History question

H

hdgmwestplow

New member
How long has power washing of residential and commercial been around?I am talking about just to clean a property and make it look nice.I have been told it started in the 60s.Then was told it started back in the 40s.
 
I dont know about the 40's...........but it wasnt common until roughly 20 years ago, I believe.

And in the last ten years is when it has really taken off.
 
The first steam cleaner was invented by accident in the 1920's when a worker for a company that made gas fired hot water heaters and boilers was trying to perfect a moonshine still in his garage because of alcohol prohibition. He noticed that the steam coming from the outlet on the still made the grease on his shop floor move. He came up with a way to mix chemicals with the steam and found a partner to market and sell the cleaner. It was manufactured and sold as the "high pressure jenny". I'm sure most of you have heard of a Steam Jenny.

Sounds to me like maybe he was kin to bigboy! I'm sure one day bigboy will invent something by accident if he does'nt blow up the garage first! LOL

Les
 
The steam jenny was the first high pressure washer. It was used to clean engines in industrial applications mostly. Now as far as when hot water in place of steam vapor was first used, I can't answer that one.

Les
 
I talked to a guy from Tenn.. about 6 months ago .>>>> I cant remember his name but they make the surface cleaner that has a engine on it >>> had some lit. sent to me and now cant find it so I dont know the name .....

anyways he claims he was the first one to add pressure to the hot h20 .
he is 80 some years old and sounded very knowledgeable .

I'll have to see if I can find his name
 
There are the original three pressure washer manufacturers from the late 20's early 30's (actually all of them built steam cleaners only): Jenny, Malsbary and Sioux all have patents listed with the US Patent and Trademark office for around the same time.

Pressure washers as we know them were not available until the mid 60's when pump technology began to allow for "high" pressures of as much as 500 psi! In the mid 70's pressure washer pumps jumped to 1000 psi then 1500 shortly after. In the 80's an ultrahigh pressure washer was all of 3000 psi. Since then 4000 psi has become common and now there are water blasters up to 40,000 psi.

Just remember that pressure is equal to speed and flow is equal to force. So which woould you want to catch thrown at you at 5 mph? A softball or a bowling ball?

Cheers.
 
Our primary unit started out in 1969.

The boiler was a Malsbary 750,000 Btu. It heated low pressure water and then sent it to a surge tank for the pump. We replaced it last year with a Whitco 980,000 Btu. Still have the old Malsbary sitting in the shop :). Just could not bring myself to throught it out! It is over 30 years old. Maybe we will use it sometime in the future. I still have the old '69 Dodge too!

The pump Wheatley P-100 is a duplex type plunger pump from the oil field industry. It started out running around 1500 psi. We have since increased it to 3000 psi. This pump is delivering almost 10 gpm and is only running at 485 Rpm. Using 1-1/8" plungers.

This equipment was intended to be mounted in a stationary location so they were powered by electricity. So units like these had to have Gensets to operate the equipment. Well we still do! The Wheatley had a 7-1/2 Hp motor on it when I bought it and now we are using a 20 Hp motor.

The Genset that we started out with was a 15 Kw Onan. We upgraded to a 45 Kw Generac in 1996.

Another thing different about this system is that it uses propane rather than Gasoline or Diesel for fuel.

Our friend at Delco Cleaning Systems, Robert Hinderliter, I am sure could add much to this subject.

If you look at back issues of Cleaner Times they did a series of articles on the History of the Pressure Washer Industry.

Dave Olson
 
Dan S said:
I talked to a guy from Tenn.. about 6 months ago .>>>> I cant remember his name but they make the surface cleaner that has a engine on it >>> had some lit. sent to me and now cant find it so I dont know the name .....

anyways he claims he was the first one to add pressure to the hot h20 .
he is 80 some years old and sounded very knowledgeable .

I'll have to see if I can find his name
Click to expand...


Sounds kinda like Al Gore saying he invented the internet. :)

I think you are referring to Mr. Danielson from American Made Cleaners, Inc. The product is called The Twister. (605)763-5100.
 
The history of the pressure washing industry ran in Cleaner Times from February 1996 (Whiskey Stills, Chocolate Sodas and the Birth of an Industry) until June 1999 (Environmental Equipment Cleans Up the Scene), a total of 27 parts. If anyone is interested I will see if I can get the "powers that be" here at Cleaner Times to pull all of these articles together. At this point I do not even know how long this would take or if there would have to be a charge. I need to know how much interest there is to get the ball rolling. Leave a post and/or email me at chuckp@adpub.com with your thoughts.

Chuck Prieur
 
I believe the first hot high pressure washer was built by Electro-Magic
in the 60s. The model 660 I think it was 3 gpm @ 600 PSI, and sold for
around $500.

Electro-Magic has gone through many changes over the years and now
they are built in South Dakota, under the same roof as Alkota, and All American.
 
I think it would be pretty cool if you could throw that together..........and I'm sure people would be willing to pay for it. Maybe even a downloadable version.
 
Hey Folks,
I've only had four replies to pulling the history articles from Cleaner Times together. Nancy, the editor, figures it will take a full day at the least to do this, so I need a lot more interest to make my case to get it done.
I personally like Mike's idea of a downloadable version.
I am going to be out of pocket (vacation) for the next week and a half, so you folks who want to see this happen please respond so we can get this done when I get back. Please make it a post. With all the spam I get, replies could "get lost" as I sort through my email when I get back.
Chuck Prieur
 
crispy crittr said:
The history of the pressure washing industry ran in Cleaner Times from February 1996 (Whiskey Stills, Chocolate Sodas and the Birth of an Industry) until June 1999 (Environmental Equipment Cleans Up the Scene), a total of 27 parts. If anyone is interested I will see if I can get the "powers that be" here at Cleaner Times to pull all of these articles together. At this point I do not even know how long this would take or if there would have to be a charge. I need to know how much interest there is to get the ball rolling. Leave a post and/or email me at chuckp@adpub.com with your thoughts.

Chuck Prieur
Click to expand...


Great Old Post
 
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