Techniques for faster surface cleaning

Are you advocating hot water for surface cleaning?

Not required but warm water will help. Try the experiment and you decide, that was the point of the post, you can do some basic experiments at your sink.

Surprised no one mentioned nozzle selection for this machine. The stock nozzles are too much pressure.

2 Likes

Thatā€™s a good point. May want to switch out your nozzles so they all equal 4 GPM. if theyā€™re much larger you probably arenā€™t getting even close to 4k PSI.

SO, top of photo is where these folks park their cars (the ones not in the garage) I pretreated the top of the photo with 1% and car wash/wax (yeah, the guy told me that it leaves a shine on the vinyl siding post washing, but it doesnā€™t).

Still looked pretty grungy, so took @Racer 's advice and popst treated with a 3% solution:

Observations: Pretreat BIG benefit, and posttreatment absolutely necessary where stains still harass.
The more porous the surface, the more likely the striping.
When itā€™s wet enough, striping may not be an issue (see above)
No matter what you do, some crap will NEVER come out.

Conclusions: Henceforth, I will ALWAYS prewet/pretreat with mild SH/strong surfactant and post-treat where
necessary.
In reference to @John_Martinez and @squidskc, my game went WAY UP when I switched out
my nozzles, but more importantly (and what nobody talks about) lining up the nozzles so the
lines are in line with the bar!
OH, I have one more observation: So I blow out the second General Pump Quick Release (threw the 1st one in the trash) where my ball valve connects to the XJet/SC. Switch out to the Bob stainless that I discovered on my doorstep this morning at 6:30, and curious about why those brass QRā€™s blew out on me when I notice an o ring on the concrete that Iā€™m cleaning. HMM, could there be a relationship? Then I remembered a post about using dental picks, and somebody posting (was it you Brodie?) that those picks were the only thing bought without shame at Harbor Freight. SO, this observation relates to my ball valve: that sucker is hell on QR fittings, and I need more o rings and a set of picks.

Any comments from the seasoned pros?

BTW, if the weather cooperates tomorrow, I will be back there to do the walkways in the back. I was too tired to unload/load the PW after a full 8 hours today, and place is so big that canā€™t reach the back with 200ā€™ of hose). Will get the after pics of the entire circular drive then.

4 Likes

You saying o-rings are blowing out when rinsing from the open QC?

Whereā€™s your soap on the post treat? Donā€™t see any bubbles. when itā€™s cooler you can need stronger mix and usually more surfactant, esp. on roofs. But I regularly go 3.5 -4% on drives.

What the heck you doing with your ball valve. You have to pull back on it before you try to release, lol. Iā€™ve gone thru 3 Orings on mine THIS YEAR. Post a pic of your ball valve assembly.

2 Likes

Seems that it may be. Noticed that when I go back to the SC, the QC blows water everywhere but through the SC.

May be stupid, but could you make a Male to Male/Space docking peice to rinse with to save the head ache?

Just throwing it out threreā€¦ i have no clue if that would still achieve same rinsing power but its what first came to mind

Heck, Iā€™m up to two in three days! Hopefully Bobā€™s SS QR will survive. What do you mean "pull back on it before release?

BTW, @Racer, where do you get those QR fittings for your soft wash system?

Menards mainly or PWP

This made me shudder for all the wrong reasons.

9 Likes

I canā€™t see the keyboard my eyes are watering. :rofl:

Lol. Hopefully nobody googles Space Docking Quick connect for ball valve.

My ball valve ends in a male fitting. Female is only for water in, unless you donā€™t plan on disconnecting. The only female fitting I use differently is on the end of the Lance.

But reallyā€¦ would a male/male fitting work for rinsing, or just be pointless?

So you have fittings switched up somewhereā€¦ i dont use ball valve, but coming from pump would be male on inlet as is.

Leaving my pump is male into female qc on hose to male fitting at the end of hose.

To me that makes way more sense that having a moving part attached to pump.

Just because mineā€™s different doesnā€™t make it right. Anyone else weigh in on this? I plug male from hose into PW? Can we get a consensus? Could THAT save my poor o rings?