Christopher

I have 4 of the Rapid Reel hose reels on my trailer and sometimes I do not unroll all of the 100' of pressure hose and have not had any problems yet. I was told that it is better for the hose if you always unroll all of it. The Rapid Reel hose reels that I have do have the "brake" mechanism along with a pin lock so the reel does not move. These are not very expensive.

I agree with Mike, The company that makes the Big Guy is Whisper Wash and one good thing about that company is you can buy swivel seal kits and rebuild kits so when you have problems you can fix the problem without having to purchase a whole swivel. A lot of companies out there sell this brand like Pressure Tek, Water Cannon, Higher Power Supplies, etc... Just check around. I have the Yellow Classic 19" and love it.

Thanks Alan for the info, I will go to the Home Depot or Lowe's and see if they have them and if they do not there is a couple of sprinker places here and I will try to get some of these adapters. That would be a lot better than having to string out hundreds of feet of water supply hose or rent a water meter and wait 3 weeks to get your deposit back. Here the deposit is $270.00 plus a minimum of $38.00 for the water up to the first 2000 gallons and then $2.00 per thousand gallons after that. I add it to the bill. Thanks again.

I had purchased a ton of stuff from a certain company that I will not mention their name but the sale was fantastic and I thought the quality might be there and I had a good deal. I got lousy customer support and the people there did not know what they were talking about and accused me of damaging the new supplies. I just will not buy anything from their company again. Anyways the jumper hose/swivel leaked as soon as I used it with cold water. Both of them that I bought. I started to purchase stuff from Pressure Tek and told Bob about my swivel problems and he recommended a Brass swivel (do not know the name brand) and have used it for over a year now with temperatures as high as 180° and has not leaked a drop yet and the swivel was under $24.00. A brand new 100' hose from the same company leaked after 20 minutes. I cut off the end and put the re-usable hose ends on it and have not had any problems. A friend of mine has used these for many years and has never had one leak or come off. These ends are under $7.00 and take less than 10 minutes to install after you cut the hose. I used my chop saw to cut the hose so I would have a good end to work with.

Alan, Where can I get that irrigation line quick connect and do you have a picture of it? Is there a hose or quick connect in the green or purple covered box that this will connect to and then your supply line to it? I always wondered about those boxes. Do you need a key to open them up? Thanks.

Hello Jeff, I have used water meters a few times and there is a huge difference in the results you get. I clean heavy equipment on a construction site and the meter there has a 2" hose with a camlock fitting on the end. I put together a long 3" "L" to go up and into the top of my 325 gallon tank so I can open the meter up all the way without the pvc "L" flying around. The "L" is about 4' long with a piece about 1 1/2' long at the end that connects into the 90° . I made it this way so it can just hang into the tank and I can open up the water meter all the way and the "L" will not fly out and it fills the tank very fast. It takes me about 75 seconds to fill up the tank. It is so cool. It takes me longeer to shut down the engine and roll up the hoses and drive to the water meter than it does to fill up the tank. The other option is a 1" meter and the city put a garden hose spigot on it for me. I was cleaning a 16 screen movie theatre concrete sidewalk around the building. The building is about 150' wide by 400' long. I had to string out about 600' of 3/4" hose from the meter to keep my tank supplied. With the 1" meter the flow out of it wide open is about the same or less than a garden hose. This really slowed down the job as I thought I would have a lot more pressure so I could "T" the water and have the helper rinse with lots of volume behind me and speed up the job. It dd not work. The further away from the meter we got like at the end of the building and turning to the other side of the building, the water did slow down and several times I had to stop and wait for the tank to get to a good level to keep going. Then when finished, having to roll up all those 50' sections and draining them. It just depends on what you want to do and how big your tanks are. If you had big tanks you could fill up and work until you ran out of water but if you had small tanks, you would have to string out a lot of hose. Contact a local hose supplier and offer to purchase a whole roll because the price drops a lot. I bought a whole roll of 600' and he put the ends on the pieces for free. If the buildings are not too far away or just the ones close by I would use the 2" meter and use a "T" and then reduce it to 2 or more outlets depending on how many rigs you have and then string out the hose. By using the 2" meter you will have a lot of pressure for the long runs but do not open it up all the way. The other option is make a 3" pvc "L" like I did and get the heavy duty 2" fill hose with camlock fittings (15' or 20' long ) so you can get the trailer close to the meter facing any direction because 10' will be too short. With this you can just shut down when out of water and go and fill up very fast. How close are the buildings to the Fire Hydrant? Hope this helps.

