Pressure Washing Advice Please

WOW thank you ALL for the great info and comments. I already have the Power Washer, I use it on the house, porch, deck ect. Thats the reason for its high power. I also use it on the patio and sidewalk with one of those pressure washer surface cleaners,,which I do like. After reading all the info here I think I may hold off on using it for a while until I gain more experience with car detailing,,, I dont want to start sending Hood Ornaments across the street LOL LOL,,, Again a vast amount of great knowledge,,,,thank you all !!!
 
More gpm’s better for foam cannon. If you like thick shaving cream foam need at least 1.6 lot of pressure washers 1.2. This actually works better I think. Like foam kinda runny as I feel the foam makes sense if wiping car down to have thicker lubrication but I find when foaming in and rinsing off when foam is little runnier it grabs more dirt when running down the car.


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Fishing- I bet you could use your (current) pressure washer with zero problems. Sounds like you`re cognizant of the stuff you need to keep in mind, so it shouldn`t be that tricky to avoid overdoing it.
 
Accumulator- Thnx for your comments/help,,,maybe Ill wait and see what I have for salt on my car in the spring and let my car be the test dummy lol lol,,,
 
Fishing- Heh heh, if you wait until winter`s really over it might be some kind of test all right!

Part of why *I* am all about using the little pressure washer is my ongoing challenge of overspray in the overcrowded shop (even having sold a few it`s still too crowded!). So while that might be perfect for me, there`s sure a lot more utility in something more powerful.
 
Accumulator- I understand what ur saying :) If I was going to get one just for cars I think it will be smaller and electric. Thnx for the help/info/opinions,,, its appreciated.
 
MTM I think it`s that has a diagram with which nozzle orifice tip size will get you the wanted pressure from the PW. Just need the gpm and the psi from the PW pump. Follow the gpm down to where you see a suited psi you would want. I useally want between 1500-2000psi when the gpm from the PW is above 2.5gpm. IME when you go down to 1000psi with whatever gpm you have you don`t get an effective cleaning ability from the PW. Sure rinsing works great but to clean with the water pressure from the PW. I want at least 1500psi even with a very high gpm from the PW and that`s up to 5gpm that I have used.

Found the link :)

https://www.mtmhydroparts.com/pages/nozzle-size-calculator

So put in the gpm your PW has and the wanted psi and you get the size of the orifice to use.
/ Tony
 
Thanks for posting that Tony. I checked mine and it’s a 4.0 tip. My pump is 2.4gpm at 2400psi so I’m getting around 1400psi. After looking at a chart it looks like, with the 4.0 I’m getting around 3.1gpm. I’m glad I checked because my backup up tip on the pw cart is a 3.0. I think the 4.0 is probably a good choice feedback is welcome. According to my wife I’m wrong most of the time. LOL
 
1400psi seems great. And if you find it to be a little low it`s not to much to buy a set of 3.5 orifice nozzle tips. Just look up so it the 3.5 don`t get you above 2400psi. And also since your PW is rated at 2.4gpm don`t expect to get much more than that. Gpm is not the same to tune with as the psi is. Also they have a chart or calculator on which orifice that suits your PW pump in the foamcannon. I think that you will be in the higher range of the standard 1.25mm orifice in the foamcannon. So don`t get the popular 1.1mm orifice in the foamcannon as you will put too much load on the PW pump. You can break the pump or even a hose or handle if you get a too high of psi from when useing the foamcannon or a nozzle tip that you have a higher psi than it can handle. Electric problems can be a problem then too with overheated circuits and fuses going. Many don`t think of the 1.1mm orifice in the foamcannon as to be used in the smaller specs PW like those with 1600psi and 1.2gpm. Saw one that used it on a quite big gas PW with that small orifice. That can end in a disaster for him and he claims to be a pro detailer. So my recommendation is to use the standard 1.25mm orifice and look up so it is that one in it as they have started to sell with the 1.1mm orifice but useally that is noted if done. You could try the 1.30mm orifice but you could get a little to thin of a foam with your specs. So look up the orifice calculator for foamcannon orifices and see what is recommended to use with your PW and stick with that.
 
3100 pressure is pretty high for normal car detailing. All my pro-detailer friends that use over 3000psi only use it on industrial farm equipment. At my shop, we just use the Ryobi`s. There`s a few different models that are good. Mine right now is 1700 psi with 1.2gpm. Get the warranty tho, it`s not that much money and it will break if being used in a pro-detailing setting so I just buy that and get a new one about once a year for free with the warranty.

In terms of things to be careful of with a pressure washer, nothing major just use common sense. It`s really not that scary and you can use it on the engine bay as well (some people say not to use a pw on the engine bay). Just keep the nozzle a good distance away from paint and be careful around areas like headlights (the seals on older headlights aren`t as good as they used to be, so the pressure washer can force water past the seals), rock chips (since you are using very high pressure, be careful of rock chips (I`ve seen more paint peel up from a pressure washer on a rock chip). Everything else you should be ok. Keep it a safe distance and use a lighter duty tip (the white or the green ones). You don`t need the medium to heavy duty tips (yellow, black tornado tip), the water pressure is far aggressive enough to get the dirt and salt off with ease.
 
I thought I would chime in on this post. After having to go through 3 Sun Joes to finally get one that did not leak, I going to buy a PowerStroke. The PowerStrokes use a axial cam pump unlike a lot of the Chinese pressure washers under $300 which use cheaper wobble pumps. WalMart sells the PowerStroke 2000 psi unit for $189. In our area Costco offers the 2200 psi unit for $249. I think I am going to buy the PowerStroke 2000 psi unit from WalMart, I don’t need 2200 psi. And yes it is 1.2 GPM, which works for me. A lot of the Chinese PWs don’t come close to their published specs on GPM or pressure. The PowerStroke has a 13 amp brushless induction motor. Somewhere down the road I will buy a Comet Static 1700. By the way Scott at Dallas Paint Protection under his Luxury Microfiber Store company sells a great package that includes the Comet Static 1700 and everything you need to wash a car including quick connects (he is currently out of stock).

 
Use a wide fan type spray. A pinpoint spray can damage paint, especially older paint. You don`t want to start peeling paint off of your car or a customer`s car.
 
I`d also keep high psi/pinpoint spray away from the rim-to-tire bead junction. For a while there Michelin was saying to never pressure wash wheels/tires due to the damage that was being reported (no such problems IME but my pressure washers aren`t that potent). But then I can`t imagine anybody actually directing a pinpoint spray at a vehicle anyhow...guess you never know, but still...
 
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