Which to buy, X-JET or M-JET Nozzle???

[mdspowerwashing 14]

Hi, I'm just getting into the power washing business. I have a 5gpm, 3000 psi unit. I'm looking at either buying a X-jet or M-jet nozzle. Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of each? Will the m-jet still shoot the chemicals up high like the x-jet? Which one do most you guys prefer? Or should I buy both?

Thanks, Matt

[PWkid 79]

I'll race you.If you can get your x-jet off your trailer faster than I can pull hose I'll give you the slightly used x-jet and buy you dinner complete with beers.I hope you won't say you can clean faster with the x-jet than I can downstreaming.

[squirtgun 122]

Mel,

Where can I locate a source for the injector? Or does the info stop at the Fl/Ga state line?

[CCPC 26]

I'll race you.If you can get your x-jet off your trailer faster than I can pull hose I'll give you the slightly used x-jet and buy you dinner complete with beers.I hope you won't say you can clean faster with the x-jet than I can downstreaming.

I don't think I said I can clean faster than you. I'm simply comparing my self before (downstreaming) and myself now (M-5). I'm much faster with my current method and I get better results.

As far as faster than you, I would have to say that all things aside, on a very large house 2 or three stories, or a large building with a lot of wall, I think I would take ya with the m-5.

By the way, what do you do when you come across a 2 or 3 story house with a heavy buildup of mildew and your downstreamer wont touch it. Climb a ladder and hit it with a shurflo or pump up. I clean a lot of houses with conditions such as these and its nice to be able to pull out one tool that can handle just about any situation with the exception of roofs.

[PWkid 79]

Mel,

Where can I locate a source for the injector? Or does the info stop at the Fl/Ga state line?

Scott its a Florida thang,except for CCPC just kidding.They are made by general anybody that sells general pump should be able to help you out on them.The bad thing is my supplier went out of business this week so I have to find a new one.I bought the last 4 he had on his shelf.I actually sold Mike and Don theirs for what I paid which was 49.00.I just saw them on the internet for 89.99

[squirtgun 122]

I heard your supplier went out of business.If it's $89 online that means here in Mayberry they will want $169.99.

What is the % it draws?

[PWkid 79]

I don't think I said I can clean faster than you. I'm simply comparing my self before (downstreaming) and myself now (M-5). I'm much faster with my current method and I get better results.

As far as faster than you, I would have to say that all things aside, on a very large house 2 or three stories, or a large building with a lot of wall, I think I would take ya with the m-5.

By the way, what do you do when you come across a 2 or 3 story house with a heavy buildup of mildew and your downstreamer wont touch it. Climb a ladder and hit it with a shurflo or pump up. I clean a lot of houses with conditions such as these and its nice to be able to pull out one tool that can handle just about any situation with the exception of roofs.

Lance I don't have a problem with cleaning heavy build up and if I do I simply turn my burner on and hit it with 200 degree hot water and bam it magically disapears.Lance I would hate to bet you before you know my set-up BUT if you still think you could beat me with the 5.5 gpm machine and an x-jet I would be willing to give it a try.

[PWkid 79]

I heard your supplier went out of business.If it's $89 online that means here in Mayberry they will want $169.99.

What is the % it draws?

They are adjustable and it depends on how much flow you have determines the %.I dont get as much flow as most cuz of my machine.I still clean like a banshee.lol

[CCPC 26]

Lance I don't have a problem with cleaning heavy build up and if I do I simply turn my burner on and hit it with 200 degree hot water and bam it magically disapears.Lance I would hate to bet you before you know my set-up BUT if you still think you could beat me with the 5.5 gpm machine and an x-jet I would be willing to give it a try.

OK, after seeing that your running 9.3 gpm I would say that it would be hard to win that battle, but compared to a comparable gpm machine with the senerio I metioned above I thinks-me's might have the advantage with the m-5 against D.S-ing.

[R L S 14]

I use my downstreamer on the dirtiest, mildew infested houses around and I never have a problem getting it off. I downstream my chems onto concrete with great results. I also wash all my fleets and heavy equipment with great results downstreaming. It comes down to personal prefrence, use what works for you. But I am sticking to my downstreamer.

[PWkid 79]

OK, after seeing that your running 9.3 gpm I would say that it would be hard to win that battle, but compared to a comparable gpm machine with the senerio I metioned above I thinks-me's might have the advantage with the m-5 against D.S-ing.

Things that make you go. hhhhhhmmmmmm

[PWkid 79]

I would never put down someones method for cleaning cuz I'm a firm believer in there is more than one way to clean.I am simply saying in my humble opinion that an x-jet doesn't work for me and it cost me $159.00 to find that out.Every couple of weeks I'll walk by my shelf and blow the dust off from it.

