One Tough Pressure

Ron, I recall the soda kegs that you are talking about, from back in my restaurant days. The extinguisher is basically the same, just that you need to be their to push the handle, where as the soda keg can be used with a ball valve. The soda keg is slightly bigger than my FE, but you reminded me of the mini wine kegs that are slightly bigger than the soda, but still manageable.

We can change that, Welcome to my Monster garage!! What are they worth??

What exactly do you call yours? How many gallons is it? and is does it refill with air like mine? I don't need a longer hose for mine as I still need to push the handle, just need a qc for tips.

I did click it and and I realize you were quoting, just wanted to add my .02.:D

No, it is not very practical, and it is not economically feasible either. It would cost a ton of money for a mobile washer to obtain one or more permits like that. So the cheapest and easiest way to avoid that is recover your water and get a wastehaulers permit. The cost of the equipment and permit would be a small fraction of one NPDES permit, and that is if you could even get one.

Currently I use Extreme and Giant guns. Looking for some replacement ones and would like to hear what you guys are using that have held up for a while.

Well, Picked up my new surface cleaner the other day, and it came with another Giant gun(21290C), so I guess I will stick with them, as they have held up pretty good. Still would like to hear what some of you other folks are using though.

Earl, That is a common problem with powdered chemicals. It should be a weighed 8 oz, not a liquid measure 8 oz.

I do not generally wash houses, but I would like to comment on pricing. Price varies by each area, and by each washer. Each person has different costs in equipment, insurance, and other misc. overhead. Some people also use such things as the X-Jet and wash in half the time, so they charge half the price that you might, but they do 5 to 6 houses a day. If you have not already, figure out what your operating costs are then go from there.

The twisting of the gun and lance in the qc is the problem, not the o rings, whether they are Viton, Buna, or Epdm. Not the high heat, and no need to change the coupling either. That's my story and I am sticking to it...

Well, I took a closer look at my tank last night when it was almost full, and even with that cage around it, it had some pretty noticable bulges between the rungs in the cage. Never noticed before, but never really looked either. This was my recovery tank and the water temp in there was at least 120+, maybe the heat did it. On my front tank, I had a bad float valve and it would not shut off, the top swelled so much, that the thing looked like a pregnant elephant. Did not do any harm, but I try to avoid doing it.

I am currently upgrading my filter, between the tank and the pump. Other than the normal style bowl type filters, does anyone have a better choice? I was thinking along the lines of a whole house filter or something like it, but am not sure that the pump can pull through that or not, since they are used in a pressure setting in most cases.

Ron, I guess that I have three then. One on the incoming hose(mesh washer) another one of those inside the Hudson valve assembly and then the one between the tank and washer. Now you say "if the reason for the filter is for pump protection only[not water quality]" It is for both. The regular style bowl filter takes care of most of the crud, but what about rust and sediment of older pipes? I was thinking that maybe I needed a little more protection, may it is overkill. That is why I am here asking.

I have heard the theory of the qc vs plug and which way they go, but have never had a problem with the hose to gun. I have used maybe 5 o rings in the last year. I read in the e-s[ec catalog that all plugs should be outgoing and the qc incoming except for the wand. I have been running my guns the way you see above for quite some time and the only problems I had was I used to use many o rings in one night,just like Jon, and after thinking about the twist factor, have cut that back by many. I was using the brown viton and they still got chewed or mashed up, as it is the wiggle and twist in the connection rather than the heat or chems.

I have two 230 tanks similar to yours and they have a frame/cage around them. That is also what holds them to the trailer. They bulge here and there, but I never gave it to much thought. I wish I had a picture. If you have no cage, how is it mounted?

That is my current set up, and i have had no problems either, but I had to replumb some other stuff and wondered if anyone has a custom filter choice.

If your gun is set up like my Giant below, then read the rest. I had this problem for a while and never did know if it was the o rings or the qc's, but came up with this theory. When using this setup, the o ring gets more wear from the twisting of the gun and the lance. I tried to twist it less, especially when under pressure and that has made a big difference. There is a little wobble between the plug and the qc on both the wand and the SC, and that is what I believe caused it. This the reason why I started this other thread.http://www.thegrimescene.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=182

This started in another thread (3/4" supply lines) and then went off the subject, so I am starting a new one. I am in the process of redoing some plumbing on my trailer. I needed some 3 way ball valves and got them at my dealer, without looking at them first. When I get home, I find that my 1/2" ball valves are more like 3/8" as it goes through the ball. So I called my dealer and asked if that would restrict flow to my pump, and he said no, we do it all the time. Now I know what you are probably thinking right now, is why in the world would he put a 1/2" ball valve on the pump inlet? Well, as I see it, the pump inlet is 1/2", so why should I go any bigger? All that aside, if I use this ball valve, my pump inlet will now be 3/8" off of the valve. Has anyone else here done this, and what was the outcome? I know that 3/8" will flow 10 gpm plus in a pressure setting, but this is the draw line off of the tank.

Went ahead and used the 1/2" valves with the 3/8" orifice and all was fine.

Does anybody use these? Are they any good? Would like to hear the good and the bad.

Do they ever sieze, or freeze up?

I understand that, but according to my dealer, they do this all the time. This person is a Founder of All American, and as much as I trust him, I wanted to hear what others are doing.

Ron pointed out something that many people miss. That is the 1 to 5, or 5 to 1. In a modern and perfect world, the chemical should always come first, whatever the ratio shall be. I have not seen any chems where they wanted 5 to 1, as that would defeat the purpose of the Concentrate, but I am sure they do exist. Now here is something that may really help some people out and explain it a little better. Let's say that you have a Concentrate Cleaner and it says mix it 1 to 20. Well what does that mean to a lot of people? To most it will mean that if you want to use 1 ounce chemical to 20 ounces water, then you have the right mix. That is correct, but for larger batches than that, do it this way. There are 128 ounces to a gallon, so... 128 divided by 20 = 6.4 You would need 6.4 ounces of concentrate to one gallon of water for the correct mix. If you wanted to make a five gallon bucket, then it would be 128 x 5 = 640 divided by 20 = 32 ounce of concentrate for 5 gallons. The most common mistake in mixing liquid chemicals, is not using enough water. As an example, people see the 1 to 20 and put in their measuring cup 1 ounce of chemical and then the rest water until the 20 ounce line. It should really be the 21 ounce line. One spray bottle of this would not be to critical, but when you get into big batches, it really counts. Sorry for the long post, must be my longest to date, but hope it helps.

Brian, Your Welcome, and like the GAS Company says, "Glad to be of Service".

Not sure what you are trying to say, but think you mean wait till I have to buy new hose and see what it costs. Machine came with 100' and I have added 250' of the same hose to that. It is the Goodyear Neptune 4500 psi R2 250 degree. I run the hose over my shoulder, when doing flatwork, so I could careless about the extra weight, I want peace of mind when I am using 3500 psi @ over 200 degrees.