Just curious, if you are off the gun, the electric unit doesn’t run, so there is no need for an unloader correct? It isn’t like a gas unit that runs non stop, so you have to keep water flowing. I think this is right, but let me know.
Electric motors are famous for incredible torque. I worked at a place that had lots of them back in the day. One was 500hp. That’d give you 137 gpm at 4,000 psi. The data plates cover every detail. Eliminating the unloader would eliminate bypass, so you could run anything you wanted through there at full gpm. There’s an incredible amount of space for such ingenuity these days. I’m here for it.
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I have a Sun Joe that is 1.76 gpm. No unloader, it just shuts off. For small tasks and washing cars, electric are great. When I bought mine, 1.76 was one of the higher gpm, so that’s what I went with so it works better with a foam cannon.
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As you know tech keeps evolving. I have looked at 4gpm units that shut off when the trigger isn’t being pulled, which means no unloader (to me). The only downside is that the larger gpm units require 230v or 3 phase in some cases. Just trying to wrap my head around it. Looking at a smaller unit 4gpm, but the most available mass produced units are only like 1.2-2.0 gpm and they take 120. I just wanted more flow than 2 gpm for pushing dirt off quickly. I tried a smaller unit out, but after being used to an 8gpm machine that thing was like using a garden hose.
Yeah, you’re not going to get over 2/2000 on 110v. Just too much hp required for that. On a 15 amp circuit, your only going to get 1800 watts which is just shy of 2.5hp.
What’s the end goal here? Back during the work-from-home/COVID days, I considered switching to electric machines to keep the noise down, but I never found a good solution for the power source. The closest I got was wiring up a bunch of deep-cycle batteries or running a generator (which would negate the noise issue). It sounds like you are more concerned about the unloader though?
Noise, weight, heavy/expensive pressure hose, unloaders, tanks, reels, etc. All of these are reasons I do my house washing so differently by not using a pressure washer. Having a way to apply cleaner and rinse with a simple on-demand booster system is exactly what I set out build and feel my current design does that well.
My system seems odd, maybe even cheap, unprofessional or inefficient. I’ve found it the best option for my being part time with no dedicated truck or trailer. The little bit of inefficiency I have with volume and pressure is made up for with efficiency in size, weight, cost, maintenance and speed of setting up and putting away.
I want about a 4 banger, but not a noisy 4 banger, so I started looking at electric. I’m looking at diversifying what I am washing next year, and i dont need 8gpm, max would be about 4.5-5. I don’t like the rinsing of a sub 2 gpm unit, takes way too long.
As far as the unloader goes, I don’t see a need for it on an electric unit as it seems unnecessary. Hoping if someone would let me know that for a fact. These things have a very small footprint, which is a bonus.
I also want to keep my mind open and not get pigeon holed into thinking there is just 1 way to do this.
Oh and they make some quiet gennys. My winco 10k is a noisy beast, so I was also looking at those as well.
Every time I see that I think to myself I should make one like that for the jobs with no concrete to clean or the smaller houses. I could just put it in the bed of the pickup and watch my gas mileage double without the trailer.
This unit is why I can take the “HOA notice” just clean the north side jobs. I just toss this in the back of the truck and go. It has a lithium battery in it, so it’s light enough to just lift up over the bedside and I have a little mount screwed to the bedliner so it doesn’t move around. My guns and hoses are in the toolbox of the truck. Since it’s only about 90 psi, I just use those light expandable hoses. Just doing one side I only need the 25’ hose which shrinks down to like 8’. Easy peasy, 15 minutes from roll up to roll out.
I personally don’t like pressure washing and don’t really advertise it. If someone wants a driveway or patio included with the house wash. I’ll do it. It’s inevitable that I get wet or dirty every pressure washing job. There is always that corner no matter what angle, you get water blowing back at you. I also think 1/2 the time I’m chasing dirty water all over, have drainage issues, something annoying. House washing is just easy and clean 
Oh yeah, quiet too
Would a 7GPM 12V system not be the answer? Far less noise then gas, better GPM then most electrics, no unloader to mess with… sounds like what you are looking for.
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just don’t know, I think it has super weak PSI, I’d still like about 800 or so. I’d have to take a look at the specs again.
Yea it would be less then 100 psi… I thought I saw you were looking to move to just house washing, there is a reason why so many guys are using them.
The problem with those pumps is that they need to draw from a tank. I tried to use a better pump like that as just a booster and they can’t handle high inlet pressure from hooking straight to a spigot. That’s why I use a series of small, cheap diaphragm pumps.
I’m looking to pivot away from cleaning vinyl and clean something else, need a little pressure for certain things, but I would probably never use over 1k. I just want to diversify away from vinyl, every hillbilly with a used 4 banger was washing this year. I already did my market research, and have dipped my toes in the pool, the water seems nice.
Hmmm… I get not wanting to spill your future business plan, but now you’ve got me curious. Only things I can think of that would require around 1,000 psi would be cars or wood.
That is valid, I would assume a 5 gallon bucket would be enough for a buffer though?
Yeah, but you have to think on how you would plumb that. It gets pretty ugly trying to fit a Hudson valve (or some other on/off fill valve), pickup for the pump, pump, battery, wiring, etc.
That’s why I kept it simplified a bit and just found pumps that could take 50-60 psi of incoming pressure. Small accumulator tank on the inlet for when someone flushes a toilet inside, very small tank on the outlet to keep the pulses down and the flow smooth. No tanks, no valves and all fitting nice and compact onto a cart. No matter what the spigot pressure is, it builds to a consistent 90 psi. The gun for applying hw mix uses a #50 nozzle and my system maintains about 70 psi while spraying, netting about a 7 gpm actual output flow at the gun. Better than what a rated 7 gpm pump would do.
A Jobe valve with a garden hose fitting and a bulkhead to the pump would be easy enough. I’d have to double check but I thought most 12V pumps (or at least the ones most of us use) can handle up to 100 psi incoming.
Regardless it’s neither here or there, after hearing what dirtboy is intending to do, I don’t think a 12V system will work regardless of how it is set up.
