Which pressure washer to buy? Which is a good one

I have plenty of room on my trailer, is there anyway you could post a link for me?

You could buy or build a skid and belt guard setup, find the right pulleys, and basically build a new machine off of your current motor.

But I think the simplest way would be to get a gear drive, which would bolt right in place of the direct drive pump. I know @Atlas1 has done that.

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I’m really just wanting to set up a pump that will actually pull water from my buffer tank. That’s my whole issue right now from what I understand.

Have you thought about hooking up a 12v transfer pump? It’s my understanding there must be at-least some decent pressure on the input, and gravity feed may not be enough for your use.

I know a lot less about pumps than many of the guys here, but personally it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that your low PSI is a water supply issue.

Have you tested your pressure with the pump hooked directly to the spigot?

I’m definitely going to do this when I get home today and let y’all know what happens. Thanks for all the help folks

Water supply can be the issue. A 4@4k machine needs a # 4 nozzle to produce 4k of pressure. Lets say your pump is only putting out 3 gpm, using the same number 4 nozzle your now at 2250psi. Water flow has is everything to do with the pressure. Forcing more or less water through different size nozzles is what effects the pressure.

Also as for a12v transfer pump. Ive heard of it working for some but now you have to worry about the battery staying full and the pump not failing. If either one of those goes down you starve the pump.

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Good points. I figured there would be other symptoms of a cavitated pump, though.

Don’t laugh too hard or think less of me, but what is a #4 nozzle? Is that the green tip ?

I don’t have a link. I have enough old pumps and engines that i just pull of parts and fabricate what i need. I’m sure there is a site with the math for the correct size pulleys

Well, I hooked up straight to the spicket. Water flowing like crazy through the bypass into tank while the engine is idling. Pressure gauge reading 3000. Then pull the trigger and 1/2 second of water comes out and engine dies. :thinking: I don’t know what the heck. I had it working at 2500 psi off my buffer. I figured for sure water flow was my issue. Now I just don’t know. So it’s either the pump, bypass, or motor.

Could there be an issue with the bypass? Can you plug the bypass and see how it runs then?

@anon1966941 I don’t think so. I have the bypass running to the tank. But now you have me wondering.

If its bypassing water than it could be your unloader. Did you try re-adjusting it?
Your engine dying im not sure why. You may want to post on the facebook groups. Im not the greatest at diagnosing, i just figured start at the easiest and start eliminating.

As for nozzles you really need to learn how to read them so you know what you should be using to get what pressure. A # 4 nozzle just means that the orifice size is 4. The color nozzles just mean what angle the spray pattern is.

I adjusted the unloader now it’s giving me 2000 psi. At that point I called it a night. I see what you’re saying about the nozzles, but I just figured all tips were the same. Back to the YouTube videos I go lol.

That’s bewildering, lol.

I just went back and read through some of your earlier posts on your machine issues.

Couple of questions:

How old is the machine? Approx. how many hours do you think are on it?

Have you measured your water output? I.e., how much it will put in a 5 gallon bucket in 60 seconds?

Is/was there water coming out of the bypass when you were pulling the trigger (when you had the machine working off the buffer tank)?

I’m not sure what I could tell you about the issue from your answers, but hopefully someone here will find the info helpful, lol.

It’s got me puzzled too man. The motor is probably 8-10 years old. It put out 4 gallons a min exactly with the bucket test and no nozzle. There was no water coming out of bypass on trigger. Prob a boat load of hours on it. I just need to limp this thing along for about a month. So I can buy a belt driven pump. 4000/4gpm. Seems like that may be my most economical fix. I bought my whole trailer setup minus toolbox and supply hose, supply reel for $1500. I kinda had a feeling I would have to replace the motor or pump in the future but didn’t think it would be this soon. :expressionless:

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What are you washing, mostly?

Soft washing mobile homes, houses- stuff like that which the unit works great for because I have the 4 way from pressuretek and my downstream injector. Where I’m lacking is when I do the house they ask me to do the driveway or patio. I can do it, but it takes me forever and is not near as good as if I had a surface cleaner and a unit putting out good flow. I do need to research nozzles some more. I assumed all tips were the same (red, yellow, green, etc) but apparently they have different sized orifices available. Is that right? Maybe it’s a problem as simple as not having a big enough orifice and it’s choking out because of too much “back pressure”? If that makes sense

Again, I’ll speak from inexperience, theory, and too much time reading online…

4gpm @ 2500psi should be enough to push a 16" WW surface cleaner, and get good results on residential concrete, at least. Pre and post treat for best results. (I don’t currently do flat work.) I would go on using the machine at 2500psi and hope for the best (while saving to upgrade, of course). If it’s been running reliably at that pressure, then Wash On

If the colored nozzles that you’re using are the ones that were sold with the machine when new, they should be the correct size to push 4k@4gpm (actually, they tend to wear out over time and would get a little bigger). If they were bought later, it’s possible they’re too small for the pump. But I have always been under the impression that if there’s too much back pressure, from any source, the unloader should (at least attempt to) kick in and bypass.

If you get a surface cleaner, which makes sense if you plan on doing flatwork at all, you’ll want to size the nozzles to limit pressure to 2500psi or less. That will keep your pump happy and the concrete un-scarred.

/Again, not from personal experience, but just what I’ve found researching :wink: