A recent visit to a local pressure washer service and sales center was rather eye opening, he looked at my pressure pro hot water skid and pointed out several issues, mainly the heater coil which he said is way too small and that’s why a lot of these machines has heater issues and other electrical problems.
Now pressure pro or black knight, whatever they go by is a lower cost machine and mine has run pretty well for 3 years, but I’m wondering is a hydrotek or landa unit that much better? When at the shop, the price difference was a few grand for similar machines, no small fee by any means. The shop owner said even though my unit says 5.5GPM, it’s actually putting out less because of the coil being too small. I’m sure I have this mixed up a bit because he talked my ear off for an hour, but he seemed very sure Landa was much better, although he told me they are the same machine just about except the coil is much larger on the Landa. Sorry, I think they actually sell AaLadin now that I am thinking about it, but probably the same difference.
What are your thoughts on lower cost machines like Pressure Pro vs. higher cost machines like Hydrotek, AaLadin, etc? Are they worth the extra money and provide that much extra bang for your buck?
I’m buying my first unit next week, and I’m going with the Hydrotech 7.8 gallon per minute unit with 120 V and generator. Figure buy new, buy good brand, have no problems… At least for a little while. We also decided on a 14 foot enclosed trailer with the V. Steel Eagle 24 inch surface cleaner and then we have four different hose reels. Also mounting a 275 gallon tote, a 65 gallon chemical tank, a 55 gallon drum, stack of 5 gallon clear measuring pails, as well as my generation 2 roof cleaning set up in the trailer.
First off Phil-- it’s easy to check your PW to see if it’s putting the correct GPM’s out by using a 5 gallon bucket and a Ball valve if you have one. Turn on the pressure washer and then time for 1 minute how much water you put in that 5 gal bucket(make sure you know where the 5 gal fill mark would be on the bucket which is aprox a few inches from the top). You should be OK there.
As for the Hydrotek there good machines and put together well. I had a Hydrotek in the past and the only thing that I really didnt like was the engine size. It should’ve been a little bit higher HP rated… But that maybe just me which is why I put together my own Powerwashers.
If you have the money then Hydroteks are worth it. If Money is tight then look around. The only thing I would always recommend is to get a 120v burner/generator set up Skid. 12v burners are trouble and I know that because I had a 12v hydrotek hot water skid and of the battery runs just. Hair low the burner runs like garbage…
That’s awesome! Why do you have 4 hose reels? Just curious, my setup is so basic and I have 3 (1 for roof cleaning, 1 garden hose for pw, and one 1 pressure).
We have 2 reels with each with a 100 ft and a 50 ft section(we also have more hose in the trailer). 1/2 and 3/8 to restrict flow. This way we can easily disconnect the 1st 50 ft and add it to the 2nd. Our unit is dual operator, and even though most jobs we will just have one guy operating the unit at a full 7.8 gpm, we still have the option to have 2 guys working and just cutting the gpm in half.
Alkota is the brand we started with, good machine…5355J Honda 20hp motor. Sold it with 1000 hrs on it. Talked to the guy that bought not long ago, sold it to him 2 or 3 years back and he said it’s still running strong. The machine is 7 years old if that tells you anything.
I wish every day that I had gone with the SLT series instead of the PGHW. My money was tight getting started so I just couldn’t do that little extra that was between the two. My next Landa will be SLT series.
