surface scrubber

K

KGILL

New member
Question about surface scrubbers. Last week I was cleaning a very long driveway. From my machine, I had 100 feet of 3/8 hose (2 sections of 50 foot) to the surface scrubber. Unfortunately at the end of the driveway I was just short so I added another section of 50 ft hose. That extra hose seemed to cause my surface scrubber to run painfully slow. I had to walk much slower to clean so I would not get tiger stripes. I am using a 16 inch surface scrubber.

I have a 5.6 gpm 2500 psi unit, and I was force feeding from spigot with a 50 ft supply hose. I also noticed a difference in cleaning power with my turbo nozzle as well. Is this something wrong with the flow from the house, my machine, or what?

Sorry if you have already seen this on a facebook group page, but I really need an answer.
 
Johnson said:
That seems odd. Have you tried it since then just to make sure? Can you try using different hoses?
If you we're having water feeding issues you would definitely know.
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No I have not tried it since. I did notice something like this similar before awhile back but I attributed it to low volume from a house on well water. Perhaps I was wrong. Most of the driveways I have done require less than 100 feet of pressure hose, so I do not have many comparable experiences. When you say try different hoses, do you mean pressure hose or supply hose?

Also, Doug Rucker mentioned in another area I should try to use more supply hose and less pressure hose and see what I get. Any opinions on that?
 
When I say different hoses I mean pressure hoses. Believe it or not I've had one that was stopped up before.
As far as what Doug said you could try it for the heck of it.
Are you certain your getting 2500 psi?
 
The more hose you have the more everything has to work to get the end result. Hook up 5-600 feet and you'll really notice it. A good example is if you have 200 feet of water hose it'll take much longer to fill a tank then with a 20 foot hose of the same diameter.
 
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Well 100 feet supply hose is max I would use, but I have never had a problem with doing it that way. Adding more pressure hose I have. I carry a 100 foot, 50 foot, and 25 foot garden hose w me when using my 4gpm machine. If i go over 100 foot pressure hose I notice significant pressure loss when surface cleaning. But if I use more supply hose, up to 100 foot. I don't. Also important to make sure, and I'm sure you know this, that no one in the home is using water for e.g. washing clothes, running dishwasher, showering, etc.
 
KGILL said:
No downstreamer, this was a customer who won a free driveway through a charity silent auction. Off hand I do not know the degree, I am assuming they are 25 degree tips. I know they are size 3.5. I use size 7 nozzles when I am not using larger ones for downstreaming or softwash.
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The nozzle size for your surface cleaner should be 2.5 or 3
 
Mark 8262 said:
The nozzle size for your surface cleaner should be 2.5 or 3
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That's exactly what I was thinking Mark and a 5.5 tip on the wand.
 
There is always a certian amount of flow loss on the hose both inlet and outlet due to friction and other factors including elbows and curves/bends. Adding 50' should not make a huge difference maybe 100psi at best. There may be other factors at play here but if you need to keep your pressure up just drop a nozzle size or half size the reduced orafice will compensate for the reduced flow and bring the pressure back up. (this will only work on a trapped pressure style unloader)
 
Mark and Vince,

According to the graph I have to get 2500 psi at 5.6 gallons per minute I should have size 7 nozzles. Unless I am reading the graph wrong. When selecting nozzles for a surface scrubber it is my understanding you divide your nozzle size by two. 7/2=3.5. Am I missing something here?

Nozzle_Vol_Various_Pressure.jpg


Of course, I just found another chart that is different from what I normally use.
 

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Keenan,
I don't have one of the graphs, but I run 2525's on my surface cleaner for my 5.6 gpm 3500 psi machine and #6 on my wand. If I want to reduce the pressure on my wand I keep some #10's to lower the pressure for gum removal if the concrete is soft. I could be wrong but I believe this is about the same size nozzle that most people run on these machines. Some may run 1525, 1503, 2503. If you are still having trouble you might try this. It won't hurt.

Good Luck.....Let us know how it turns out.
 
Always check to see if the customer has a water Softener installed on the house. Many many times they cause a significant drop in pressure if it feeds the whole house including spigots. Ask if you can turn the water Softener to bypass. You will notice a huge difference in pressure. Just remember to take it off bypass before you leave.
 
Larry Millette said:
Always check to see if the customer has a water Softener installed on the house. Many many times they cause a significant drop in pressure if it feeds the whole house including spigots. Ask if you can turn the water Softener to bypass. You will notice a huge difference in pressure. Just remember to take it off bypass before you leave.
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Great tip


Text me anytime for question 480-522-5227
 
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