Keth

Tom, Here is a picture of the Shurflo on my trailer. The inlet to the pump is plumbed to a valve on the 35 gallon tank at the top of the picture. The outlet of the pump goes to a reel with 225 feet of 3/8' hose. Here is a pic of the valve on the tank outlet. If you turn the handle one way the Shurflo draws from the 35 gallon. The other way drawns through the other hose which goes through a hole in the top of the big 225 gallon tank. When you are done spraying chemical you flip the handle and start drawing fresh water to flush the Shurflo out so it isn't always sitting in chems. The fresh water line can also be pulled from the big tank so you can draw from a bucket. . Kinda handy. Hope this helps. Keth

I would have called the EPA for the discharge into the sound. They have enough problems with fishkills there and they all wonder why.

Tom, If you are looking for a Shurflo pump make sure to check Ebay. You can often get them for 60 bucks depending on the model. Dime a dozen. :) Cheers, Keth

As you all know I am a new guy but have rapidly transitioned from the guy with the little machine climbing ladders with my soap nozzle and downstreaming Clorox to an experienced x-jetter and now doing my first downstream job tomorrow using all of the techniques you have all taught me. I have run across wasp nests before and I just blasted em away and ran to work on another side of the house for awhile but tomrrows job has four huge wasp nests and most are about 35 feet up. I can get to them easily with a 0030 nozzle but was thinking I would just blast them when I arrived with a strong x-jet mix and then go work another side of the house. Figured I would ask here what you all do when confronted with nests like this. Call an exterminator is not an option as the owner has a party tomorrow night. What do you guys/gals do? I have had luck blasting them and running but wondering how others approach it. Does anyone actually x-jet some sort of wasp killer mix or do you find that a strong housewash mix works fine? My downsteam mix is set to give me 1.3% of Sodium Hypo at the wall.

John, Just an update. I used the rollover with a 2540 and 0040 tip for soaping today and just the M-5 for rinsing and boy it was a dream. Real fast and efficient. Thanks. I did pull out two other nozzles for the whole house. I still like my 4040 for soaping porches with ceilings and the owner asked if I could get an old wasp nest down from the highest spot on the house. I explained to him about the 0010 tip and that it might be too agressive and he said "I am not worried if you rip the vinyl off. I am sick of that stupid nest". I filled the hose with soap and then blasted it off. No damage and he was happy. Told him he couldn't sue me if the upstairs ceiling got a water stain. He said he was a drywall contractor for 10 years and could fix anything I could take down. Nice guy and he was extremely impressed with the job I did. A new customer for life!

What kind of tank is it Jeff? Are you just using a blue poly tank from a previous batch mounted on the trailer or is it a poly tank with legs?

John, That is a good idea. You had mentioned it before and I just plain forgot. Until I find the right nozzles for the rinse rollover I will just pocket the M5. Thanks for the reminder. Keth

I agree with what most people here are saying. I started with what you are thinking of buying basically and immediately wanted more. As for surface cleaners the Whisper Wash Classic I got from Bob at PressureTek just plain rocks. It is so light and powerflul that I do the front walkway at the houses I do for free. I have a hot water machine but don't even turn it on and the Whisper Wash just makes it look like new. The easiest upsell in the world once the front walk is done. "Mrs. Jones, we always do the walkway from the house to the driveway as part of our Silver level service. If you would like the sidewalks and driveway to look the same please let me know and I can put together a quote" Tee hee. Another 50 bucks for tiny driveways and it only takes a few minutes. Best of luck. PS Dont get a water broom. Get a 2510 tip and you will be fine.

Well, it was interesting and fun but I have a bit more to go. Firstly I used less chemical by about 35-40% which was impressive considering I spent a fair amount of time just experiementing with different nozzles. It took about the same amount of time as x-jetting for my first time as I was experimenting and the x-jet is just real easy for plant rinsing. My goal is to find a low and high soap and a low and high rinse nozzle that will take care of just about everything on a two story house. The reason for this is that I am building two rollover nozzles, one for soap and one for rinse and plan to carry a few other single nozzles for special situations. For low soap I have a 4040 which is fine. For high soap I have a 2540 but would like a little extra reach so may go to a 1540. For super high soap I have an 0030 and an 0040 which work fine. For rinsing I am a bit hosed right now asI am using a 2510 for low rinse which seems to work but would like a bit more flow but I am backordered on some #20 nozzles and don't know yet if they have enough backpressure to not draw soap with my machine. Hoping that a 20 orifice doesn't draw soap. Fingers crossed. If it doesn't I would go with the 2520 for low rinse and something like a 1520 for high rinse. For wetting down plants I have no idea what is best but the 2510 seems a bit agressive and would like something mellower for wetting them down. Maybe a 4020. For super high rinsing I only have an 0010 and have to be real careful to stand way back and waggle it to knock the core out of it. Hoping I can go with a 0020 except for everything but the very extreme. The house I did today was large and had a vinyl covered chimney that was about for stories. The 0030 soaped it and the 0010 rinsed it just fine. Had to time it when the wind gusts were down but in the old days I would have been up on ladders and sliding all over the place. Truly fun doing all of this from the ground. :) All in all I thought it went well and can certainly see some time savings down the road once I settle on a method. Time and chemical savings point me to doing this as my basic setup. For really messy situations I would pull out the X-jet and it will always stay on the truck for oxalic on driveways as well as a backup in case my downstream injector failed in the middle of a job. Wow, just looked and this post is too long. Sorry. Cheers

