First downstreamed house pics

[Barry M 73]

As I've stated in past posts I'm a hardcore xjet user when doing houses. But I've had a few problems with reaching 2 story and especially 3 story peaks in the wind, and I also get sick of dragging a chem hose and bucket around the house. Also with all these xjet vs downstream posts lately, hey I got curious.

First off I want to thank Dan Stapleton here on the board for a very educational phone call. Dan told me the in and outs of downstreaming and helped me with what to buy and how to get started. Dan is new to the boards but has been in the biz over 10 years and has alot to offer. Thanks Dan.

My new chem injector and tips arrived today so I went and did this single story home to try it out.

[PressurePros 249]

Wow.. imagine that. Looks fantastic. What was the housewash mix?

I love my downstreamer!

[Barry M 73]

I have to admit it felt very weird not dragging around my chem hose and bucket, but it was nice to not have my hoses getting tangled. One of the complaints of xjetting is over applying (wasting) chems. You can see this house had a considerable amout of mold and mildew on it so I was very anxious to see if downstreaming less chem would still work. I must say I was impressed with the results and was even more impressed that on this single story home I used less than a gallon of housewash mix. I love the 030 tip for shooting chems easily as far as the xjet but with more control, but it really wasn't necessary on this house. This house took me an hour which is what it would of took me with the xjet.

[Mountain View 14]

Wow!! Looks great Barry. I've only downstreamed so far, mostly due to lack of moola for an X-Jet. I've been happy so far. I can easily reach the top of a two story with my 0025 and with good chem draw.

Keep it up buddy. Hey, did you ever incorporate??

[Barry M 73]

I mixed 4 gallons of 12% and 1 gallon of citracleen, and I still have over 4 gallons of mix left over. I need to figure out the ratios for adding my wet wax and hanger. I also need to purchase some different tips for wetting windows and plants, I love to fan out my xjet for doing this and I even tried to do it but it kept draw chems and the same time. What tip would be good for wetting things down with not much force, but wouldn't draw chems? My machine is 4gpm. Though the xjet is a valuable tool and can't be replaced, I'm convinced it's not a do all tool, and a little overkill on houses. Due to today's results I will continue to experiment with the downstreamer, thanks to all that helped.

[Barry M 73]

Keep it up buddy. Hey, did you ever incorporate??

Not yet, I've been busy and just haven't looked into it enough yet,but I saved your PM with the link you provided me. Thanks again and I probably will soon, I need to protect my arse.

[Dan Stapleton 14]

Barry,

Your welcome. I'm glad you had success with it. You got the goodies and put them to use quick! As for rinsing, #9to #12 size orifice nozzles should put you in the 900-1500 psi range. Much bigger and your drawing soap again. You will develop an eye for what method you need. x-jet, downstreamer, tips etc. You can contact me anytime for more of the details.

[tropical wave 22]

I love to fan out my xjet for doing this and I even tried to do it but it kept draw chems and the same time. What tip would be good for wetting things down with not much force, but wouldn't draw chems? .

Barry, I have a little plastic ball valve in my xjet line, just turn it a quarter turn and the chem draw stops.

Ive also done a couple house washes with my dual lance, pop the xjet in, do my thing, throttle the handle back and rinse plants etc with the soap tip from the dual lance.

one more thing, about 6 inches from the xjet itself, in the hose I put a QC, so after I soap, I can QC off the long hose and just have the xjet itself attached with a little hose hanging off.....works great

[Don M. 14]

Barry,

I tried downstreaming a house once and I thought it took longer. I liked the idea of only one hose but I hated that I had to wait for 125ft of line to clear befoore I started rinsing.

[PRESSURE PACKED 14]

Don

You Gave Advise For Tips, I Have An 8 Gpm Pressure Cleaner What Would I Use If I Want To Downstream. Right Now I Have Black Tip But I Know Nothing About It As Far As Size.

I Do Not Have Many Homes Here With Siding But I Could Target Some Places.

[Jeff 232]

Great work Barry, Im just so used of using Xjet, maybe some day I'll try downstreaming , I just worry I use up to 300- to sometimes 400ft of pressure line

For those who use Xjet, I put 1/4 inch line, barbs & shut off valve and I use a lot less chem. I mix 2 gallons of 12% soap and the rest water in a 5 and I can do a 1200-1400 sq ft house with the one 5. I have no clamps on my xjet hose or the at the shut off. I just apply chem pop off line at shut off and rinse it takes a second and then rinse.

Converting to a 1/4 inch xjet hose saves a lot of chem and does the job

[Mike Williamson 198]

Barry,

I tried downstreaming a house once and I thought it took longer. I liked the idea of only one hose but I hated that I had to wait for 125ft of line to clear befoore I started rinsing.

How small is your machine? I run 200' of hose, and it doesn't take more than 10 seconds for chem to get to the gun, or to clear the hose of chem, and that's with 5.5gpm. With the 8gpm machine, it takes even less time. I think I used to spend a LOT more that that dragging that cursed bucked around!

With a 4gpm machine and 125' of hose, it would take about 8-10 seconds. Figure 4 sides of the house, that's maybe 2 minutes wasted waiting for chems to draw or clear.

