I just got a call to do a long-ish driveway at a house where I replaced the porch screens.
The distance from the house to the road is 700’, so I would probably need a minimum of 400’ supply hose. Would I be getting any real gpm’s to my buffer tank at that distance?
Depends on the current water pressure out there……
What’s your feed line size? 5/8 or 3/4? 5/8 at 200 feet with 60 psi pressure gets 8 gallons or so.
Is pumping out from the water (pond?) along the drive out of the question?
I just have 5/8", I don’t have the means to pull/filter from the pond unfortunately. It’s pretty scummy anyway.
Figured that was probably the case.
What do you think Donny, 400’? I think I have about 300’ of pressure line, probably don’t want to go over that with the surface cleaner.
I know, math lol.
How big is your buffer tank? What is the actual GPM of your machine? Do you out run your buffer tank very often? Even occasionally?
That’s not the problem, the issue is how much, if any flow will come out at 400-500’ of 5/8 garden hose.
Those questions do apply. Plus with the nice house next door and a 700’ concrete driveway, I highly doubt they are hurting for gpm/psi…whether they are on city or a well.
There’s no reason to think that you will run into any significant gpm loss at that distance. It’s not the same as trying to ram water through a much narrower 3/8"ID hose at high psi.
Do you know what the psi and gpm are at that source?
if it were me, Id park close to the source and maybe halfway of drive.clean both sides and good rinxe once youve movd off driveway using full buffer tank and your 400’ hose if needed.
I’d think incline would be a huge factor for the supply hose. If it’s running down hill you could probably run miles of hose. On the pressure side, I’ve ran up to 450 feet with a 4 GPM direct drive back in the day with zero issues.
He just wants the furthest half done apparently, if you look closely he did the section closer to the house himself about four years ago.
The old, “I did the easy part, can you get what I can’t reach” again…
We looked at a storage unit place once where it was a good distance to the only water supply in one far corner of the property. We have a 600 gallon trailer with a trash pump on it, which I planned to use as a midpoint between the source and the rig. We didn’t wind up doing the job, but it makes me think if an intermediate booster of some sort would be feasible… maybe something you already have 
I’d agree that the slope is a key factor in the result, but given that water retains level, I’d wager that whole distance is pretty level too. If you have the hose, hook that much up to a source you guess to be similar and see what it does.
Slope won’t be much of a factor if their system is on a city water supply. Highly likely that the peak of the job will be well below the top of the water tower supplying the water. It may factor in if their system is on a well/pump, but as you mentioned water will retain it’s level.
Without the details it’s all guess work, but standard residential/commercial water psi is not as impacted as high pressure psi.
I was referring to the pond in the pic 
Ask if there is a sprinkler/irrigation box out that way that may have a spigot on it already.
If there is existing irrigation line, but no spigot, see about having a “T” installed somewhere in the line that would allow you to stub up to a spigot. You could even try to convince the customer that he needs an irrigation tech to make the install before you perform the wash.
Just to clarify there is no slope to this, pretty much flat. If you guys say I’ll get decent water flow at 400’ I’m not going to worry about it.
Right, and that was a good catch. I got caught up in the theoretical slopes of others and completely missed what the pond was telling us all. What I was referring to was simply how the downward effect would equally offset the same amount of upward resistance. That’s why I said that the answer is in the details.
You’ll be waiting forever with the 8 and 5/8 - You’ve got to have 3/4 because you’ve got small buffer. I’ve got one I do even longer. Go to Harbor Freight and they’ve got 3/4" 100 ft relatively cheap. Buy you a few 100’ and add to price. Tell customer. It’s black. Wouldn’t want to use all the time because it kinks a little, but I drag it out all the time for big jobs w/o close water.
