Rick2

I buy my SH from a place called Astro Chemicals here in Springfield, only 10 minutes away from my home. They only sell it as 15 percent (which is fine with me) at 2 dollars a gallon in 15 gallon drums with a 50 dollar deposite. I've got ten empty droms behind my garage I have to return someday. I was looking at their website the other day and saw they sell oxalic acid for only a dollar a pound sold in 50 pound containers. I've got to pick up one tomorrow for that concrete job I was going to do today until I found out today is still considered a holiday. Here are some pictures I took about 1 minute ago. Let's see if I can upload them right this time. One picture is of the 15 gallon drums. The other is the tanks on the truck I mix them into. The tank closest to you is the SH mix. The other tank is just for plain water. If you look up Astro's website you'll see they have lots more to sell. The warehouse is very easy to get to, right off Rt.91 or the Mass Pike. Real easy to find.

Pressure Tek is very good but look around in your own city for a chemical supplier too. I don't live in a very large city but there are several suppliers within 5 miles of me.

It sits on a new frame and the unloader has been changed a few times but other than that it still runs fine. That one is not used everyday but it does get used. In fact it's one of the machines getting used tomorrow on a pretty big concrete job. Gotta love those Cat pumps.

I feel the same way. 17 years ago I started this business with a cold washer Honda/Cat and now run three units, all cold water. I wash most everything execpt grease because cold water has little effect on it. Other than that I'm busy seven days a week. In fact I just came in 2 hours ago from a large restaurant job. Can you believe I was working on the fourth of July? Actually it's the only day this restaurant closes at noon. Oh yeah, I was using that same cold water washer I bought 17 years ago.

No no no no, you can't pull chemicals with the red tip, only with the black "chemical" tip. When the pump "sees" a low pressure - high volume tip, (the black one) it will start a vaccum and pull the chemicals through the small chemical hose. When you change tips to anything else the vacuum will stop and you will be only spraying pure water. Use the black tip to soak the house with the chemical and the other tips to rinse. Also, please do yourself and your doctor a favor and don't use the red tip. You really can get hurt or destroy property with it (no joke at all). As for the bleach mist, well, I have my customers move their cars away so nothing damages the paint. I don't work if it's too windy and I really should use some sort of breathing regulator but... I hope this helps.

Thats't it, I'm ordering one tonight. The deck I finished today came out very nice but putting down these chemicals by hand and having the pump sprayer clog is all over.

Oh, that Rick. I was trying to figure that out.

Yup, what he said. Don't use pressure to try to clean the house, it all in the chemicals. Save yourself some money and skip the Zep and Crud Cutter, just use a mixture of bleach and water downstreamed (not through the pump) Don't put anything through the pump execpt cold water. Lastly, to clean the metal, pick up some "Spray Nine" at Lowes or Home Depot. It's about the best thing a homeowner at purchase to clean the aluminum with. Spray it on and let it sit for a few minutes before the rinse... don't let it dry on the gutters, etc. Should only take 2 hours to clean the house.

I plan on lighting my BBQ grill with twenty dollar bills on my freshly stained deck this summer. Or maybe it would just be cheaper to buy a new igniter switch.

I bought the Magnum 500 from Ready Seal. It looks like the only difference from the Deckster is the hose. (30 feet as opposed to 50 feet). Things are going to move along much quicker in the deck department. I'm actually looking forward to doing my own deck next week.

This is the one I bought this morning. $700 and free shipping worked for me. This year it has been busy woth cleaning decks (just a call for a deck as I type this). In the past I just cleaned them with precarb and acid ... check please, but this Ready Seal looks easy to use. I'd like to look more into staining them too. The wife says I can start with our own deck. You know how this business is, your own house is always the last to get done. BTW my friend Bill does the most beautiful custom paint on cars, motorcycles, etc. He drive a dented rusty Escort. I guess it's the same everywhere.

Any problem pumping precarb or acid through it?

From what I read the pump is super simple and cheap to rebuild.

I guess you could make one yourself and save a couple bucks (if you have the time). I'd rather just buy one already built... it's all tax write offs anyways.

Which kind did you get?

Who is Scott?

How I spent my Sunday afternoon. The wife's back in Bulgaria for three weeks and left me a huge "to do" list. Hey Beth, you know about leaving those, right?

Thanks for the tip, this looks pretty good! Not much difference from the the Deckster aside from the shorter hose.

Depends on the season. These days 8 hours or so but when the snows falling I have to be up at 2am or so to start plowing. I hate plowing snow.

I'll give it a shot.

I tried to buy it right after I posted that message but something is wrong with the site, will not take the credit card. I'm sure it's going to be a nice machine but 850 dollars seems pretty steep.

I never really think about unloaders much, just crank them up when doing surface work then return the setting when finished. Well, one of my machines started acting up yesterday. First it started making that sound when there isn't enough supply water getting to the pump. Then it started blowing a thin stream of water through the middle of the unloader valve knob. Weird eh? I don't know what kind of unloader it is, it just says "Made in Italy" and it's on a cold water General 30/40. I imagine it's time for a new unloader but is one really better than the others? Also, how do you set up the new unloader after it's been installed? I know there are some type of adjustments for a new unloader but I have never done it before.

It was comming straight through the center of the knob of the unloader.

Thank's for all the input on unloaders, there sure is a lot more to them than I thought. I think I'm just going to drom the whole thing off at the shop and have them repair whatever is wrong. I believe I'd just make it worse if I tried it myself. That's what I tell my customers when they ask if it's worth it to powerwash the job themself.

Very good, both of you must be proud of that.