Lost in the forest of chem injectors for house washing....

I do small time pressure washing - not my full time business. I'm looking for the best solution for me to do occasional house washing. My unit is Milwaukee 4555-22 3750 PSI 4 GPM Honda GX390 AR RKV pump.

The more I read on this forum, the more confused I get. I'm trying to wash 1 and 2 story houses, some with gable ends making the tops effectively 3 stories.

My unit has a downstream injector built into it, although it seems to have stopped working so needs to be replaced or cleaned. Now's the time to bypass that with something else if I need to before fixing it. I'm a little confused about what the manual says - it says it injects detergent into the "low pressure stream". Does that refer to the fact that you're supposed to use the detergent tip? Can't figure out what they mean by low pressure there.

I see X-Jet, ball valve, downstreaming, etc etc but I'm still not sure what I'm looking for. Can anyone help me get started here? I'm just looking for the easiest solution for me to get started with better and faster technique. It doesn't have to be the ultimate speed solution since I won't be doing this all day every day.

Is this unit similar to an X-Jet?
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200400465_200400465

I don't really understand how this (or X-Jet) is different from the downstream injector built into my unit. In other words, using the 0 degree tip and the detergent knob max open. Is it the orifice size? If so, how can that alone account for the steep price of the X-Jet unit?

To inject soap downstream you have to a a large pressure differential between the two sides of the injector. To do that you have to use a larger orifice spray nozzle than your high pressure nozzles. Fan pattern and orifice size are two different things. The soap nozzle that comes with a typical homeowner machine is too much fan pattern to shoot far at all. With your 4 gpm machine I would reccomend trying either a 20 or 30 gpm orifice and I would reccomend getting 2 4-way nozzle holders. I would set one up for soaping with 0030, 1530, 2530 & 4030 tips. For rinsing houses I do not reccomend using high pressure either I would go with an 8 or 10 gpm nozzle which will drop your pressure significantly so go with a 4 way with 0010, 1510, 2510 & 4010 nozzles. That's just me. I like to have all 4 fan patterns available when I'm soaping and rinsing. Some people set up 4ways with two soap nozzles and 2 rinse nozzles.
That's my guess for a 4gpm machine. I'm using 8 gpm so I just cut everything in half.

What pat said. As far as injectors, this is what you need. http://shop.pressurewasherky.us/General-Pump-High-Draw-Fixed-Injector-BA5188.htm

Pat, you rinse with a #20 nozzle? I have been using #15 nozzles to rinse with 8 GPM, but usually end up removing the siphon from the housewash bucket and rinsing with my soap nozzle, because a #15 is usually too much pressure.

Actually I usually rinse with a 30. Sometimes a 20 but not usually.

Interesting.....#40-50's here.

jeffnc226 said:

I do small time pressure washing - not my full time business. I'm looking for the best solution for me to do occasional house washing. My unit is Milwaukee 4555-22 3750 PSI 4 GPM Honda GX390 AR RKV pump.

The more I read on this forum, the more confused I get. I'm trying to wash 1 and 2 story houses, some with gable ends making the tops effectively 3 stories.

My unit has a downstream injector built into it, although it seems to have stopped working so needs to be replaced or cleaned. Now's the time to bypass that with something else if I need to before fixing it. I'm a little confused about what the manual says - it says it injects detergent into the "low pressure stream". Does that refer to the fact that you're supposed to use the detergent tip? Can't figure out what they mean by low pressure there.

I see X-Jet, ball valve, downstreaming, etc etc but I'm still not sure what I'm looking for. Can anyone help me get started here? I'm just looking for the easiest solution for me to get started with better and faster technique. It doesn't have to be the ultimate speed solution since I won't be doing this all day every day.

Is this unit similar to an X-Jet?
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200400465_200400465

I don't really understand how this (or X-Jet) is different from the downstream injector built into my unit. In other words, using the 0 degree tip and the detergent knob max open. Is it the orifice size? If so, how can that alone account for the steep price of the X-Jet unit?

Click to expand...

No, it will not have the same draw rate.

Yeah I soap with 40s and 50s. I just deal with so many dang dirt dauber nests that I found a little more pressure with a 30 helps us a lot. I just make sure my techs know to back off windows and doors more with the extra pressure and use wider fans as possible.