Before you purchase the cleaner think about what you wrote about not turning the pressure washer off: There are a lot of us that do this without having to purchase a special surface cleaner. All you do it put a high pressure ball valve or gun at the end of your hose and then on your surface cleaners, lances, extend-a-wands, etc... put a Quick Connect coupler. On my Surface Cleaners they have a gun installed from the factory but I put a Q.C. Coupler on it so I can connect it in about 3 seconds with the gun on the end of my hose so when I am using my surface cleaner I can let go of the trigger on my hose-gun and then disconnect from the surface cleaner and then attach it to my dual-lance or extend-a-wand or whatever I need. You just have to get some extra Quick Connect Couplers and plugs which you will get anyway to have spares on hand. I have a 3/8" PLug on the Inlet of my hose-gun, 1/4" plug on the outlet of my hose-gun and on the end of the hose is a 3/8" Coupler so on the attachments I have 1/4" couplers so the only part that wears out is the plugs on the gun instead of plugs on everything. I would ask a lot more before purchasing this other brand of machine. Like Mike says, You get what you pay for. Too many times someone purchases something thinking that this is all they can afford when for some more money you get a product that is tried, tested and proven by so many of us professionals. Wait a little bit more, do some more jobs the hard way or do what you have to but I would listen to good advice instead of learning the hard way if I did not have to. Out of all the boards I visit all the time I do not think that I have heard of any problems with the Whisper Wash brand other than an isolated bearing problem. I had a spray bar that I had to replace but it was my fault because I was cleaning a parking lot and there were a couple of bolt studs in the concrete that I did not see and the spray bar hit the stud and tore the spray tip out of the spray bar. It cost me I think $58.00 plus shipping and I had it here the same week. There are several distributors of this brand that visit this board that you could get prices from. I had checked all around and asked before I purchased this brand and am very happy I did. Do you learn from others experience and mistakes or just your own? Who knows, maybe this red machine might be a good one but I would ask more and maybe on other boards to see if anyone has tried it before I try some brand I had never heard of when for a little more money I can use something that is proven. Just my opinion.

The Whisper Wash Classic 19" Yellow surface cleaner is an excellent machine. I run hot water through mine all the time and have no problems. A lot of us on the boards use this machine and are very happy with it. Whisper Wash has inexpensive replacement parts also but your supplier or dealer can get them also.

There are a lot of surface cleaners out there and are inexpensive. There have been threads about this before. Depending on the gpm and psi of your machine, this will determine what size of surface cleaner to use. I have a 3000psi 5.6gpm hot water machine and use both a 24" Steel Eagle and a 19" Whisper Wash Classic hover type. Both are great machines and have advantages and disadvantages over each but with the two on my trailer I am able to do a lot! If you can afford to only get one surface cleaner and your machine is similar to mine, I would probably get the Whisper Wash 19" Classic. There are a lot of people on the boards that use and would recommend this surface cleaner. There are several places to purchase this and just call and talk to the people. First do a search on this board on Surface Cleaners and read the older posts and see the opinions and comments about what people like. Then do your calling. I bought my Classic for $599.00 last year. The prices have not changed much. I have used this machine on all sizes of jobs from 100 square feet to 18,000 square feet.

I think the Big Guy is a great machine, just a little too big for my pw. I have a 5.6gpm 3000psi hot water machine. Using the surface cleaner it does clean good just slow due to the volume of my pressure washer. I have the Classic 19" and it is great. I am thinking of selling the Big Guy (also sold under the MI-T-M name). Anyone interested? It is dirty but I will clean it up and it has less than 30 hours on it. It does have the MI-T-M name on it but it is the Big Guy by Whisper Wash.

Hello Ken, Do you have any pictures of the floor machine? What about names of your cleaner? I have had a couple of calls but not sure the best way to go about this. Thanks.

These guys have just about anything you need. If it is not on their website just ask them because they probably have it or can get it and they send it to you fast. http://www.pressuretek.com/ http://www.rowlettpressure.com/ http://1800333wash.com/parts_acc.asp I have ordered from these guys many times and have never had a problem. I would highly recommend them anytime and they have excellent customer service.

Thanks again.

