COOPER

A friend of mine has a cousin who owns a scrap metal yard. The guy has a contract with a military base to haul off their scrap as needed. Well my friend calls me the other day and says that his cousin has a big pile of military hot water pressure washers and that I could go and buy any good parts at scrap prices! I go out and this is what is I saw. AT LEAST 300 new NEVER USED hot water units that have been DESTROYED so no one can use them!!!!!!! They are hydralic driven with a belt drive Cat pump, all stainless frames (painted green), and have never even had a belt ran on the pulleys!!!! (paint is still new in the belt groove on the pulleys!) IF they only cost $5000 a piece new, that would be $1,500,000 worth of WASTED TAX MONEY!!!!!!! I would be willing to bet these washers cost at LEAST $10,000 a piece though, cause they were very nice BEFORE they were destroyed. All of the pumps had the heads removed and holes drilled through the main case, the hydralic units were also either smashed or had holes drilled in them, the burners had never been used either, and the whole units look to have been smashed by forklift or something! There was also THREE more piles of military stuff (one was some kind of pump but not sure what kind and other pile i didn't really look at) that all looked to be new, unused, AND destroyed!!!!!!! There is NO TELLING how much WASTED tax money is in those piles!!!!! Here is a couple of pics of the pile of pressure washers. There is probably enough hot water units in this pile to give one to every contractor on this board and now they are just junk!!!! Sorry to ramble on about this but this really struck a nerve with me!!!! I knew the government wasted lots of money but this is pathetic to just throw away NEW never used stuff and on top of that DESTROY it so nobody else can even use it!!!!! Oh and I bet after these left they order MORE new ones to replace those!!!!!!

Yea, somebody made a killing selling them new ones I bet! LOL I am sure they are contracted out through a large corp. or something though. Probably one that received a bailout!!!!! HAHA

If that is the problem, I would also change the oil! The gas can leak past the rings sometimes in those motors and get in the oil. Try and remember to turn the gas off after every use and it won't happen again.

Is the unloader kicking into bypass when you release the trigger? If not you probably have a bad unloader. If it has a pressure gauge, check to see what the pressure gets too BEFORE the pop off valve "pops off". If it is a lot higher than the machine is rated for then you probably just need to turn the knob(if it has one) down on the unloader. If it doesn't have a knob then loosen the bolt at the top and (unless its a zk1 or k5 unloader) turn it counter clockwise. If its one of the above unloaders turn it clockwise. If the pressure doen't get much more than the rating on the machine, then you either have a bad unloader or the pop off valve needs adjustment. Most time the pop off can be adjusted with an allen wrench. Just turn it clockwise a little (maybe a half turn) and try it again.

The 7.3 is a better motor and I think better mileage too.

20 out of 25

More than likely, its an unloader problem.

What about propane? They could be ran indoors.

No Ron you will need a much bigger generator probably around 15,000 watt. 10,000 may work, but i would think it would be close. May take a little more than the 10,000 watts to start the machine. One thing about the electric machines is that you can either buy one with a full shut down (when you let off the trigger the entire machine shuts down either right then or with a built in timer), or can install one if the machine doesn't come with it. I believe this greatly improves the life of the machine.

If your machine has a pressure type unloader this switch needs to be installed between the pump and the unloader. If the pressure switch is installed on a pressure type unloader directly it won't work properly. The unloader traps the pressure in the hose when the trigger is released and will keep the switch depressed and the burner running.

Definately the Hydrotek or a Pressure Pro

Only time we don't work in the rain is when it is storming and we don't try to strip wood in the rain. As long as its not lightening, we are working.

Probably the high limit swich will look kind of like a plug with two wires running into it going into a fitting somewhere after the burner.

More than likely, its the fuel filter.

You can make that with a regular downstream injector. Get a reducer to take the "pump" side of the injector down to 1/4" and get a 1/4" quick connect plug and put it on that end. On the "out" end (the end that the arrow is pointing toward) put one of those adjustable "push/pull" nozzles on and you have the same thing.

If I was cleaning every bit of it every month no I wouldn't do it for this price. I get paid to maintain it (the whole 29,000 ft) at 2 cents/ft. I only fully clean one third of it and rinse the rest each month. The next month I clean the another third and rinse and hit the dirty spots on the rest. Now this would probably not work in Memphis, as there would probably be too much traffic on the centers each month.

It is just personal preference between the x-jet and downstreaming. For me downstreaming is the easiest way for others the x-jet. I can clean just as fast as you guys that use the x-jet and not have to carry the extra hose and bucket around, but before I found these boards that is all I knew (downstreaming) so I got plenty of practice then. The x-jet does have its purpose on my trailers and does get used regularly (mostly for concrete), and it is very good for residential. Its just not the best way for me personally. Now, I do find some drawbacks to downstreaming also. Most of the downstreamers out there are junk to me. The only one that I have had any real luck with is the General Pump one. If I had to use any other then I would definately use the x-jet. That is the one reason that I want to make my own downstreamer. I can mix my house wash mix like I said above and fly through a housewash. Then if needed, I have a gutter cleaner that is stout enough to downstream straight and usually not have to scrub the gutters.

