If your gonna use 10% bleach you won’t need the Gutter Zap in your house wash. Gutter Zap is too expensive to waste. It’s not needed in the house wash.
I say this because I’ve always used 4 oz. of F-13 per 5 gallons of house wash mix until recently. I recently omitted the F-13 from my house wash mix and it still does a great job. And I only use 2.5 to 3 gallons of 6% bleach per 5 gallons of house wash mix.
6% bleach works well for house washing with the X-jet. I use it because it’s readily available and always fresh when I need it. If I were to drive out of town and get a large quantity of 12 % bleach it would probably degrade before I could use it all. Plus the half day spent on the trip to get the 12 % bleach would be costly timewise and money wise. I come out better using 6 % bleach.
If I had a local source that had a great deal on 12% bleach I’d just buy a gallon of it per 5 gallons of house wash I’d be using on a particular job.
Tony, you’ll love the Simple Cherry. Great stuff!!!
Here’s the mix I use. It works works great!
10 oz. Simple Cherry
2.5 to 3 gallons of 6% bleach (or one gallon of 12 % if you like)
a shot of Dawn for extra cling
and H2O
mixed in a 5 gallon bucket or X-Jet Pail
KC, I’ll check the local Lowe’s but I don’t remember ever seeing it there. Are you referring to a seasonal swimming pool product version or a general purpose version that is available year round? That would be nice if it’s available year round. Thanks!
I’m not exactly sure which kind it is. I know its in the pool section and it is part of kem-tech’s (or whatever company they’re called) 5-step pool care system.
I know it is 10% sodium hypochlorite though. Maybe it is seasonal out here though because I’ve only been using it for about 2 or 3 months. I sure hope they carry it all year long or I will be loading up on the 6% too…
I have used 10% SH that I got from the swimming pool section at K-Mart and Wal-Mart but here in South Carolina it’s definitely seasonal. For some reason the Lowe’s here only carries the powder form of bleach for pools.
At any rate, not to worry. 6% SH works great, you just have to double up on it to get the same as 12%. I guess it can cost more or less depending on your availability and cost of 12%.
With the price of SH being so low, even if it was double, would it even matter with how much Chem you used? I mean you add in the freshwash, roof snot, time/wear and tear on vehicle/equipment, then getting/keeping/storing your SH. I’ve always seen SH prices from 2.00-4.75 per gal, but being that the average softwash price is roughly $300 for an hour or two, spending lets say $30 (even #) or 10% on a job site, would not really be that big of a deal
I stopped using the X Jet M5 not too long after this thread originated back in 2009. Downstreaming is definitely faster, more efficient, and easier to use. I enjoyed the simplicity of the X-Jet for a couple of years but I don’t miss dragging the soap bucket and hose around at all.
The X-Jet M5 will go from 4-1 all the way to 480-1, I use both methods, x-jet and down streaming it all depends on how dirty the house is, if the house is not very dirty i’ll use down stream, if the house is really dirty i’ll use the x-jet, it all depends on the job, each job is different, all depends on how much solution i need to clean the structure.Down streaming is a lot cheaper then the x-jet on chemical costs but the x-jet makes quick work of structures that are 2-3 stories. I am on a 4 gpm machine so i cant get the distance like Kreisle can, yes when i step up to a 8-10 gpm machine ill most likely switch over to down streaming all the time for cost reasons. As far as putting a longer intake hose on the X-Jet i took mine up to 20’ and no problems. The key to a down stream injector and the X-Jet is after a job just run fresh water through both of them for a couple minutes to wash them out, makes them both last longer, do your routine maintenance on all your equipment!
