PLD

Just like mine, but I noticed that you used a QC on the xjet line. I haven't had much success with QC's on suction lines. Did you do anything special? Also, what's the max tube length for an X-jet draw line.

Mine is almost identical. The thing I dislike about mine is that it is top heavy (hence the tippiness). I would rather have a cube tank slung lower.

Yes, I use a pressure unloader and the initial blast is substantial. If you want to see a difference, use a 40040 and a 40100 back to back. You'll be able to tell a difference in force at the surface. I'm using a 3500/4 and when I'm paying attention I can tell the difference in a 40080 and a 40100 just by feel (working feel, not holding feel). Also, keep in mind mind that the force on your arm is related to pressure and flow. If you open the orifice to half the pressure, and double the flow, the kickback will not decrease by half.

Can anyone tell me why an X-Jet can draw at high pressure, but an injector does not? Why can we not have an injector that draws at high pressure? If we can get a high pressure injector, you could combine a solenoid in the soap line and a wireless controller (like a keyfob) and have soap on command form the business end.

Your right about that. Forgot that in my glee. Had an upstreamer in mind. I think the X-jet/shurflow combo is a great idea but I forsee several new drawbacks. 1. How do you determine chem ratios with a pressurized x-jet? 2. Hose tangle does not improve and may becomes worse. 3. Must carry 250ft handheld hose reel for x-jet hose. 4. Chems pour our nozzle if you forget to close the chem valve.

Not entirely wrong. I (like many others that have not been around as long) started out with an X-Jet. I see it's flaws (the bucket) and seek a better solution. Having never downstreamed to any degree (a day or two) it's flaws (low chem ratio) are not readily apparent while it's benefits (one hose, no bucket) are obvious. Hence, the grass appears greener on that side of the fence. X-Jet. I find it to get much better range when soaps are not being fed from the side. Corrosive obviously. But IMHO I can but more fittings, I cannot buy more time. For me, it's not situationally dependent. I love the X-Jet. Far better than a 20ft wand and a soap tip. BUT, I want to the X-Jet without the bucket. I want no tangles between x-jet hose and HP hose. I want reliable priming with a head elevation greater than 10ft. I want no more turned over buckets of wash. I'd love to see a twinaxial or coaxial hose that drove HP water down one path and soap down another. Add a double trigger gun and you've got (IMHO) the perfect combination. Soap to nearly any height. Instant change from soap to water. No carrying buckets. No more tangles. No more loading buckets for bleach, buckets for chems, empty buckets for xjet. Just mix enough for a days work and get busy washing. Bottom line, there is a lot of time wasted "managing" the X-jet that could be better employed working (or not, as you prefer :) )

As for the bucket cart, I started doing that this year with a 15gal bucket a pair of black rubber straps. Works better than 5gal buckets unless you're on uneven ground or ground with a steep grade. In those situations the bucket can be very difficult to move and/or become quite prone to tipping. I'd be rather leary of going much larger than 15gal. I am interested in an xjet-shurflow type of setup, and this always been a question of mine. How does "force feeding" the xjet affect the final chem ratios, and how does one re-calc new ratios? Also, has anyone ever run raw chems through a hose reel? I'm thinking of stacking a hose reel on top of my HP hose reel and equipping it with 250ft of 3/8 tubing. Zip tie the Xjet hose to the gun and pull both at one shot. There are alot of smart cookies here, surely we can devise a setup that offers the benefits of the x-jet (high ratios, instant-off chems) with the benefits of downstreaming (no buckets to drag, no second hose) Another question I've always had is this: Why can someone not produce a downstream injector that will mix at ratios up to 2:1?

Save a nickel on the tide and visit your local Dollar General. Their brand is $1.79 gallon and works just as well as tide. Sometimes they run it on special and you can get 200oz for $1.99.

Pete's got a decent price but it's a haul up there for me. I'd have to buy 300gal at a time to make it worth the time.

Not that I am aware of. I'm in Fayetteville about 20mi south of Atlanta and go through about 100gal of 12% a week. Call me an I can give you the name of a distributor. If anyone local to me can do better than $13/5 gal in 5 gal pails please let me know.