I usually only use about a half gallon of soap in my downstream mix. Just enough to get a few suds out of it and let the 12% cling to the side of the house. I usually run my heat at about 120 degrees on houses. Also what kind of downstreamer do you have? I like the General Pump brand. There may be a better one as far as draw rate, but it is the best one that I have found. I have noticed that my mix doesn't seem to work as good with the 8 gpm machine as it does with my 5.6 gpm machine. My guess is that it is being dilluted more with the 8 gpm machine. I am working on making my own downstreamer as soon as I have the time to play with it again. If it works right it should draw A LOT more chems than most on the market, and be more durable too. If it works you will be able to change hose barb sizes to get large amounts of chems if needed, or go down to a small one for regular cleaning. Maybe it will work. My father in law has access to a machine shop, when I can catch me and him both off work we are going to machine one out. This time of year that is tough.

Hey guys sorry for the confusion. I get paid to maintain the sidewalks at the strip mall, so they pay 2 cents/ sq. but it is for the whole 29,000 sq ft. So $580 for 4 to 5 hours work. Is that a little better. LOL My guy cleans one third of it each time fully, that takes about 2 to 2.5 hours. He then rinses over the rest of it and hits dirty spots and whatever gum he sees. That takes about 2 hours. When we first started cleaning it, we were getting 6 cents/ft. to do it quarterly, but I didn't like the way it looked come about the start of the second month. It would take him about a night and a half to do it. I also had a couple accounts around the corner from there that were done monthly and only took about half a night/month. So it was just logical that if he could get all of it done in one night that would work out better, plus the strip mall stays clean looking all the time and not just for the first month- month and a half after we clean it. The first time we cleaned it, it took me and another guy 3.5 nights to do it with 2 hot water rigs. I bet there were at least 1 million pieces of gum. It was a mess, but luckily I have a good friend that owns a parking lot sweeping business and he would send one of his guys over a couple times/ night to pick up our mess with the sweeper. I jokingly told the pm when I turned the bill in that I should have charged per piece of gum. No kidding in a one square foot section, I counted something like 70 pieces of gum. Now it wasn't that bad everywhere but I would bet on average there were 20-30 pieces of gum per sq. ft. After that, I guarauntee you will not just spit your gum on the sidewalk anymore. LOL Heck I didn't even want to chew gum for a long time after that. HAHA

Hey Jeff, I usually give business several different price plans based on how often the cleaning gets done. Usually I price a one time cleaning (meaning they have no commitment on when it will be done again) Then monthly, 1/4ly, twice a year, and yearly. I tell them that yea it may not look dirty when it is time to clean again, but that is why it is called "Maintainance Cleaning" and why I can do it so much cheaper the more often it is done. I have one strip mall that we clean monthly now, we used to clean it quarterly. It is 29,000 sq. ft. I clean it for 2 cents per ft. montly. We only fully clean one third of it each time and also hit all the high traffic spots and dirty spots. My guy will fully clean the first third on the first month, then rinse and clean dirty spots over the rest of it. The second month he cleans the middle, and dirty spots and rinse the rest of it, etc. The PM couldn't get the owner to go for a full cleaning each month, so I sold her on this way of keeping it clean. We have been doing it this way for 4 years now and it stays looking great. And it only takes my worker about 4 or 5 hours to clean the whole thing and he has about 2.5 hours other work just right around the corner from this place so it works out good.

LOL That is very true. If you have quality chems you don't need the x-jet. I only keep about 200 ft. of hose on the reels on my rigs. If I need more hose i quick connect an injector inline with the extra hose. We very rarely have to add hose with 200 ft. Jeff, I am sure you prob. keep tons of hose on your reels with all the condos you do. I imagine downstreaming would not be the best bet for you. I just seemed to waste a lot of chemicals with it and didn't get the job done any faster, plus to me it is just easier to downstream

I use 0 degree tips. I have from 20 orfice to 60 orfice. I can shoot higher with them than with the x-jet.

Check and make sure the ball is not stuck in the hose barb. I had that happen to me when I first started. I took the old injector off thinking it was bad and put a new one on and it wouldn't work either. The ball was "stuck" in both of them.

To me downstreaming is the way to go for housewashing. No need to "carry the bucket". With the right tips I can clean a 3 story house just as fast as with the X-jet probably faster. Since I have went to an 8.5 gpm machine, I have reached 4 stories when not real windy with a 4 ft. wand. Now the x-jet does have its place. When you need very strong chemicals, it is good because the detergent gets diluted less with the x-jet than it does with a downstream injector. I x-jet when I am doing concrete. That is about the only time I use it. For house washing (if you use 12%shc) a downstream injector will be faster. The General Pump injector is the best (by draw rate ) that I have found. If anybody knows of a better one out right now let me know.

Karchers are good machines, but they can be expensive to fix as most of the time you can only get parts from them. I am a dealer for them. A belt drive machine is the best route for longevity. If it is going to be rarely used or mainly used for a backup then you will probably be ok with a direct drive.