Recently bought a DS injector from Bob. Man does it suck down the SH. The problem is, even with 12.5% and Elemonator, the solution runs off too easily.In the past, I used a 2.5gpm 3k Simpson Mega Crap 325, and 12.5% with Dawn in a foam cannon and I swear my solution hung on far better, lot more suds, lot less solution used. Seemed more effective as well. Today, with a 4-5 gmp PW and DSI my first attempt, and on stucco siding was not good, I had some good, and some bad results. Seemed the higher up the wall I went, the better it worked.
When I moved to the brick chimney, pushing straight 12.5% and Elemonator, I got no satisfaction. What do I need for these soot infested chimneys? I’ll show pics tomorrow of my chimney, but I have a customer next week with the same brick and the same problems. I gotta figure this crap out. Any ideas?
Please elaborate. I used a 4gpm 4k pw that actually tests out at the nozzle at 3100 and almost 5 gpm. The DSi is from Bob, and so far I’m not too excited about it. As I wrote, I felt that the 2.5gpm application of SH & Dawn was better than Elemonator and SH with twice the volume of my new PW.
SO, I would be most grateful if you could teach me what solution you would use and the method you would employ to get it up that chimney.
Roof pump or may be able to do with xjet. Hit with 3%bleach mix with decent degreaser. Spray on, wait 10min, spray again, wait 10 min and spray again. Should be pretty much gone by then. Rinse
In your first post you said you said you were using 2.5 gpm. Second post you said you were using 4 gpm but was really 5gpm. Then you said 2.5gpm was twice the volume of new machine. Not sure how 2.5gpm is twice the volume of 4 gpm. In response to your last 2 questions I’ll answer one and you get to pick which one.
I use 240F water and mix if 3.5 to 1.5 with foamer. It hangs to it letting the chemical hung to it.
Th en rinse.
I do thus 2 to 3 times and all comes out.
You may need to try a different cleaning solution. I got a call about cleaning a brick apartment building that had been damaged by fire and covered with soot. After trying several different products that didn’t work, I tried a oven and grill cleaner and it did the job. I purchased it by the gallon from a local company and applied it with a pump sprayer. It started cleaning on contact.
Good job, @gbattle Brother Battle. How did you apply this oven cleaner, and how much did it cost? I’ll be cleaning a lot of sooty chimneys, and I certainly thought that SH would bleach out the carbon. I’ve never seen anybody complain about sooty chimneys on the boards, and this must be a common problem, because a lot of folks have chimneys. As for the damage caused by smoke, I certainly hoped @Innocentbystander an off duty fireman might be more helpful. As for xjet, @Racer, Rick, how is it different than my foam cannon? Right now I wish I had taken heed to Brodie @squidskc who told me to get the xjet, because I suspect a commercial version of that foam cannon is just what I’ll end up with. Does the Xjet allow for the application of a more concentrated solution?
Right now I’m thinking about the wisdom of using the mega crap 325 for application and the 4-5gpm to rinse. I’d prefer to figure out what I need do a good job with 1 PW but if I had to do a PW job today, I’d take both PWs.
Helpful? I let you know you don’t have the equipment needed to be in business. I let you know that bleach doesn’t clean hydrocarbons. I offered to answer one of your 2 follow up questions. I thought that was pretty generous and helpful considering your attitude and that every thing you asked could have been found by searching on your own.
Xjet is more concentrated than downstreaming… not sure how it compares to a foam cannon.
Search “chimney” and “soot” on this forum, other forums, and facebook groups. I just did, and found a lot of information about this issue.
Xjet straight bleach, or put a 3-5% mix in a pump up and spray directly, like racer alluded to above.
Your 4gpm should perform better than the 2.5gpm. Dont use stucco and chimney to gauge the effectiveness of downstreaming, as those materials generally require a stronger mix than
downstreaming can deliver.
If you are doing this full time, you need all methods of application in your arsenal. Downstream, xjet, direct (12v/booster/air). One size doesnt fit all.
This is a well reviewed chemical to use in situations like this:
I’ve also seen krudkutter recommended, which is something you can get locally. Basically any degreaser can help in this situation, like @racer said above.
EBC works great on Soot. Around here you get a lot of stain at top of chimneys, so usually use a combination of bleach and EBC because it may be algae or a combo of both. If you know for sure it’s soot, as Innocent stated, bleach not going to do much for you.
@Racer Rick, I’m unfamiliar with EBC. Where do I source it?
Brodie @squidskc encouraged me to get the xjet. I have found that my DSI and 4-5gpm puts up too much solution to stick, or else Elemonator doesn’t foam up like Dawn. OR, the DSI doesn’t foam like the cannon I’ve been using. Right now I’m dealing with too many variables to identify the source of my problem, and the sooty chimney is just one of them:
It was worse before yesterday when I cleaned it, but as you can tell I came up short.
The reason I didn’t search the site was so that my friends with whom I have become acquainted like Rick @Racer and Brodie @squidskc could enlighten me about how they , as well as anyone else, handle this problem. I can’t imagine that more don’t deal with this issue when washing houses. I certainly didn’t expect to be insulted
by someone who jumped to conclusions or castigated for not searching before I post a question
Don’t use dawn. Dawn is a pain to rinse compared with Elemonator and will suspend bleach and ruin vinyl and stucco if you don’t spend half a day rinsing it off. I can direct you to 5 posts where people came here asking why they got next day call backs telling them siding was blotchy after a wash.
Common denominator was dawn.
On masonry and stucco I only use X-Jet with the proportioner pulled. The last dryvit (stucco on foam) strip mall we did took 32 gallons of SH to clean. At $3.92/gallon that’s only $125 dollars. That’s a drop in the bucket for what I got paid. Buy good bleach.
I’ve found a noticeable difference in the 12.5% pool shock and 12.5% sh in 55 gallon drums from Eaton chemical here locally. It seems a lot “fresher”.
Spend good money on good chemicals. It will return dividends.
As far as foaming/suds, I had to dial back the amount of Elemonator I was using from 5 oz per gallon to 4 oz per gallon because I was getting so much foam using the x-jet. IBS says they use 8 oz per 65 gallons! It goes a long way.
$160 - X-jet.
$4 per gallon of SH
$100 every 5 gallons of Elemonator
That’s so inexpensive for the return… gotta use the right stuff.
What? Who jumped to conclusions. You admitted you have a “mega crap” machine and a 4 gpm machine. Those are not decent equipment. You admitted that you didn’t want to search for your self because you wanted to ask others. I’m not trying to insult you. I’m telling you that you are using crap equipment and don’t know what you are doing. Nothing wrong with that. Learn from it and move on. So far you have learned you need better equipment and the right nozzles, bleach doesn’t clean hydrocarbons, degreaser is what you need, and that you can get answers without even bothering to research and relying on the generosity of others to spoon feed you. Been a win win day for you.
Thanks Brodie! @squidskc. This is just what I need. I DO want to continue upgrading my equipment, and my struggle @Innocentbystander, is that my upgrades so far have left me only marginally better off. But, I am hoping to continue improving with the intelligence of the experience of this forum. I hope that I am able to make a contribution, and not just take from the group. THIS is the help I sought. AND Mr. Bystander, this will probably be the last post from you to which I will ever respond.