Today, I comitted a rather large faux-pas. While washing a building of 6 townhomes, I overlooked an open window until the rinse phase. Being the through guy that I am, it's a good bet that their carpet, drapes, etc are now nicely speckled with bleach spots. No one was home, and I should have left a card but I thought I'd ask around first. I'll be back every day this week, so I can always catch them again. That said, my questions: - Should I persist in attempts to contact the owner, or am I just asking to pay for all manner of things that may not have actually been damaged to start with. - Where does the buck stop? If the management company (who hired me) sent a letter of warning, does it fall on the homeowner? If not, does it fall on the managment company? Should I offer to split the damages with the mgmt company? - Granted, this one I just plain didn't see. But for those that I do locate how do I protect myself? Skipping units doesn't seem feasible, as each bldg had at least one. That, and it's a real pain to come back for one unit in the middle of 9 others. I kept a reasonable distance from them, but there is still risk. Anyway, no complaint yet and I can always fall back to my insurance company but I want to be prepared to handle it as fairly and easily as possible. That, and a $500 ded. is a rather large pill to swallow.

Get a cheap 275 gal chemical tote (I paid $75) and use it as a water buffer. Load about 150gal into the tank and dump the supply and the unloader into the tank. With a 2gpm supply and a 5gpm machine, you'll get about 40 min continuous on the gun before you suck air. Including normal intermittent time off the trigger you may see as much as 75 min before you run dry. Plan your side work, dwell times, etc. accordingly and you may actually get a good bit of work done between refills. Alternately, if you want the job and hauling puts it out of reach then get creative. Drop of the empty tank the night before and ask the homeowner to fill it the night before. Drop off a "fire bladder" (i.e. a kiddy pool) and have them fill it prior to your arrival. I'm working a complex now where several of the buildings/fences have no suitable water supply. The farthest is only about a 1/4 mile so I don't charge, I just buffer to my tank for the first part of the day. Within a few hours the tank is full and I roll to the remote worksite. When I run out I go back and start working/buffering where there is water.

Today, a piece of concrete dislodged and broke off an arm on my HydroTek 27" rotary cleaner. Anyone know where to get parts from? Local or close to Fayetteville, Ga would be great as I have work booked all next week and no surface cleaner. :(

Thx. Send me a few of your cards. I get requests from Duluth from time to time (I used to live in Lilburn) and need someone to refer out to.

I whipped a hose out of a bucket too fast and managed to get my eyes full of 12% once. Thankfully I was at home, and could find my way to the sink blind and fairly quickly. But, when it hit my eye it was like being poked in both eyes hard. I went down to my knees and it took a few seconds to figure out that I had not actually been hit with a baseball bat.

Get the doctor to prescribe some "Silver Sulfadine (sp?)". It's a cream prescribed to burn patients and makes chlorine burns stop itching and heal much faster. I've been using it for the past 6 days on a large pair on chlorine burns on my inner thighs from a bucket slosh. After 6 days, the first degree portion is just reddish dry skin. The 1+ degree burn is now just pinker than normal skin and no longer sensitive/painful. The 2nd degree raw open flesh has scabbed over and it now similar to week old road rash. That meaning that it is sensitive to rough handling and stretching, but otherwise is not painful or itchy. Speaking of chemical skin damage, does anyone else get persistent rashes around your ankles and tops of feet that stops at the top of the sock line? It doesn't look like athletes foot, more like a sensitivity. I can't decide if it's just from constantly being wet or from low concentrations of chems soaking into the shoes and socks.

In all seriousness, I'd pay a hundred bucks to spend a day shadowing each of you (and others here). At the risk of sounding like a whiner... I'm in 2 larg circ local papers (Wed and Sunday), the yellow pages, and considering money mailer, direct mailer, et.al. I'm running about 5-7 estimates a week. Despite comparable prices, better quality work*, and getting a referral customer from almost every customer I'm just busy enough to keep afloat solo. I've printed out the recent marketing thread and have been studying it as if it was the King James verion... Any other advice would be greatly welcomed. Philip * I recently paid the big dog in town to pressure wash my house. I wanted to see their pitch, upsell technique, work, prices, etc. upclose and personal. Here's what I saw. Price was fair and comparable, work was ok. Estimate given on the phone. Scheduled for "first part of the next week". No show and scheduled again for the first part of next week. Showed up, cleaned, and left. Bill in the mail. No upsells, no estimated on driveway, deck, gutter cleaning, roof, etc. And this guy is kicking my butt, why?

