How does this pressure washer look to you?

Paul B., contact ANY of the pump manufacturers and speak with their engineers.

When I use the terms 'In General' and 'On Average' it is merely because I am not one of them but a well schooled pressure washer manufacturer.

Water is an incompressible fluid, but the action of the piston/plunger moving to fill within the cylinder creates a vacuum. The 'strength' of this vacuum is relative to the swept volume of the cylinder; period.

There are a finite number of piston sizes available to fit the vast percentage of pressure washer pumps. This is both a design and packaging decision. Pressure washers manufacturers very in details like component composition, seal design and material spcifications.

Therefore in order to maintain set flow in a positive displacement manner you have two options: a whole lot of small bits in a given time or fewer larger bits in the same time. The swept volume of a 3450 RPM pump is a fraction of the swept volume of a 1450 RPM pump given the same output. Exactly like the diesel engine versus gasoline engine analogy I used previously.

Seals are only present to keep the water and oil from mixing and from allowing the water to leak beyond the area of the piston/plunger. They resist water incursion only. Unlike an engine where they have a profound effect on compression.

FYI, pumps do NOT produce pressure. Never have and never will. The pressure is created by the presence of a specific sized orifice restricting flow. Pumps are rated for their resistance to pressure based on the weakest component.

No manufacturer of pressure washers or pumps would recommend using the unloader to vary volume or pressure. It is a primary safety device and the rings and seals would be subject to unnecessary wear leading to premature failure. Every good manufacturer suggests using different sized tips to vary pressure. Volume is dependent on RPM because of the positive displacement nature of the pump.

ALL pumps are rated to produce a certain flow at a given RPM and a resistance to pressure. ALL pumps should be force fed with a supply at least 1 GPM over demand and a head pressure of at least 15 PSI and usually no greater than 90 PSI. However, high RPM pumps do not have enough vacuum to draw water from a supply tank because they are incapable of self-priming. Therefore they do nto draw soap very well downstream at hose lengths greater than 150'. Low RPM pumps are better able to self-prime and therefore draw soap better, they suck better than high speed pumps.
 
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Michael,

Great posts - you covered a lot of ground and I hope a lot of people read the details to understand the entire picture rather than taking this as a Micheal vs. Paul issue.
I also DO agree with a very large portion of your posts.

I think the statement:
"No manufacturer of pressure washers or pumps would recommend using the unloader to vary volume or pressure. "
...as a lot of us know, is very much over stated. It would be nice if all manufacturers and engineers were great at their jobs. To give you a specific example, get your hands on a Generac P/W manual and you will see that they call the unloader a "Pressure Control Knob". They also tell you in their directions to "Increase spray pressure by turning the pressure control knob clockwise..."
There is absolutely NO mention of controlling pressure by installing different orifice size nozzles. In fact, they tell the operator to select the 25 and 40 degree nozzles for "a more gentle rinse" and the 15 or 0 degree nozzles to "Scour the surface". I could provide several other examples but I'll spare everyone.

The swept volume of a 3450 RPM pump is 42% of the 1450 RPM pump - all else being equal.

A 3 GPM pump will pull less vacuum than an 8 GPM pump - all else being equal.

There are many pump designs out there. If you check out:
http://www.catpumps.com/pages/aboutus_work.html
you will see at least 2 plunger and 1 piston type of pump where internal characteristics are different. There you will also see that "generally" piston type pumps pull more vacuum than plunger type, due to design characteristics.
The CAT site is also great for other information if you have the desire to read thru it.


All leaks impact vacuum and pressure. The design of the unloader and the entry plumbing configuration will also greatly impact vacuum and performance.

Since a pump can't create pressure, can you create pressure or vacuum without a pump (be it in a form of gravity or a mechanical device)?

"Pumps are rated for their resistance to pressure based on the weakest component." While I understand what you mean, this is not totally accurate, as each pump is designed to specific targets and includes a safety factor. Designers and engineers do not on purpose design the weakest components or randomly design and then rate or place a value on that part, but know exact what their design targets are (including safety factors that could be as high as 50-100%) along with designing for specific life targets.

I don't think there is anything else I can add, and if I sound anal, it's not on purpose.
 
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