Is soft washing patio/window screens a thing?

I’ll admit, I was an idiot before starting this thread and using high-pressure but keeping the wand at a far enough distance where I wouldn’t do any damage. This was my 4th screen job and I never had an issue before until I ran into this guys 10+ year old screens. I even had another screen/patio job that day (my 5th) with no issues again…I’m actually glad it happened so now I know exactly what to do and it even seems easier then trying to high-pressure them, though the process might take me longer

What about all of that getting in the pool? Is it hazardous. If it is not… i’m assuming you explain to the customer that the amount that gets into their pool is so diluted that it is harmless. Florida people & their pools… you know.

What getting into the pool?

“SH” (sodium hypoclorite) /chlorine levels are so low when downstreaming. Most pools lose 1 to 2 inches of water per week, typical pool requires one or two gallons of pure 12% to be added once a week, or salt pools produce just as much. So you downstreaming the enclosure for a few minutes makes no real difference to pool chlorine levels.

And downstreamed elemonator is so diluted, specially if it falls into a 10k gallon pool.

Sand, from the pool deck can fall into a pool, but the “creepy crawly” vacuums should pick it up, or the pool guy when servicing. Or the homeowner if they take care of their pool, they should know how to system vac their pool and wash the filter.

Floating stuff, you can actually carry a pool net and skim the top of the pool, the client and pool service person will love you.

I never bring up effects on their pool after a clean, sometimes they just say “i know stuff will fall into the pool but try not to”, they know what’s up though, so no worries. So skim a bit real quick

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If you were using pressure tips you were not soft washing. No matter how far you were from the screen. I’ve washed thousands of screens this summer and never damaged one. Offer to pay for the screen replacement and give them a refund for the trouble. Order the proper nozzles and chalk it up to a paid educational moment.

So I’m running 5.5gpm at 3500psi with a jrod when doing a screen enclosure what tips should I be using as not to damage the screen or should I use my sureflow pump with my roof set up and just wash and rinse with it

I’m curious what you guys use to softwash screens and how good they turn out with super dirty screens that are full of dust that clings to the screen?

M5DS nozzle set on pretty wide spread. Your hw mix, then just rinse

As a window cleaner that repairs patio screens, hosing down fiberglass mesh won’t get much dirt build-up off. Physical contact is the surefire way but time consuming and risky.

It’ll get dust off though.

I recently replaced a couple screens, the homeowner’s wife decided to try out their spiffy new Home Depot machine and it left a nice white stripe.

I want to know how @whatapane has been a member for 11 years :clap: and only has 1 minute of read time. :flushed:


We use this, works great. Of course we do full service window cleaning too. We only use this if we’re doing the windows too. Otherwise HW mix and very soft rinse.

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Longtime WCR member whose profile got imported automatically when PWR was started. Guess he’s just finally made it over here to dip his toes in :slightly_smiling_face:

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