Pressurewasher Power

[Dave Liquorice]

Following on from my how to strip/clean outside walls of flakey paint I had a play with my small domestic PW and that removed about 90% of the paint without too much bother using the rotating "pulse" jet. The other lances I have didn't really shift anything.

The book for this PW says 80 bar working and 5.5l/min. How much more effective is a more commercial one of the sort one might hire, say

120bar 11l/min, be in comparison?

Do you get a choice of lance with a hire PW ie normal fan type or one of these rotating pulse things?

[The Medway Handyman]

The cleaning effect is a combination of pressure & flow. 80 bar @ 5.5 lpm goves a cleaning efect of 0.73.

120 bar @ 11 lpm gives a cleaning effect of 2.2, so nearly 3 times the cleaning power.

Its called a 'Turbo' lance. Karcher call theirs a Dirtblaster, Alto a Tornado.

Depends on the hire shop & make of machine. A 'Turbo' lance will increase impact pressure considerably - as much as 6 fold.

[Dave Liquorice]

Thanks Dave, significant then.

I was using a "Dirtblaster" and is was very much more effective than the "Vario" one on max, the patio head just made the wall wet...

Asumming a 6 fold increase on 0.73 thats an effective cleaning power of 4.3, drop to 4 fold and the ECP is 3. The hired unit is still less, with a standard lance. Looks like it will need a turbo lance to see any real improvement in cleaning power.