Ok im gonna be upgrading machines this week or next. Mainly do residential… house wash, decks, driveways, pool decks. Heres my question, if you guys could do it all over “with a budget around $1500 in mind” would you rather have a 4gpm @4k psi or a 5.5 gpm @ 2875 psi. Im almost leaning tward the 5.5 just because its nore water. Only draw back is, I don’t have a buffer tank and i didn’t want to burn up a new pump. I know most house’s can put out that much but it’s a gamble. Also do u see have a 4000psi machine being that much better on flat work than a 2875?
Any imput would be great
Imo, setting up a buffer tank is worth it, if you plan on washing more than a couple houses a week.
It protects your pump from cavitation. But it also protects it from thermal stress, by diverting your bypass line back to the tank and keeping cool water running through the pump at all times.
I’ve yet to do any flatwork with my 5.5@2500. But from what I’ve read, it’s adequate for residential concrete.
I think you need to re think your entire plan, with all due respect
What would you suggest house washer?
Some of the guys on here think this is crazy but I run a 5.5gpm machine and I only use a 35 gallon buffer tank. I do this because the large majority of houses we do have adequate flow to feed the machine directly but we do come across some low flow houses, usually on a well, once or twice a month that would destroy the pump if fed direct from the house. When we do come across these houses, it does slow us down a bit, but not anymore than it would waiting for 150 gallons to fill from a 2 or 3gpm faucet. But this setup has worked well for us. 98% of the time, the flow to the tank exceeds what the machine is pulling and the Hudson keeps it from overflowing but in those events where flow is low, we are covered as well and don’t damage the pump.
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Just curious, how do you determine that the flow from the house is too low? Do you hook up a pressure gauge to the spigot, or do you eyeball it or something?
5 gallon buclet and count the seconds to fill up
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I’ve got one of those ugly, yet effective, 275gal water totes on my trailer. I keep the buffer set at 100gal. I did a new construction clean the other day and the plumbers had to shut the water off for 40mins. Luckily they gave me a fair warning so I set my buffer at 175gal and when they cut the water i was good. A buffer is a must imo. I run across low flow homes all the time though.
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