X-Jet Info

[H2O Joe 14]

I am new to the business and recently have had an opportunity to clean some 2 story houses here where I live. I have stumbled onto an entire neighborhood that is in need of house cleaning. Apparently, no PW Contractors have hit this particualar neighborhood. Anyway, I have cleaned a couple of two stories already and they look great, but I know I need to streamline things in order to make any real money here. I am using a 3500 PSI machine (working pressure only about 1500 PSI) with a 18' extension. I have never cleaned houses before but to start I used Jomax & followed the instructions. The slow part was applying the cleaner, I used a pump sprayer and accessed most of the second story off of an extension ladder. I know you all are probably smirking at me but I'm just getting started here. Everyone raves about the X-Jet. I am going to purchase one in the next few days but I'm not sure I'd know how to use it when I got it @#$! Can anybody walk me through the basic process of using the X-Jet as it pertains to house cleaning ? I would be most grateful. I've only done two houses in this particular neighborhood and already I have 15 people lined up in the next few weeks(with more to come). I would like to actually make money at this and not look like a complete FOOL doing it !!

HELP..........PLEASE !!

[Paul B. 523]

Joe,

The X-Jet kit gets hooked on to the end of the wand via 1/4" QD (quick disconnect). It works on a venturi effect and sucks the chemical thru an attached tube that T's out at the bottom. The draw amount or ratio of draw is different for each pressure washer so you should test it with your set-up. The line that T's out of the body of the X-Jet has a 3/8"ID (inside diameter) poly hose attached (I believe the kit comes with about a 19ft hose).

On that hose, about 2 feet from the X-Jet is a plastic ball valve (comes with kit) that can be used to shut off the flow of chemicals when pre-wetting and rinsing); opened when you want to apply the chemicals. The other end of the hose has a filter that gets placed into a pail of your choice. I have some photos attached to go with the descriptions to make it a bit easier. The X-Jet when properly sized to your unit should exhaust (spit out) a stream that should shoot about 20-25 ft in the air (without wind).

The kit also cames with a set of proportioner which plug into the end of the pick-up T orifice. These are used to achive different draw rates such as 1:10, 1:16, 1:25; 1:40 to name a few. I believe it comes with (14 different color coded proportioners).

Personally, we dont use these, but mix the chemicals in the pails to get the desired proportions with the X-Jet in the open or un-proportioned manner.

I've seen it both ways, so you should ask when you purchase for the Close-up nozzle which screws into the discharge end of the X-Jet and allows you to use it to spray close ups such as ground floor of house siding; applying solutions to driveways; some folks also use it to apply solutions to decks. Our set up changed proportions as we went from X-Jet open to Close-up attachment so you should check your set-up also. Folks I talked to say the ratio should stay the same, but the numbers don't lie (We've lived with it and made adjustments, but I'm working to resolve it.)

[Paul B. 523]

Here is photo #1:

From Right to Left:

- Wand with 1/4" QD

- X-Jet Nozzle with 1/4" QD (hose T-ing out of bottom is the chemical pick-up line)

- Far left is the close-up attachment which screws into the dicharge end of X-Jet

From Top to Bottom:

- Pick-up hose to 1/4" QD (this is our set-up that we added - is not provided in the kit)

- The plastic Ball Valve to shut-off flow of chemicals during rinsing (We replaced the plastic hose clamps with stainless steel ones as they hold much better).

[Paul B. 523]

Here is photo #2:

This photo shows the X-Jet with the Close-up attachment in place and the QD disconnected.

[Paul B. 523]

This is photo #3:

This is our 20 gallon tank set-up on an aluminum hand truck (truck weighs about 9 pounds). We replaced the hose that comes with the kit with a 50 ft long hose and placed a plastic pick up filter on the end of it.

Hand cart can be purchased at Home Depot and other hardware stores.

The 20 gallon poly container can be purchased from several places including ESpec or Ron Strickland at Xterior

Ron also sells the X-Jet and the 5 gallon pail that I'll post a photo of also. As a matter of fact, other than the hand truck and bunjees, Ron could supply you with all the parts you would need to put it together. If you make him an offer ($$$) he can't refuse, I'm sure he could even provide those for you.

Make sure you get Xterior's catalog as it has lots of photos and a wide selection of parts to look at.

[Paul B. 523]

Photo #4:

This is the 5 gallon pail set-up. Again the QD does not come with the pail (too bad, bacause without it, screwing the top on and on is next to impossible and you don't want to push and pull the hose on and off the barb all the time). The QD was our add-on.

[Paul B. 523]

Photo #5:

Aluminum hand cart folded up.

[Paul B. 523]

Photo #6 (last one):

This shows the opening off the bottom of the X-jet where the small proportioners would get inserted.

As I said, we don't use these, as it's much easier to do some pre-calculations of ratios and mix everything to the proportion in the pails.

Fire at will with any questions you may have.

Others may have different or better set-ups, so hopefully they will post also (we'll see).