Upgraded to a better pressure washer

[tRustyK5]

Just picked this up from Home Depot today.

http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/RD80746-Pressure-Washer/EN/index.htm

I had been using a 1900 psi electric by Simoniz which was awesome when we lived at our townhouse. Easy to use, did a good job as long as the area wasn't too big. Now that we're in a house i have at least quadruple the pressure washing I need to do a few times a year. The electric was just too slow.

The Rigid does an outstanding job, and is easily 3 times as fast with a better quality job.

Paid $400 cdn for it.

Rene

 

[Randy92782]

Been thinking of buying a pressure washer and a shopvac.

Not even sure where the nearest home depot is wonder if Lowes has a good selection

 

[lectric80]

Now you just reminded me that I need to grab the pressure washer from my Dad's. Something about swapping engines in my driveway, and in spite of the drain pans, I still managed to spill trans fluid on the newly sealed asphault. I am hoping to at least clean it up a bit before hauling the tub home.

 

[rdn2blazer]

Rene, how does that compare to a steam cleaner? We had a huge steam cleaner at my last machine shop that would go to 280 deg and was high pressure aswell. But it was like $3500 bucks! . I never used it myself, but the owner used it to clean the concrete driveways. He was a freak about a clean white driveway. Didn't like any employee's having leaky cars.

 

[CGT80]

steam cleaners are great. we use three truck mounted units in our company. they are 4000 or so psi at 5+ gallons per minute and 200+ degrees F. i use one every once in a while to clean up my cement and degrease my trucks. we use wands that have two nozzles and a twist handle to decrease the pressure. you can drop the pressure down to something similar to a strong garden nozzle spray. even when the pressure is very low the hot water cleans very well. there is a big difference when the boiler is on or off as far as how well it the cleaning. we have soap custom mixed for our cleaning so that helps as well. for cleaning large areas of cement we use a surfacing machine which is like a lawn mower with a spinning bar with nozzles under it. you can clean cement as fast as you would mow the lawn. If you can find them for rent it would be well worth while for a big area. the surfacers cost about $1000 each to buy, but are a must for a cleaning company or large business. I'm guessing that the steam cleaners that we run cost between 5 and 10K each. One of our recent cleaning jobs was to wash all of the floors in the kitchens and concessions of the LA dodger stadium. In the past we have cleaned for the LA Staples center and LA Nokia theater as well. Most of our work is for restaurants in Southern California.

For at home, i have an old electric cold water pressure washer made by sage. it works better than the cheap electric ones at home depot, but it isn't nearly big enough to clean a patio. For free, it will have to do when i don't want to borrow a big one.

 

[tRustyK5]

Rene, how does that compare to a steam cleaner? We had a huge steam cleaner at my last machine shop that would go to 280 deg and was high pressure aswell. But it was like $3500 bucks! . I never used it myself, but the owner used it to clean the concrete driveways. He was a freak about a clean white driveway. Didn't like any employee's having leaky cars.

i don't think it'd compare to a commercial steam cleaner. Just apples and oranges. It does have enough jam to scour the top layer of the concrete off though.

With the rain we get here I pretty much have to pressure wash patios, driveways etc two to three times a year to get rid of the 'green'. My driveway (12'x50') took me about two hours total and it was quite bad.

For the money I think it's a great pressure washer.

Rene

 

[79BRUISER]

Could you use hot water with it? I mean for smaller jobs, say spraying off a truck? I realize this would empty all but the largest of hot water heaters, in a short time. But the hot water would aid in cleaning.

I wonder it they say not to use hot water?

 

[Randy92782]

Could you use hot water with it? I mean for smaller jobs, say spraying off a truck? I realize this would empty all but the largest of hot water heaters, in a short time. But the hot water would aid in cleaning.

I wonder it they say not to use hot water?

I'd say it'd affect the o-rings they use in the washer but not sure. You really need one of the hot water pressure washers for that.

My dad once thought he had a good idea to hook the water hose up to the water heater and clean up some small mess in the basement. Needless to say when he got done he found he flooded it because the hot water distorted the o-ring they use in the hose and it sprayed water EVERYWHERE!!

 

[CGT80]

That would be a great washer for the price. I used one that size in the past to prep the ext of houses for paint. I used to use it sometimes to do patios and it did take forever. Im spoiled now that I work for a different company. You guys are right. The hot water will cause problems with the seals in a pump. The units we use pressurize the water and then it runs through the boiler. Also, we have found that using recycled water, as we sometimes have to do when recovering our water, can leave soap deposits in the pumps and break down the seals faster. The best price we have found on seals for our large units is $80 US. I looked for seals for a "POS" 5 horsepower washer that my grandfather had and it would have costed more than $120 to fix a $200 machine. On another old electric unit I used at home we ran hot water all of the time, but didn't use the machine that often. The seals lasted for 10-15 years.

 

[tRustyK5]

It specifically says not to use hot water...I'm guessing seals and 'O' rings too.

Rene

 

[79BRUISER]

There goes that idea. Thanks