[CCPC 26]

This has been fun. I don't think I've ever posted this much in one evening. Oh well, back to the grind stone. Tommorow I will be cleaning a 6,500 sqft house using my M-5 of course. Looks more like an office building than a house, I'll have to take some pictures if I remember.

[tropical wave 22]

this has been a great debate, I really like the m-5 and it has worked for us, the bucket thing does blow but it isnt the worst thing, I mean mix a couple buckets, carry them around, takes extra time but Im not racing anybody anyway and sometimes its nice to slow it down a bit..... anyway, something I havent read yet, is the wear n tear to equipment by downstreaming, especially you guys down south shooting so much chlorine.....all those chems running thru all your hose, plugs, qc's, guns, wands etc.....anybody running into probs with that?

[Henry B. 4]

I used to downstream but I switched to the x jet then the m5. For us it works much faster and easier. We use the proportioners that come with the m5 though and mix our chems double strength. This allows us to cut our dilution down and use just one bucket to clean a whole house. I've heard some guys talk about making 3-4 buckets of house wash to do a job... Why not use the proportioners and just carry one bucket? I've also attached 40' of hose to the bucket so I can just put it in the middle of the house and walk around to soap it. I also don't use a gun with my m5, just a ball valve and when I rinse I use the ball valve to do it. It gives me less pressure and more rinsing power.

[R L S 14]

Wear and tear on my equipment has been very little. I downstream my house wash, HF acid, NMD80 (brick wash acid) Truck soap, you name it. I have not had to replace anything cept the downstreamer once. My hoses guns and qc are hloding up very nice.

[PWkid 79]

I use all stainless qc's and injector.I have been injecting for a few years and haven't noticed any unusual wear and tear.I think the key is using all stainless from trigger gun to injector.I am still trying to figure out how some people keep saying using x-jet is faster than downstreaming.I'm confused.I arrive with equipment pull off hose and I'm cleaning.How can using x-jet be faster?

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Hey Henry,

Question....we do something similar, but we keep the gun attached. Is one of the reasons you lose the gun, operator fatigue on the hand? Also how hard is it to shut off the ball valve under pressure vs. releasing the trigger? We use a bendy lance on the end of the gun to get the effect of full flow under decreased pressure and keep the unloader from going into bypass. If you can shed a little light on your thoughts as to why you omit the gun, I would appreciate it.

Beth :cup: :groovy3:

[Mike Williamson 198]

As for the age old x-jet vs. downstreaming debate, I've said it before and I'll say it again, if the x-jet is to much trouble, inconvenient, complicated, your simply just not doing it right. I will say that if your doing the bucket method, then its no wonder one would get tired of using it and go back to downstreaming, but if you have a cart mounted 20g drum with 50' of hose all fitted with QC, and a specially made ramp on the back of the trailer to wheel it off, its just to easy.

Man I hate it when I miss a huge bunch of posts in a thread like this...too many things to respond to, and I wind up with 5 posts at the top of the thread.

Sorry, I just don't see how wheeling a cart around with 160lbs of chems on it is easier than filling one 5 gallon bucket, once. You drag your hose, your cart, and an extra 50' of hose. I drag my hose. How is your way easier? I just don't get it.

[Don Phelps 85]

Both tools work......Everyone should do what works for them and keep an open mind.

[StainlessDeal 16]

My little Tuff 3.7 GPM unit has an odd aversion to running well with the m-5. It runs real rich and eventually fouls plugs, especially during very low-pressure work like misting and soaping-up. I don't really like the idea of leaning her out too much, I'd rather foul plugs than burn a piston, but I'd very much rather have it run right in the first place. When I downstream with a dual lance setup I notice less of this trouble, but it's still there. This makes me tend to favor downstreaming, especially since I really only have one good arm to work with. (Less buckets and carts to mess with is good) Anybody have any thoughts on this? I may be missing something pretty obvious, I'm a bit of a novice with small Honda motors. I tried a hotter plug and that helps some, but we're not there yet.

[Tronman 14]

Stainless,

quick question off topic - Any idea how many square feet you get to a 5 gallon bucket of chlorine?

