Im a manager at tractor supply working 28-30 hours a week at $11.50 a hour. I have 2 young toddlers and a stay at home wife. I just bought a simpson powershot 4000psi 3.3 gpm pressure washer for doing door to door sales trying to make some money in my free time. Ive washed 5 houses (family and neighbors) and enjoy it. My question is did i buy the wrong pressure washer. Almost everyone on here has a high gpm and a lower psi. I understand that more gpm you have the faster you can rinse but i thought you want higher psi to power through the dirt and mold. Should i return the one i have? I just bought it 5 days ago for $720.
You can get by with that machine. You just need the right nozzle to get you the flow at a lower psi and be able to downstream.
If you are able to return it and get a 4-5gpm machine you will be better off, but it’s not impossible. I’m a “part timer” with a full timer setup. I have the higher gpm equipment simply so I can be more efficient and be home with the family more. I work 37.5 hours a week at the college and wash a house about every day after work. I would struggle to hit that goal with a smaller machine.
If I were you and I had the funds to buy a slightly larger machine I would. You don’t need a high psi machine either. You only want around 2800 psi at most to clean concrete and much much less for houses and decks. I’m running 8gpm and 2500 psi and I never want for more pressure. Do some serious reading on here for sure though.
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Ya i just found this forum 2 hours ago while binge reading google about pressure washers. Im taking this back tomorrow before im stuck with it. I live 2 minutes form a lake and i believe most of my sales will be alot of viynl wood decks, docks and concrete. There’s not many brick houses but i want a machine that will do all that. Big problem for me is money. Took me months to save for the one i bought. Do you know of a good beginner pressure washer that would last me for awhile till i could build me business and upgrade my gear. Under $1000 would be something i could afford.
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Cheapest way to go would be a dewalt 4gpm 4k psi with a cat pump. You could probably find at a big box store. Other than that, a unit from a reputable online dealer would be good. I wouldn’t recommend getting anything less than 4gpm. Anything direct drive will do. it will be the easiest to find and replace the pump should it ever go south. But if you can get a belt or gear drive you may be a bit better off in the long run. I only say say go with a 4/4 because then you don’t have a buffer tank and plumbing to deal with and should be the cheapest and quickest way to get some money rolling.
Others may have a more well informed idea, I’m just starting as well it should be another 2weeks before my machine gets in. if you put in you’re due diligence here guys seem more than willing to help ya out. If you have a targeted question try the search bar often times you will find answers to questions you didn’t know you had and will often solve some potential problems before they arise.
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Steer clear of any pumps with built in unloaders if u can help it
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^^ everything here is gold.
I think if I were in your shoes, but knowing what I know about this industry, I would return the machine so I could have the cash at my disposal. I would strongly consider using whatever credit I could get to make my large purhases, and keep the cash for all the incidentals in starting up a side business.
Before making any large purchase, I would research like mad, and then get the bare necessities from PressureTek in order to downstream (~$60-$80 for an injector kit, low pressure nozzles, and 1 gallon of Elemonator). Then rent a 3.5 - 4 gpm machine to practice on friends and family’s homes, and tackle the first few paying jobs. (You’ll want to be strategic in how you line up jobs so you can make the most for your rental fee.)
Renting will eat up some profit, and can be a major pain at times, but it will reduce your overall risk as you determine whether this is something you can really make a go of.
Once you’ve determined that this is something that will pay off, use credit to get a really decent machine, along with the supporting equipment like hoses, reels, etc. You can read a ton of posts here about what good equipment to choose.
Btw, this is how I got my feet wet in pw’ing, using a rental machine. Even with a dinky 3.5 gpm washer that I had to pull around the yard as I cleaned, I brought in well over $500/day washing houses (often they were short days: 5-6 hours). Figure net income will be around 60% of gross, and that’s a minimum of $300 for less than a day’s work.
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I also started off with a box store machine. I made allot of money with it too. But until I found this forum, all I knew how to do was surface clean and that’s it. If you wanna wash houses, you’ll need a minimum of a 4gpm machine… If the customers your targeting run off of a city supply line for water; you will be fine with a 4gpm at 4k psi machine, and wont need a buffer tank. I also run a 4gpm machine and have only been washing houses for one season. I have found that if your customers run off of a well, it’s a safe bet to use a buffer tank just fyi, because I ran a customers well dry before with a 4gpm machine, and @Nashvillewash can attest to that lol… the most simple way for you to do this would be to; return that machine and get a 4gpm machine. At the most it might set you back about 1200 bucks or so, give or take… then get yourself some cheap or even heavy duty garden hose, about 200 feet of it. Then, order about 200 feet of pressure hose, and a downstream injector kit from pressuretek.com and a jrod kit with some elemonator, then buy yourself a 5 gallon bucket from lowes or something and use that for your chemical bucket. If you drive a pickup truck I’d reccomend devising a rig involving pallets and eye hooks… that’s what I did in the beginning and it cost me nothing to do, I found the pallets and all I had to pay for were the hooks and straps. This makes setup and cleanup pretty easy and you wont have to drag the washer around with you, like you will with that small machine you got now… Then you come on here and learn everything you need to know about downstreaming and how to mix a house wash recipe. YouTube will help you see visually what allot of us are on here talking about as well, and it will make it easier to understand. Once you get the hang of things I’m sure you’ll really enjoy it and see how lucrative this business really is, and at that point I’m sure you’ll upgrade to a trailer and big tank and all the good stuff. Here are some pics of how my outfit used to be setup and how it is now… (so you can see what I mean)
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This forum is awesome! Incredible advise. BTW DeWalt and Simpson machines of the same specs are identical. You can get by with a lower spec machine but it will take longer. The above recommendations are spot on but in any case don’t let equipment deter you. You can do this. 
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Amen, you got this!
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where are you located?
I live in south carolina.
Thanks for all the help. I will definitely be on this site studying in my free time. I just returned that simpson. Ill be saving up for a 4gpm PW. Im looking around at prices now. Thanks agian everyone.
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In your situation Im leaning towards get what you can get asap. You can recover the cost quickly if you hustle up some work. Every day you arent hustling this you are missing out on cash in hand. 3.3 gpm will get it done. Technique is everything. Read about down streaming and use an injector and that machine will work. Just slightly slower. After about a year Im swapping my pump from 4gpm to 5.5. Its 37.5% more and the largest pump my 13hp Honda will push.
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Ya im having the hardest time finding a 4k /4 gpm machine with a cat pump under $1600. I see some with AR punps and triple triplex pumbs from $800-$1000 are they worth the money with those pumps?
I wouldn’t spend the money on anything but an udor pump. Heck I could build you a 5x3000 with electric start for $1,300ish
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@SchertzServicesLLC what state are you in?
I did find this Honda GX390 4,200 PSI 4 GPM Gas Pressure Washer for $999 i could get this one next friday.
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As soon as my pump arrives I’m making my 4x4 a 5.5x 2500. Can’t wait
The gx390 is a great engine!
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I would go with that! and in Illinois
EDIT what pump?
I will tell you that you wont get 4,200 psi and 4gpm out of that unit. You need 15 HP in order to run that psi with that GPM at the same time.
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