Power Washer question

John250

John250

PR Founding Father
My power washer is not working well. Works with the garden hose, but wont with my barrel at the races. I think the seals are starting to go bad, and it needs pressure to work.

Looking at replacing it. It is a 1450 PSI with a Honda motor. Never pumped that great from my barrel. I have a hose hook up on the bottom of the barrel also.

Any suggestions on what brand, type, PSI to replace it with? Tired of jacking around with it all the time. Need something that works and works well.

Suggestions please on a replacement.
 
Yeah, I've had issues getting it going at well with my 30 or 40 gallon barrel. I usually have it in the trailer which is 2 foot off the ground level. Rocket had fun watching me get it going at Vet fest last year. I could have washed half the pits bikes by the time I got it going for mine.

Mostly it's all about the flow I think. Once you get it going, the power washer sucks the water from the barrel, it's just getting it to that point. I do not know the "trick" per say, but I seem to be able to get it going after awhile and all is well. Thinking mine is like a 3000 psi washer though. Thought about using my 275 gallon tank with a 2" valve on it. I'd bet I'd get some flow then... ;) (the emoticon is mostly for you Porgie...)
 
Mine used to have same issue getting it going but would work. Now, nothing. Looking for help with a replacement and any suggestions.
 
I had to drill a hole in my barrel, I placed a tire valve stem from autozone in hole a sealed it up. I plug a little air pump into my cigarette lighter, hook it to my barrel the pressure from the pump pushes the water to my pressure washer... That's the only way I could get my to work at the tracks... My oweners manual told me not to even try it with just gravity, so I came up with this works great and only cost about 3 dollars. Good luck!!!!!!
 
I run a 12VDC RV water pump on mine. Go buy a the pump from a camping store, put a long cord on it & plug it into your cigarette lighter outlet and put the pump inline with your pressure washer and you will always have water/pressure to the pressure washer pump. The nice thing about these pumps is it will only run when the pressure washer needs water and they are self siphoning...
 
I had a similar problem. There needs to be a little gravity. Maybe a foot. A standard garden hose always failed or took forever. So I bought 6' of 1 or 1.25 clear hose and added my own fittings. Be sure not to use hose valves as well. The flow through those without pressure is garbage. I keep the valve on the end of mine for storage. Then when I hook up I remove it and go direct into pressure washer.
 
I use a shorter hose from a washing machine and I get full pressure out of my pressure washer. My barrel is just laid down in the back of my van so not real super high off the ground but it gravity feeds good.
 
You can buy new pumps on Ebay for like 40 bucks. I did that once on the PW I take to the track, they get worn out faster using all the crappy pond water, etc.

Also, my pump has a cap on the front I use to bleed it. I just connect the hose, turn it on, then unscrew that cap on the pump and wait for water to flow out of it. Then put the cap back on, start it up, and all good.
 
We had that issue in the past. I put a "Y" on the end where the hose connects to the washer. Opened the open end of the Y for a few seconds then the washer would start working. Gets the air out of the line and gets things flowing... Cheap fix for me but may not work for all.
 
I bought a Yamaha pressure washer and it's amazing. It was 800 dollars a bit much but it is a quality product with a ton of extras you can buy.
 
The design of the pumps on these cheap pressure washers are not designed to suck, only blow! By chance some will actually provide a vacuum but, it's luck of the draw. The best thing you can do is get some head pressure.

Have you ever checked the trash screen on the inlet of the pump? If the screen is partially restricted it will work with normal household pressure but will not work with the 1 to 3 psi of gravity pressure we normally run at the track.
 
I went though the same problem some times it worked some times it did not. I did some research and found most pressure washers are not self priming ( need XX psi to work). There is a compact electric one from Lowes for around 160.00 that are
  • The self priming, siphon capable pump is able to draw from a standing or a collected water source. Self priming is key. I have not research gas power. I have a Karcher 1600 Modle 1.602-305.0 from Lowes
 
I won the pressure washer that Pit gave away with the Pitracer promo years ago. Still works great! It wouldn't work well out of a barrel until I figured out its likes. Start the motor with the hose disconnected, open the valve to the barrel and let the water flow, then attach the running hose end to the pressure washer. It could be kind of messy but this seemed to purge all the air out of the system and worked great from then on.
 
Hey John, I use a Craftsman from Sears. Its a 2700psi. It works great for me at the track with a 50 gallon drum and a short hose...usually don't need to worry bout gravity.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top