[StainlessDeal 16]

Ken, In my area people in this business are so rare that my chlorine supplier is the only one for at least fifty miles, and I'm his only non-pool related customer. I get my chlorine in 15 gal drums and often draw straight from them. Also, my use is pretty high because our area has a lot of lichen infested roofs that require pretty sturdy doses and second applications. Usually after I figure the time a job will take, the chems are almost thrown in. Not literally, of course. If you get past all of that, I'd say the average 1500 sq foot ranch house with a typical hip roof gets 1.5 to 2 gallons of 10.5% on the roof and around a gallon in the house exterior. My customers usually won't bite until the place is dirtier than a ballpark crapper: Few people around here think of PW guys as anything but fleet and maybe deck cleaners. Sorry so long winded, but I didn't want you to be caught off guard by an easy answer. My consumption varies so much that I usually just keep a lot of 10.5 on hand and monitor empties against my bookings so I don't wind up with lots of salt water on hand.

[CCPC 26]

Ken, In my area people in this business are so rare that my chlorine supplier is the only one for at least fifty miles, and I'm his only non-pool related customer. I get my chlorine in 15 gal drums and often draw straight from them. Also, my use is pretty high because our area has a lot of lichen infested roofs that require pretty sturdy doses and second applications. Usually after I figure the time a job will take, the chems are almost thrown in. Not literally, of course. If you get past all of that, I'd say the average 1500 sq foot ranch house with a typical hip roof gets 1.5 to 2 gallons of 10.5% on the roof and around a gallon in the house exterior. My customers usually won't bite until the place is dirtier than a ballpark crapper: Few people around here think of PW guys as anything but fleet and maybe deck cleaners. Sorry so long winded, but I didn't want you to be caught off guard by an easy answer. My consumption varies so much that I usually just keep a lot of 10.5 on hand and monitor empties against my bookings so I don't wind up with lots of salt water on hand.

Thats seems like very little chlorine for the roof and exterior. For the average 1,500 sq ft house I would probably use at least 10g on the roof and maybe 3 or 4 on the house. What ratio are you dilluting it to when applying?

[StainlessDeal 16]

Lance and Ken, These numbers are not very good. I'm sorry, but in writing and then editing this post a couple of times before I posted it, I got it all wrong. First, I most often mix housewash in ten gallon batches in a twenty gallon drum. I use citracleen and 10.5% with a little alkaline foamer and rinse-aid. In ten gallons of mix I have four gallons of sodium hypochlorite. For most homes I do( 1200 to 2200 sq feet avg. approx.) this mix will often have a couple gallons left on smaller cleaner homes and sometimes will require more on larger or dirtier homes. I usually will seed a new batch on top of the last batch's remnants, and although I started with Steve Rowletts' recipe, I often adjust for filth or other concerns. When first posting, the numbers I was going to post were closer to Lances, but seemed high to my gut. I was adjusting them downward when family came a-visiting and I hurried the post. As far as my dilution ratios go, my consumption is almost identical whether I downstream or x-jet without the proportioner so I use whichever strikes me as the best method for the job. I have never known the ratio of my downstreamer, and don't readily recall the inbuilt x ratio, but believe it is something like2:1 without proportioners. Honestly, most of the homes I do are so filthy that I sometimes just downstream straight out of the sodium hypochlorite drum and then rinse like the dickens. My relatively low flow machine means smaller working sections at a time in these instances, but to insure a decent end result I am constantly adjusting chems and technique. My chlorine consumption always seems high to me, but I'm coming to realize that most of my customers hire me because I can eliminate the lichen that infests many rooves and even much siding and decks here. Until it gets that bad, they don't buy my services. I should have just told you guys this from jump instead of trying to imagine an average for the smaller, cleaner homes. I'm sorry, and hope to do a better, more helpful job next time I go to answer a question I'm ill prepared for. Even with all those caveats though, I don't think I often do ten gallons on a 1500 sq foot home's roof unless it has significant lichen and needs parts done more than once. My roof mix is usually started as ten gallons of 10.5% in a drum with foamer and 5-10 gallons of water then x-jetted or downstreamed. Unless it's a pretty complicated or large roof, I will often have a few gallons left over. Sorry again for a useless answer the first time and a long and maybe even less useful answer this time. Maybe I should continue to read more and post less for a while. All the best, Scott.

[Mike Williamson 198]

Also, my use is pretty high because our area has a lot of lichen infested roofs that require pretty sturdy doses and second applications. Usually after I figure the time a job will take, the chems are almost thrown in. Not literally, of course. If you get past all of that, I'd say the average 1500 sq foot ranch house with a typical hip roof gets 1.5 to 2 gallons of 10.5% on the roof and around a gallon in the house exterior.

Not sure I understand...Are you saying you use 2 gallons for an entire roof?

For a 1500 sf roof, I'd use anywhere between 10 and 15 gallons. For the same house, I'd use 5 gallons, maybe a little less depending on what the siding is, and how bad it is.

Sorry, posted this before I read your 2nd post!