Starting Pressure Washer W/out Turning On Water

HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE STARTED YOUR PRESSURE WASHER BEFORE YOU TURNED THE WATER ON?

  • NEVER

    Votes: 28 26.7%

  • AT LEAST ONCE

    Votes: 36 34.3%

  • MORE THAN ONCE

    Votes: 41 39.0%
  • Total voters
    105
oh there is a rookie section on this forum. lol Dont worry mike just wanted to make a post that made eveyone see that all of us make mistakes and we are all not perfect. What nick is saying is true if you get to a job and water pressure sucks you are in trouble if you dont have a tank. But that wasnt the point of the post. I was working on my equipment at home and forgot to turn the water on. it also could have happened if i had a water tank. i could have forgot to open the valve to the machine.

But you are more than welcome to put this post in the rookie section. dosent matter to me.
 
I was referring to the tank , not the rookie part but more times than not I run low on water before a job is finished (commercial) I run 525 gallons and still need to get mor eflow to it to keep up with the demand of almost 12 gpm I dont see how some guys do it with 2 or three washer with 8gpm unless they use a fire hydrant adapter , what do you do Nick
 
yeah i was thinking of that 2. unless you have a huge tank the high gpm machines are going to get rid of alot of water fast. If there is water available you could take some from the home or business to help fill up the tank when it strats to get low.
 
Russ S said:
I was referring to the tank , not the rookie part but more times than not I run low on water before a job is finished (commercial) I run 525 gallons and still need to get mor eflow to it to keep up with the demand of almost 12 gpm I dont see how some guys do it with 2 or three washer with 8gpm unless they use a fire hydrant adapter , what do you do Nick
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A picture is worth a thousand words.. LOL
 

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Once again Nick ( Damn ) Your Rig is bigger than my Office... If I pulled up to a hood cleaning Job with your rig... I would be thru cleaning in like 30 minutes ... Just got to teach my wife how to use a pressure washer.. She is even scarred of mine... But to answer the question I have even forgot to hook my water hose up... It's those late night hood cleanings where you do 2 0r 3 stores a night...
 
Never had it happen, but if you have a reserve tank, you have a good 15 seconds of time before you run dry usually. The way my trailer is set up, I have the hose bibs on the outside of the trailer, and hose goes into that. Then there's a second bib underneath in case I need fresh water while I'm washing. I always leave the bottom one open when I'm done, so I know if I turned on the water or not, because water starts pouring out of the bottom one. Sounds confusing, but really works well....
 
Around here, water supply and pressure varies from house to house in a lot of neighborhoods. A lot of homes have the galvanized pipe that is almost closed up on the inside from mineral deposits over the last 40-60 years so not too much flow a lot of times.

I had to change out all the piping in my house when I bought it 11 years ago because of that problem.

In a newer neighborhood, I arrived with a 1/2 full 125 gallon tank and had their supply going. Out of habit I look at the tank a lot and noticed it was not full so I stopped working. I was almost empty.

I checked the water hose, everything was ok. I knocked on the door and asked if they had any plumbing problems and they told me no.

I told them of the situation and the housekeeper told me (laughing) that she was using up all the water in the house. She was doing laundry, adding water to the swimming pool in the back yard, washing dishes, filling up both bathtubs for a chemical cleaning and just finished cleaning the toilets. Yes, she was using up all the water in the house.

She could not stop working but said she could give me some water.

It took 30 minutes to top off my tank so I could start working again.

I have had problems like this at both residential and commercial locations.

I am glad I use a tank on my trailer.
 
On My Water Tank..(600 Gallons) We Use A 9pm Machine And A 6 ... I Installed A Custom Liquid Level Switch In The Tank At A Certain Height That If The Water Gets 2 Low Before Loosing A Prime It Will Cut The Engines Off... Its A Cheap Investement Especially If You Dont Operate Your Own Equipmet...
 
My pressure washer was started last Thursday, without the water being turned on first. I can't remember the last time that had happened.
 
I can say i have never started it without water, but i have ran almost out of water in my tank. which is just about the same.
 
K Gauthier said:
HOW MANY OF YOU. NOW BE HONEST. HAVE STARTED YOUR MACHINE WITH OUT TURNING ON THE WATER FIRST. I WILL BE THE FIRST TO ADMIT I HAVE AND JUST DID IT TODAY. I WAS WORKING ON THE MACHINE AND WAS TURNING ON AND OFF THE WATER SO I GOT CONFUSED AND THOUGHT THE WATER WAS ON. NOPE IT WASNT RAN AND HIT THE OFF SWITCH IN ABOUT 5 SECONDS. IT SUCKED ALL THE AIR FROM THE HOSE. EVERYTHING IS FINE AND IVE DONE IT BEFORE AND IT PROB WONT BE THE LAST . LOL:( :eek:
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Chances are that if it only ran 5 seconds it really didn't hurt anything.
 
Thats nothing guys, I bought a brand new Cat belt drive unit, had it all hooked up and plumbed. It ran the first five minutes of its life dry. Short story, a guy showed up in my drive trying to sell me some meat and I walked away from the machine. I run triggerless guns and the wand was in the tank so I didnt know it wasnt pulling the water out of the tank. Lesson learned the hard way. Pump works great though.
 
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