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What Type Of A Pressure Washer Cleaner I Need To Buy?
Here are some questions and answers to help you decide what type of pressure washer you need.
- Do you want to use it around home or is it for commercial / industrial
use?
- Home use:
If you will only use this pressure washer under 100 hours per year you need only invest in a less expensive pressure washer. This is usually a cold water unit that can be a small gas (2,000 PSI, or 5.5 HP or less) or small electric (1,000 PSI - 1,500 PSI, 15 amps, 110v.).
These pressure washers sometimes have aluminum pump heads and plastic valves. These less expensive components means a less expensive price. (Commercial grade units have brass pump heads and stainless steel valves). These types of pressure washers can be found in our Consumer Pressure Washer Cleaners. EO Express has two types of these units Electric Consumer Power Washers and Gasoline Consumer Power Washers
- Commercial / Industrial use:
If you plan to use this pressure washer for 100 hours to 2,000 hours per year you need an industrial grade pressure washer, either cold or hot water. Industrial pressure washers have brass pump heads. The most industrial gas machines will use either Gear Drive Pressure Washer - Belt Drive Pressure Washer or our Direct Drive Pressure Washer a less expensive way to go. The Electric Pressure Washers for commercial should either be direct drive with 1750-1800 RPM motors. It is important to select a unit with top quality components throughout, and not just focus on the power plant. Most pressure washer problems are caused by the unloader valve that controls the pressure, yet many people never consider this in their buying decision.
EO Express offers ten line's of pressure washers. The Direct Drive Cold Water - Gear Drive Cold Water - Belt Drive Cold Water - Gasoline Consumer Units - Electric Cold Water Commercial - Electric Cold Water Economical - Hot Water Gas Engine/Oil Burner - Hot Water Electric Motor & Burner - Hot Water Electric Motor/Oil Burner - Hot Water Diesel Motor/Oil Burner is for the Cleaning Professional and Consumers that needs all the power and quality extras you can get. And for the professional that needs quality, but has to work with in a budget.
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- Home use:
- Do I need hot water or cold?
- Cold water:
Cold water pressure washers can be used to successfully clean many objects and surfaces through a combination of impact of the spray and the application of cleaning chemicals and soaps. Cold water is generally used where grease and oil are not a factor, but with the right chemicals grease and oil can still be effectively dealt with. EO Express has many types of cleaning chemicals for pressure washer that work great with cold and hot water units.
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- Hot water:
We know from washing dishes that hot water makes cleaning easier, especially if we are cleaning greases, oils, or petrochemicals. Cold water can only be as effective if the proper cleaning chemicals are also used. Hot water can often make cleaning faster by loosening dirt, gum, grease and oil. Most hot water units use diesel, kerosene, natural gas, and electric to heat the pressurized water in a heavy duty heating coil. The heating coil and burner system makes the hot water unit much heavier, more complex and more difficult to maintain than a cold water unit. But for the most cleanest job a hot water unit is the answer to all problems. EO Express offers over 20 models of hot water pressure washers. Hot-Cold-Steam Units
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- Cold water:
- How much pressure and flow do I need?
- Around the house:
To clean around your house, wash your siding, wash your car (Most Coin-Op car washes have about 700psi), or clean your deck you probably only need 1,500 to 2,000 PSI. For concrete cleaning or to clean barnacles off boat hulls you would be better off with 3,000 PSI.
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- Commercial / Industrial use:
As a commercial contractor you need at least 3,000 PSI in order to be fully productive. Flow is important for rinsing horizontal surfaces or powering surface cleaning machines, such as our RotoBlaster. If you are cleaning vertical surfaces, or excess water is a problem, a low flow/high-PSI unit is possibly the better option.
For a given amount of horsepower you can only get so much pressure and flow. Pressure is good for cleaning, but to rinse you need flow to push the dirt across the horizontal surface. If what you are cleaning comes off easily, but you need to push a lot of dirt -- cleaning animal enclosures or sidewalks for example -- then you need a high-flow unit.
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- Around the house:
- Can you pick a pressure washer based on performance alone?
No. The first step in picking a pressure washer is determining how much performance you need to get the job done. How much pressure? How much flow? Do you need hot or cold water? Is gas, diesel, natural gas, or electric power better, safer, quieter, or cheaper. Once you have decided upon these factors, discussed in the other sections, you need to pick a product. Pressure washers with the same power plant will have similar performance, for example an 11 HP gas engine unit will typically produce at least 3,000 PSI and 4 GPM. So it is often difficult to decide between different products except on price. Quality is what set one pressure washer apart from another. Two pressure washers offered by two different manufacturers may have similar performance in terms of pressure and flow but quite different in terms of quality of components and unit configuration. They will also vary in price. When buying a pressure washer selecting the correct performance for the cleaning job at hand is just the first step. The second step is looking at the quality of construction and the quality of the components.
EO Express WaterJet machines offer advantages over other brands because of their quality construction. Our individual components are the best that market has to offer. We test all our components extensively before we allow them to become part of our machines.
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