The X-Jet without proportioners claim that they can pull a 2:1 ratio, you add in the colored proportioner to change the ratio of chemicals, that is why they are more expensive than downstream injectors. Once in a while I need to use my X-Jet, just not in the past 2 years but I keep one in the shop for those times. I prefer downstreaming, just my preferencce.

I also like to use the 1540, 2540 and 0040 or 0050 for both soap and rinsing, just my preference, just take the soap hose out of the detergent for rinsing.

We also have a lot of dirt daubers here and need to shoot up high, 8gpm helps knock them down quickly.

Christopher said:

The X-Jet without proportioners claim that they can pull a 2:1 ratio, you add in the colored proportioner to change the ratio of chemicals, that is why they are more expensive than downstream injectors.

Click to expand...

I guess I don't really understand the difference between and X-Jet and "downstreaming". Is X-Jet not downstream? I mean, does that not just mean downstream of the pump? The part that Josh showed - it seems like that's what's on my unit right now. So aside from changing proportioners, it sounds like all I need in addition to that part (which seems to be clogged or broken on my machine) is the right size orifice tip to spray with?

Xjet works on the same principle but you gotta lug around the dang bucket and it has pretty much full pressure. Not good for housewashing. With a downstream injector you just leave your soap mix back on the trailer with the pressure washer. Haha let's start the x jet debate for the millionth time.

I downstream using 4way. All tips are providing low pressure wash. The problem this causes is all tips pull soap which causes someone running back to the trailer to pull the hose.

Pat Norman said:

Haha let's start the x jet debate for the millionth time.

Click to expand...

ha no, I've read through some of the debates here already I just didn't have enough information to really make sense of what they were talking about. I guess the next step for me is getting a new downstream injector for my machine, and then getting the right size orifice on new tips. I still haven't figured out what the 4-way nozzles do for you, but hopefully I will figure that out. My machine has a detergent knob (turns from Off to Max ratio) so I don't have to pull out the hose, but yes still have to run back to the truck.

Can someone explain to me how you switch nozzles (let's say you're using a 4-way holder) without turning off the engine? Or maybe I'm just assuming you guys aren't turning off the engine, or going back to the truck. How is the pressure relieved to allow you to change?

By the way, now that I understand some better search terms, I'm finding better information than just YouTube videos by hacks. For example, this page is very much in line with what Pat said.
http://www.pressuretek.com/dointekar.html

you quit squeezing the trigger and simply change the nozzle.

Strange..... I tried quoting the #11 reply from Andy and it kept pulling a quote from Ron from another thread.

The 4 nozzle holder is so that you can have 4 of your most-used nozzles in one place so you don't have to keep them in your pocket, eventually soaking your pants.

I ordered some of the 2-nozzle holders as probably 95% to 99% of the time I only use 2 nozzles, the 0050 and the 1540 for house washing. Right now I have a 3-nozzle holder that has those and a 2540 nozzle there but I hardly ever use it so I will switch to the 2-nozzle holder and keep things simple.

See that's where everyone had their own methods and favorite ways of doing things. When applying soap I always use the widest fan pattern I can based on how close I am to the surface. Just seems like I do a lot of houses with front porches. So up close to the walls, windows and ceilings I'm often using a 4050. Then I may turn around and pop in an 0050 to do the high gables but even there I use a 1550 as high as it will reach. Kind of like when do you need need a 4 inch paintbrush to paint fast and a 1/2 inch brush for detail.

Andy Hinson said:

you quit squeezing the trigger and simply change the nozzle.

Click to expand...

I don't understand. Unless I'm missing something, this is basically impossible on my machine because the wand still has pressure in it. I always have to turn off the machine, squeeze the trigger to shoot out the pressure, then change the nozzle. I forgot to release the pressure twice, before changing the nozzle. Once, I shot out the webbing between 2 of my fingers, which was a bit bloody. The other time it shot the nozzle about 150 feet into the woods. Luckily I wasn't facing a person or a window.

So what am I missing here?

What the heck kind of spray gun do you have? Most guns stop the pressure at the gun. The nozzle on the end of the wand nor the wand has no flow or pressure after you let off the trigger gun.

Maybe it would be a good idea to go to Doug Rucker's class and learn all about machines, safety, how to wash and more things that he will teach you and keep you safe.