How to overcome low pressure or no pressure water source?

So I live in Cancun Mexico and recently started to offer pressure washing services.

In Cancun different parts of the city get water from the city at different times. In my neighborhood we are supposed to get water from 6am to 6pm, today by 12pm they had shut us off.

The houses are not connected to the city water lines, instead the city lines fill up our holding tanks on the roof which then gravity feed into the house, or the city water lines fill up our cisterns, which we then pump that water to the holding tanks.

One alternative I’ve found at least around my neighborhood is that we have parks/green areas that have an irrigation system. The water comes from well water with what seem to be large pumps (they run on 220v). I’ve worked with irrigation system twice and water source wasn’t an issue at all. The only downside I can think of is that since it is well water is much “harder” than the city water which is know to be very hard to begin with.

Basically city water gets treated a bit, but still very hard water, just not as hard as well water. My current machine is a 2.3GPM one. Was looking into getting a 24inch surface cleaner but someone pointed out it is recommended to use 4inch per GPM, so the 24 inch would require around 6GPM.

I currently own a 14 passenger van, that only has about 4 months left as a “tourism van”. Once it can no longer work as a tourism van I plan to make that my “work van”. Since it is a 14 passenger van I fill I could comfortably load up to 700 kilos, which is 700 liters of water (185 gallons), but that much weight on the van at all times would be no bueno on the suspension right?

If I was able to load 185 gallons into my van, that would only give me about 45 minutes of use with a 4GPM machine right? So is my best solution to use 2 or 3 200 liter containers as my water source, and ideally hook up a water source to fill up the containers as I am using the water up?

In the US we use a ‘buffer’ tank that is hooked up to a water source. Even if the spigot puts out less than the pump is rated for, it still allows you to use the machine provided you’re not ‘on’ it all the time like rinsing a driveway.

I’m small peanuts compared to a lot of guys here, my buffer tank is 55 gallons. The other guys can help better than I can.

Oh and since your current machine is so small you’ll probably only be able to use one of those stainless steel 12” surface cleaners. Just remember, watch your PSI, you only need about 2700 psi or less on concrete.

Also, as you mentioned hard water, if you end up washing houses or structures with windows, you’ll get REALLY bad spots no matter how much you rinse and people get a little upset about that.

What I was told when I started was not to rely on the manufacturer’s stated specifications, find out for yourself. Do a bucket test for your gpm, test your chemical injector draw rate, test your pressure. Understand that there is a spike pressure and then the regular pressure. Once you know what your gpm actually is, then you can determine the size of your buffer tank need/capability and then use math to determine your max time on the gun (with trigger depressed). You can also test flow rates at residences to know how quickly your buffer will fill.

regarding water source, you can use any pump to draw water to fill your buffer. Your specific problem is the kind of water that you have. You could have the water tested to know exactly what it contains. With the city controlling water, you are at their mercy regarding quantities available. You may need to source water outside of their supply.

If your water source is low-flow, you’ll need a buffer tank to make up the difference in flow between your machine and your source. As others have mentioned, do the math but it’s important to realize that exterior cleaners are seldom “on the trigger” nonstop; most of use regularly start and stop our rinsing as we move hoses, adjust equipment, etc. Obviously, the buffer will start to replenish whenever you’re off the trigger, so you’ll likely get more time out of your buffer than you may initially think. Buffer tanks are typically anything from 55 gallon drums to 275-gal international bulk containers (IBCs).

If your water source is 0 flow, you’ll need not a buffer but a reservoir. Best option in that case would be to get a water trailer with a 500+ gallon tank aboard. You’ll be able to tow much more water than you can carry in the van.

Thanks everyone for the great advice. In the near future do plan to set up buffer tanks, using 200 liter plastic drums. I did notice that if I connected to water sources that came from the holding tanks on our home roofs, at some locations it would work well, while at others I could feel my machine struggling. I am now using a small water pump used to add pressure to our water lines. This pump goes between the faucet and my machine. When there is water flow the pump turns on adding pressure to the water, and when the flow stops the pump automatically shuts off. Working out good for me.

That’s what I did temporarily with my direct drive machine, had a ‘booster’ pump to deliver better pressure for the machine. Wasn’t long after I switched to a gear drive.

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