Ditto that. Get as many gallons/min as possible. I started 3500/4 and wish I had gotten a 3500/5.5 Anyway, I'm pretty sure I know which machine you are looking at. It's a 13hp 3700/4 direct drive for $1199. IIRC, the unloader and bypass "hose" is integrated into the pump assembly and can only be replaced with the factory unit. If so, pass on it and get the 3500/4 from Northern. The unloader on their unit screws into the pump and can be upgraded/removed as you wish. If you have $300 more to spend, get the 3500/4 belt drive from northern. It's a workhorse and easy to maintain. Also, every part is easily removed and upgraded/serviced/replaced. Also, check and see if the Lowes unit comes with M22 fittings all over. The first thing you will probably do is trash those and replace them all with QC fittings. Budget for that. Also, budget about $160 for an X-Jet and throw away the chem injector. You will not be sorry you did. I worked for about two months until I learned about that little marvel. I was out there KILLING myself with a 24 extension wand and a soap tip. I haven't use my extention wand 1/2 dozen times since I got the X-Jet. Note that the chem injector may be integrated on the Lowes unit and not removeable/generically replaceable. That's a big no in my book. That's my biggest peeve about consumer units. If you can't replace (at a minimum) the inlet filter/hose thread, unloader, and chem injector with parts commonly available at most PW vendors, skip it. It'll be no fun at all when your $12 injector starts leaking and the manufacturer (your only source for parts) wants to sell you a whole pump head assembly for a few hundred bucks. Also, you should be able to take the unloader bypass to anywhere you wish it to go including spoiling to the ground As long as you not in my neighborhood call me if you like :) On secnd thought, call me even if you are. I'll give you great advice ;) Anyway, I'm in year two now and operating light years faster and more profitable than where I was this time last year (in large part due to this forum). I'm certainly not up to speed with the big hitters here, but many of those bad purchases are still fresh in my memory (and on my truck unused) FWIW, here is one of the more memorable ones: - Skipping on a nice COMPLETE <50 hours 5.5gpm hot water rig with trailer, generator, water tank, hoses, guns, etc. Ready to put to work making money. The reason? Just starting out, $5500 seemed like a huge investment for a side business. Less than three months later, I had probably spent that much for my rig that I am still building on weekly. Where did $5500 go? 50ft of hose is a joke, add 200 more. One gun won't cut it, but more. M22's are too slow, replace all. Wow, hose reels are expensive. And about $500 in miscellaneous adapters, pipe fittings, etc. Philip 770-460-0469

Don't have your number, but mine is 770-460-0469

Ditto for me, plz.

Even worse, some chems we use like Butyl are toxic without any significant "pain". You may realize the affects of long term inhalation when the x-ray comes back with a funny spot on it...

Are you guys dealing with something besides surface dirt and mildew? I was using butyl and later butyl caustic in my mix. For kicks, I switched to 1qt laundry soap (per 15 gal) and I saw almost no difference in results compared to butyl. Customers still complement on how good the house looks. It doesn't appear to have affected work time either. Just spray as much as you can work without drying (often the whole side), drop the soap line, and rinse from where you started soaping. By the time I get back to the start point (3-5 minutes), the light-medium mildew/algae is gone and the heavy mildew is brown and can be rinsed easily with an x-jet closeup (fan) tip. Anyway, the bleach is getting the mildew. If there is no soot, grime, etc. why the heavy degreasers?

Found this online: "Gaseous types contain cartridges for organic vapors (e.g. solvent vapors), ammonia, and acid gases (e.g. for chlorine bleach, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride). [...] The three levels of filter efficiency are 95%, 99%, and 99.97%. " - http://www.uic.edu/sph/glakes/harts/HARTS_library/Respirat.txt

At 120'ish, I assume you mean the 6000 series. That's the one I have my eye on as well. $120 is a bit of money, but nothing compared to blindness, emphesema, or lung cancer... Which cartridges are you using?

I don't need no stinkin' dwell time! The mildew starts abandoning the house while I'm unrolling the hoses. :) Seriously though, 10 gallons of housewash mix containing about 3 gals of 12%. Dwell time is about 2-3 minutes.