments does that mean that “Soft Wash” does need bleach in the chemical mix to get the low pressure to be efficient? I wasn’t sure if you were just advising me about the bleach, or if it is a necessity to fulfill the “Soft Wash”?
After thinking about it, this particular machine has never had bleach run through it, is it only bleach that guys have found hard on their pumps, or do washes like the Cherry or simple green deck wash also need to be downstreamed? I guess I was pondering whether I needed to convert to downstreaming before our season starts, and the “Soft Wash” was going to be an add on if functional.
When you say your keeping the pressure dialed down, are you meaning your adjusting the pressure +/- setting on the unloader? If you are, you’re cutting both GPM and pressure. You can lower your PSI and not sacrifice GPM’s by using tips with larger orifices.
Also, a downstream injector is placed after the pump - so no chemicals run through your pump. The injector can be placed anywhere along the high pressure hose, although most guys prefer to have it right at the machine. Running any kind of chemical through your pump will shorten the life of it. Bleach and other chemicals will over time take a toll on a hose, but those are easily replaceable - and should be replaced regularly anyhow.
