My company does tons of house washing and we have always used the Dewalt pressure washers you buy from home depot. 4GPM. about $1,000. Long story short, they never pull soap, super unreliable and we are switching brands. So what would you suggest? We are considering buying a belt driven machine from Pressure Tek. Any thoughts?
8gpm from Bob at pressure tek
Is that kinda overkill for washing houses?
if you do a ton of house washes .
No!!!
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Most would say the GPM is the most important thing.
I love our 8gpm, with key start and having everything mounted. Save tons of time.
But if you don’t want to dedicate a vehicle to pwing, get a buffer tank etc you are looking at 4gpm
We have considered making a house washing trailer. We typically hook up to the customers faucet. Any thoughts on that? About how much money would I have to invest to get a set up where everything is mounted to the trailer?
You will need a buffer tank you will probably never find a house pushing out 8gpm from the tap
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no, what gives you that idea?
Not sure, I couldn’t imagine what 8gpm would be like. Probably wash houses faster?
From what I understand the average home faucet gives off 4 gpm.
So if you go above a TRUE 4gpm unit you will need a buffer tank.
In the early years we used a 55 gallon drum. We would load and unload all the equipment as jobs called for it.
What I experienced with these units is they ran great for the first year and I spent half the cost the next year replacing parts.
I got tired of the entire process so in 2012ish we spent 25k.
15k to a used Ford F150
10k spent as such
Graphics
Ladder rack and ladders
Rhino liner sprayed the bed
Two reels (one for pw hose, one for garden hose)
Buffer Tank: 100 gallons
Odd and ends.
We paid the entire debt off in 5 months. We just turned our marketing focus to p-washing.
Keys:
Efficiency: 8 gpm is faster than 4, 5.5. etc.
No load time (old way we touched everything 4 times)
Energy Savings: no loading, no rolling 200 feet of hose up by hand
Organized: less in shop.
Money: we were averaging about $75/hr. Not sure what the average is now, but $125-$200 each job easy.
Gotta spend $$ to make it. Do it!
Sounds pretty cool. The issue we have with house washing is its not reoccurring. Typically we don’t get calls for 2-3 years. Could you have a set up on a open trailer? Or even enclosed trailer? We have a 6x12 enclosed trailer and two 65 gallon water tanks for roof cleaning. We could turn those into pressure washing set up
Sure, a unit or a fat boy bandit could be on a trailer.
Pro’s and con’s to trailers naturally.
You wouldn’t suggest pressure teaks 8 GPM belt drive?
I have a pressure tek 5.5 gpm belt driven unit. I use to use the dewalts all the time and I still do. With the pressure tek and and the x jet I can wash 40 feet in the air no ladder all day. Trust me do it get atleast a 5.5 gpm 3500 psi and you will never look back.
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If pressure tex is what’s his name, Bob! If that is Bob you are in good hands. Cheaper than your local dealer probably, but shipping adds up.
What about when something goes wrong? Are you a mechanic? I am not. I run the shit down to the my local dealer that i bought it from and they take excellent care of me. They tell me all time about people who use them for education purposes, then save a buck and buy online.
Guess who’s machine gets fixed first? Support local for many reasons, but mainly your benefit
Good point. Geeze I’m not sure there is a local dealer around here. What are some good brands?
Yea we have 4 dewalts right now. Our biggest issue with them is they all stop sucking in solution to down stream. We take them to the dealer, and they don’t even fix them
Opinions are like noses, everyone has one.
Check out PWRA or a facebook group on Pw. You’ll get flooded
I use to have the same problem and would just switch up injectors all the time I bought an x jet at last years convention and it’s definitely a game changer. You just have to carry a bucket around with you but it’s totally worth it. I just got a pw trailer with the p tek unit last year and that is the best decision yet by far. Send me a message if you want a pic of pw trailer
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You like the Xjet. Better than downstreaming?
What type of pail do you use for the Xjet ?
They have an enclosed Pail that I bought that works good.
I downstream for the most part but when I need to go to the Xjet the enclosed Pail is sweet.
I’ve been meaning to buy longer hose for the Xjet what length are you using ?
I would like to know how many feet that it would be able to handle so to speak
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