[Celeste 341]

While we now exclusively downstream house, for throwing acid on new construction bricks - the x-jet is still the absolute shiznit!

Jeff, Roger will be down next week again with both rigs - you guys should hook up so you can see how the whole thing works. Give you a good idea if you want to add/change/disregard, whatever :) I'm sure combined the two of you could see how many feet a 5.6 would downstream effectively (don't know if we keep 300 ft + readily available!)

Celeste

OH By the way - nice nice job Barry!

[Mike Williamson 198]

While we now exclusively downstream house, for throwing acid on new construction bricks - the x-jet is still the absolute shiznit!

OH By the way - nice nice job Barry!

Yes, great job, Barry!!

I agree, the Xjet isn't useless, it has it's place, that place just isn't typical housewashing. I use it on screen enclosures that are particularly bad, since downstreaming just doesn't seem to do the trick in those cases. Thus far, downstreaming has done the trick for everything else I've run into.

I can't downstream with more than 200' of hose on the 5.6gpm machine, but Mel has told me he downstreams 300' all the time with his 10gpm machine. I was able to downstream 250' with the 8gpm machine, but I had to use a larger tip than the black soap tip to get any draw.

[Mike Williamson 198]

I love my downstreamer!

Me too! Well, I love MY downstreamer. I don't have any real emotions about your downstreamer!

I don't think I could ever go back to lugging buckets around the house, mixing 2 or more buckets of wash mix, having to setup, cleanup, and put away one more piece of equipment, and deal with one more hose to tangle up in the junipers or other landscaping! I pull my pressure hose, fire up the machine, open the ball valve on the chem tank, stick a soap tip in, wet the house while the chems are drawing, and soap it down! I've got one side of the house soaped and probably rinsed before most Xjetters are set up and starting to wash.

[Mike Williamson 198]

For those who use Xjet, I put 1/4 inch line, barbs & shut off valve and I use a lot less chem. I mix 2 gallons of 12% soap and the rest water in a 5 and I can do a 1200-1400 sq ft house with the one 5. I have no clamps on my xjet hose or the at the shut off. I just apply chem pop off line at shut off and rinse it takes a second and then rinse.

Converting to a 1/4 inch xjet hose saves a lot of chem and does the job

Isn't the point to using the Xjet the ability to draw MORE chems than downstreaming?

[PressurePros 249]

Mike, you read my mind.

[Dan Stapleton 14]

Ditto

[Mike Williamson 198]

Mike, you read my mind.

Quick read. LOL Just kidding. :lgbounces

[Jeff 232]

Isn't the point to using the Xjet the ability to draw MORE chems than downstreaming?

I wish I could explain it, I still get a ton of chem and it cleans fast, but with 3/8th I used say 2 & 1/2 5's compared to say 1 & 1/2 5's when using 1/4" line.

I'd like to show you what i mean, there s a big difference and its lesser amount of times you have to fill the bucket. I mix 2 - 2 3/4 gallons 12% & soap and top off the 5 with h2o. Get plenty of chem.

[PressurePros 249]

Jeff, I think you missed Mike's point (or maybe I did) The point is if you are ending up with the same dilutions by mixing, proportioning, dragging extra hoses and buckets, worrying about poly braid hose id's, etc, you are better off downstreaming to achieve the same result.

Save the X-Jet for when you actually do need a 2:1 ratio

[Barry M 73]

Gosh, I didn't mean to start another one of "these" threads. I know there will always be two sides to it and that there will be hardcore xjetters and hardcore downstreamers when it comes to doing houses, but I'm an open minded person and I wanted to learn both ways. I don't bash one or the other, both ways work and always will. What really got me curious about downstreaming houses is that most of the veterens do it, they started out doing it, tried the xjet for houses, and most of them are going back to downstreaming, so I asked myself why? I wanted to see for myself. Well I am pretty confident, once I get my tips figured out and practice on a couple more houses, that downstreaming is faster and more efficent for most house washes than xjetting. Don't knock one or the other until you've tried it both ways.

[eads 14]

Barry nice work! Great before after pic for a postcard. Good to see you keeping busy. What are you machine specs.

[Barry M 73]

Barry nice work! Great before after pic for a postcard. Good to see you keeping busy. What are you machine specs.

3500psi 4gpm cold water.

[Mike Williamson 198]

Gosh, I didn't mean to start another one of "these" threads. I know there will always be two sides to it and that there will be hardcore xjetters and hardcore downstreamers when it comes to doing houses,

You didn't. There's nothing wrong with us disagreeing, and sharing our points of view...that's how we all learn. I would still be Xjetting if I hadn't been willing to listen to Mel tell me how easy and efficient downstreaming was. I'd tried it early on with a crappy downstreamer and lousy chems, and wasn't happy. Tried it after speaking with Mel, and I was sold!!

[CCPC 26]

ditto what Mike said about D.S.'ing. I started with it for my first year in biz, and didn't really have a problem with it, but I was using a smaller machine, a crummy injector and generally wasn't nearly as good at P.W. at that time. I think all these factors played a role on my opinions of D.S.'ing. Now that I've tried both methods for extensive lengths of time I KNOW D.S.'ing is faster if you allow time for the change in procedure and make sure you're using the right equipment.