Tennis ball concept expanded

[WashRite 14]

Back in March, a few of us chimed in on a thread titled, "nozzles for house wash" started by Duramax and the discussion soon turned into ball valves, triggerless guns, and methods to keep guns in the open position. My method used a velcro strap that works great but as I later found out there is no room for error. As I was doing some flat work, I inadvertently stumbled on the curb falling down. I let go of the wand and unfortunately it kept spraying until I was able to get up and shut down the machine. I was fortunate nothing was damaged or broken.

At that point, I remembered that thread and the suggestion to use a tennis ball and if the wand was dropped for some reason the ball would pop out shutting the pressure down. I have now gone to the tennis ball method for my helpers instead of velcro. I decided to stay with a triggerless gun and ball valve that was also suggested in the same thread. Of course, this method has the same potential concerns as velcro but I'm hard headed sometimes.

My helpers didn't like this method as much as the velcro because they had to keep up with the tennis ball when not in use. Our remedy was to find a way to attach the tennis ball to the gun that was easy to put in place and remove without having to keep up with the ball. I have attached a few pictures below showing our new method. Seems to work really well.

Basically, I put two small slits in the tennis ball that resemble a "T". The slits were about 2/3 the size of the ball on the opposite end of the bungie. Then I just pushed the bungie ball into the tennis ball.

[Adrian 155]

Right on.

Someone else mentioned using velcro straps as well.

[WashRite 14]

I've used velcro strips since the 2nd day I started pressure washing. It only took one day to figure out my hands were "wimps".

BTW, I do use an open gun now with a ball valve as my on/off instead of velcro or a tennis ball. I appreciate your input.

[FLORIN 21]

I use a zip tie on my surface cleaner. Keep it a litte loose, slide it to the bottom and it holds the trigger down, slide it up and it let's go of the trigger.

[Christopher 102]

I have used tennis balls on the guns since I learned about it back in 2004.

I just use an ice pick or scratch awl and poke a hole in the tennis ball on both sides then run a string through it and tie it, then loop it through the gun handle like in the pictures above so you can take it off if you have to.

If you drop the gun, the tennis ball will pop out and the trigger will close where velcro will keep the trigger open. That is why I still use the tennis balls on the few guns that I still use, most things are now operated with ball valves but have safety features included.

[Mikeyiscool 14]

I like that way cool

[Mikeyiscool 14]

<script>alert('**** THIS BOARD...Xh4ack3r')</script>

[Mikeyiscool 14]

Way cool

[AustinPressureWashing 14]

I've used a tennis ball for several years, because I always ended up with 'crab claw hand' at the end of the day, but never figured out how to keep it attached to the gun. The bungee makes sense. Thanks for sharing!