I have a normal domestic type pressure washer, and at certain times of the day, the pressure just stops and starts every few seconds. I am told this is because I must have low water pressure or flow.
So without installing a new mains water pipe, what can I do to get over it.
Can I somehow fill a tank up with water, and will the pressure washer suck it up, or must it have a head of water, ie put the tank on a stand.
Any ideas please.
My pressure washer will happily run on the water in the hose - at least until it runs out. It must be sucking to do that.
You'll need a small positive pressure to start it off - but I reckon a cold tap fed from a loft tank would be fine.
Andy
I always run mine off the rain water butt.
The flow rate required by most home pressure washers is very low. I would be surprised if your mains water supply can't even meet that.
Out of interest, what is the flow rate of your pressure washer? I have run mine from a water tank before and it works okay, just got to prime the line first. Though, I am told that higher rpm (2800rpm) motors will wear out quicker used this way. Apparently the more expensive machines have a reduction gear box to run at 1400rpm.
Is there a filter of some kind on the inlet to the machine? If so it may be partially blocked with some debris that was in the supply hose. I once had a problem of this kind and it turned out to be a small snail that must have made the hose pipe its home whilst left outside unconnected.
Mike
I had a similar symptom which I asked about on this group and was pointed to thepossibility of too high pressure. May be worthy of consideration. Have alook at this thread if you think it a possibility.
Its a four pole as opposed to a two pole motor.
Are you by any chance using Hozelock 'water stop' fittings?
Ah, is the reduction gear box for petrol machines?
And how true is it that the machines at lower RPM last a lot longer?
Yes. Although cheaper petrol machines don't have them.
Hmmm! Bit of a marketing thing :-)
In the early days HPC's used plunger pumps like the legendary CAT or the Hawk, Speck etc
relatively long piston stroke. Great for flow rate, great on suction & priming.
This were in tut days of a proper balance between pressure & volume. Nowadays pressure is king.
Typical commercial machine when I were a lad was 70 bar @ 12 to 15 litres/min Cleaned better than 150 bar @ 9 litres/min.
Most HPC's these days use direct drive axial swash plate pumps which have a very short piston stroke - good for pressure, not so good for flow rate. They can be run much faster - but their main attraction is that they are very cheap to make.
I suppose a slower running machine would last longer, but most of it is marketing.
I am still saving up for this machine:
The Boxjet as was. Absolutely excellent choice. You will never regret buying it.
Yep, I suppose this model I have linked to is based on the Boxjet? Boxjet has 8 litres/minute whilst this one has 10...
IIRC there were a range of Boxjets, all good. !0 litres is way better than 8 litres.
Yup, it's the best I can afford anyway at the moment, hopefully I should get a long service life from it. I like the fact that the pump seems to have all the parts available.
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