Maintenance & Tips: Pressure Washers
When it comes to cleaning the exterior of your home, nothing beats using a pressure washer. They easily complete the most difficult cleaning jobs on your to-do list. However, if they’re not used and cared for properly, they can become expensive projects.
This article gives you the tips you’ll need to make operating and maintaining a pressure washer, an easy experience.
Read The Manual
There’s nothing more important than understanding your pressure washer, inside and out. Each one will operate slightly differently, which means you’ll first need to get familiar with the owner’s manual that came with your product. If you don’t have one, they’re usually pretty easy to find by searching the internet. Or feel free to contact us, and we’ll help you find one.
Plan Your Attack
Before you can fire up your pressure washer and get to work, you’ll need to plan out your attack. Break down each individual job you intend on cleaning. Different surfaces like aluminum, brick, and cement, require different chemicals and specialty tips to clean correctly.
Photo by Dave Hamster via Flickr
Typically, as the fan width of a nozzle decreases the pressure will increase. So, nozzles with a narrow fan are great for removing things like paint, graffiti and oil spots. And wide, fan nozzles will have lower pressures and are good for cleaning pretty much any surface.
Just make sure to always be sure to test a nozzle before tackling a project.
Protect Your Home
We also suggest protecting area’s that may become damaged by the high pressure stream. Our tool guru, Mark Sodja, emphasized this point by saying, “Pressure washers are very powerful tools and a nozzle that creates too much pressure can easily damage the item you plan to clean.” So it’s smart to always cover bushes, mailboxes, lighting, or anything else you think may damage easily, before you begin washing.
Prep The Pressure Washer
Like previously noted, you’ll want to make sure to properly set up your pressure washer before use. This means referring back to the owner’s manual for required safety and operating procedures.
Even though most pressure washers are straight forward to operate, they each have their own quirks that make them a little different to use.
Photo by Loco Steve via Flickr
Mark Sodja filled us in on a common problem he see’s people make:
“When starting a pressure washer it is important to first purge any air might be in the pump or hoses. Connect the incoming water line to the pump as well as the high pressure hose. Turn on the water and run water through the hoses and pump until no more air bubbles can be heard passing through. This purging process will help prevent periodic lost of pressure if the air bubbles were allowed to work their way out of the system with the pump on.”
Taking the time to learn how to operate your equipment correctly is one of the best ways of getting the job completed quickly and efficiently.
Work Smart
We understand the fun of using a pressure washer, it’s almost like being the fireman you always wanted to be — but don’t let yourself get out of control. Operating a pressure washer in the correct way will save you time and prevent damage from occurring on your home.
Photo by chucknado via Flickr
Use long, slow passes with the wand, starting at the top of the surface and working your way down. Try to be as steady as possible to get an even clean with each stroke.
When you come to a stain or spot that won’t come out, don’t try to move up to a higher pressure nozzle immediately– this could cause damage to the surface. Try inspecting the surface to determine what the stain is, then research the proper chemical to get it removed.
Conclusion
Learning the tips and tricks of using a pressure washer comes from experience and research. So ask your neighbor that pressure washes everything to give you a few pointers, talk to your local hardware store representative, or simply do a bit of research, and you’ll be well on your way to being a pressure washer exert–where there’s nothing that can’t be cleaned.