Some before and after pics. Forgot to get some of the foyer that was filthy but these will go on the website. Before After

Just got done with the house. The Flaming Cherry bomb worked wonders. I blasted them and went to work on the other side of the house. When I cam back there were tons of wasps just laying near the front door. Dead. Found one more nest behind some corner trim. Normal house wash had their heads spinning and everytime one stuck his head out he got a shot. Cleared the area pretty quick as it wasnt very dirty there. Thanks to all. The epi pen is still full!

This all makes sense as my Titan Reel has a friction brake that calms down the unwinding and is firm enough to keep the wheel from going bonkers. I only use the pin lock when moving from job to job. All this talk about full flow is interesting though as you can have full flow fittings everywhere but what about the downstream injector? Pushing water through that little hole whether you are using it or not must slow things down more than a slightly undersized reel fitting.

Thanks gang. I think I will mix a fiver of Flaming Cherry and X-jet the front foyer. That should kill the wasps and it is filthy so using a stronger mix on this small section will make sense. Will do the rest of the house with my 1:1 sunbrite citrus and SH mix downstreamed. Long sleeve shirt and pants today for sure!

For those of you that downstream what is your preferred method at the gun end to adjust for height and other variables? Vote now!

Thanks guys. I am glad you replied Jeff as you are near me and probably have seen the same exact thing. I am used to the mud wasp nests and house mix usually kills em while I work elsewhere but these are HUGE paper wasp nests and was just curious if housemix would get them too. I suspect it will but just wanted to walk in and deal with it like a pro instead of running around with wasps chasing me. It is a retired couple and they always watch out the windows. From all that everyone has taught me here my business is growing on referrals alone and I average about 3X more per house and use less time to do it. Gotta love it. Life is good. :lglolly:

You are gonna want to change the nozzles I suspect. The pros will have a solution I am sure.

Was just playing around with Excel and came up with this spreadsheet for calculating chem mixing and costing. To use it you can change anything in a green box, hit enter and it will readjust all the rest. File is attached to this message. Just thought I would share. Let me know if I screwed up something. Chemical Calculator.xls

Thanks for the head's up. I need to talk to Steve about some polymer wax and rinse aid. Does Steve realize that Oct 14th is the Fall Technical Seminar for PWNA? He may get a better turnout if he moved the date. Cheers

That makes perfect sense Dan. Thanks for adding to the thread. Learning a lot here.

Well, that is unique. Can't wait to see it. Thanks.

Interesting. I would love to see some pics because that is exactly how my dual lance works so perhaps I am missing something. My soap tip always stays on. The only thing I wish it did was cut off the high pressure nozzle completely when I unscrew the handle to feed the soap tip. Keep us posted.

That's the way my Suttner Dual Lance works. One tip is high pressure the other low. Is your's different in some way and what do you do when you need to put a shooter soap or rinse tip in for second floors?

Dan, Interesting. Curious why you wouldin't want high and low soap in one. I would think that being able to soap a whole side without switching rollovers would be more effiicient? I must be missing something. Keth

You mean one like this? http://www.pressuretek.com/nozzledisk.html :lgbounces

I am thinking that two roll over nozzle holders might be quite efficient. Single wand with a QC coupler on the end. Both roll over nozzle holders have QC plugs on the inlet side. One has a 0040 for high soaping and and 2540 for low soaping. The other one has a 0020 for high rinsing and a 4010 for low rinsing. Obviously the nozzle combos would be personal preference but you get the idea. If you had a special situation you just pull out a single nozzle, disconnect your roll over and pop it on. I wear one of those Lowe's aprons and it has a few nozzles in it, easier to get at than digging in the pockets.