Thanks for the Link. It makes sense now. I do not have a pressure gauge on my rig. I bought a gauge but do not know where to install it. Where do you put the pressure gauge on the Unloader, before the unloader after the unloader? Thanks.

Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart all have different brushes that have the right threads. They even have "Acid Brushes" so just take a look. I bought some a while back and then again a few days ago. At the stores, they are in the isles where they have wide brooms, mops, etc... I am happy with the ones I purchased. They range from $2.99 up to about $8.00 . They have all kinds of bristles for different applications. Hope this helps.

Is there any adjusting or fine tuning on the ZK1 unloaders? Do you just attach them and they are pre-set for 3000psi? I have not done this before but want to get one and change out my old pressure unloader. Thanks.

Hello Howard, I was thinking of getting the 30' pole also. This way I could only use what I need. What do you think of it? Is it sturdy? Does if flex a lot compared to the fiberglass extension poles like at Home Depot or Lowes? I almost bought one but held back. I am waiting to see if I get this job first. Thanks.

I bid on a Kohl's last year and they wanted the whole sidewalk on 2 sides of the building done and I bid at around $300.00 I think. I never heard back from them and I went by there a while back and the concrete is all torn up like some turbo nozzle came alive and tortured all concrete. I cannot believe the carving and scarring of the concrete. I bet the lowballer did not even have insurance. I bid on CVS last year. Two of the Eight locations were an hour away so I would be driving for 4 hours for free. They wanted them done each quarter and wanted windows included on the bid. These windows are huge. I bid $150.00 but they wanted the sidewalk halfway down on both sides, the pharmacy drive thru lane, bubble gum on both areas and all the windows of the building. I called the Area Manager later on and he told me they got someone to do it for a lot less than I bid and they are also doing the windows. I would like to see them do it sometime to see if it is someone I know. That would have been a good job if the windows were not part of it. I do windows but am not great at it or very fast yet. I just did two jobs where the windows were about 3'x4' and they were not cleaned in around 6 years. It took forever to do them all. I guess speed will come in time but I bet it helps if windows are cleaned regularly.

Hello Everyone, Not trying to hijack the thread but I was also thinking about the zk1 unloader. I have not replaced one yet but am sure it will happen sometime soon. Other than physically changing it out, what else do you need to do? Adjustments? I would like to know what to do so when I order one I will be able to do this myself. My machine is 5.6gpm, 3000psi hot water. Thanks.

The kit takes only 5-10 minutes to install. It really helps if you have a chop saw or angle grinder to cut the bad part off. You need a good edge on the hose and cannot have the hose or wires frayed. You have the large part that threads counter-clockwise over the hose and you thread it until it stops (the hose has snugged up against the inside of the connector). The other part you push into the hose and it has threads that threads into the large connector so it pushes the hose outward into the threads of the outer piece and this makes a good tight fitting. A friend of mine has used these for many years and has never had one fail or come off. You might need to put some vaseline on the threads of the small part to help it go into the hose and it will lubricate the threads of the larger part. Hope this helps.

You can get the kits from Pressure Tek, Steve Rowlett, Water Cannon, etc... Call the person who helps you the most and send some business their way. A lot of people and businesses have helped me and I purchase stuff from them. Get to know the suppliers and find out who has experience and who can help you when you need it. There are a lot of knowledgeable people out here who do not mind helping. Check the websites of suppliers and see what they sell but remember......The website usually does not show all the inventory and there are a lot of things that they sell but are not on the website so ask them. Hope this helps.

Thanks Joel for the info. How was the quality and thickness of the signs? Do they stick good or are they kind of thin? I have some ideas for some signs for my truck and trailer but I am not that artistic. I will send him an email to see if he can work with my ideas. Thanks again.

Hello, For the "Sanitizing" of some of these places, what do you usually use if it is not bleach? I am sure that there are a lot of things out there that work well like bleach but was wondering what alternatives there are and what has worked for you. Thanks.

Hello Joel, That is a really good deal on the magnetic signs. Did the same company that made your cards do the signs also? I checked out their site from the banner and did not see anything about magnetic signs. Please let me know who did the signs. Has everything been good quality from the company that did your cards? Thanks.

What works good to get rid of the smell in some of the dumpsters? I was thinking of cleaning it and then using bleach but there has to be something better to neutralize the smell or mask it instead of bleach. Anything worked for anyone? Thanks.