Frickin Cheap Pressure Washers..

[Bullitt0819]

I have the same concerns (also with an air cannon). But, the maker of the ceramic coating recommends, for 'Standard Home Washing:'

"Use a foam gun (optimal) or microfiber wash mitt to soap down the car. Rinse it off with a pressure washer (optimal) or hose. Dry with clean microfiber towels."

The reason I lean towards an air cannon is that my Bullitt had swirls, which could have been from 'microfiber' towels or from the one time I ran it through a brush-type car wash (I know, my mistake). I put 'microfiber' in quotes because I used the cheap, yellow ones Costco sells; the detail shops probably use higher quality ones (kinda like bed sheets?). Also, I'm leery of wash mitts; some of them are made of wool which is often used on buffing wheels. Watch a few of the videos on YT by (supposed) professional detailers; they're all over the place. Some recommend leaf blowers to dry; no way in hell I'd do that now (but have in the past).

Presumably, the pressure washer makers specify PSI measured at the nozzle; water pressure should drop off considerably a couple feet from the nozzle.

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[kilobravo]

Sam: I read you loud and clear and obviously, you know your business. Erosion is a sneaky process for sure but me thinks it would take over a hundred years of washing to get through the clear coat at the volumes and pressures we're talking about with low-pressure electric portables.

Is it better for the paint to use an unpressurized rinse? In the long, long run, probably but for the time I have left on this planet, I don't think the Kranzle or any other non-commercial machine is going to damage my paint or wheels to any noticeable extent over the life of the vehicle.

Granted, that's just my opinion as well. :-)

Damn, that Kranzle looks good.

I'm champing at the bit, David. <grinning>

ps. How'd you fix them?

Bob: This is a long-standing problem with phone images. If you hold the phone vertically to grab a flat, horizontal photo, the phone may tell the image to be written as "landscape" which is wrong, it just depends on which orientation the angle of your hands/phone were in when the image was captured.

Phones seem to understand "upright vertical" image captures but get all confused when you try to snap a vertical shot from "overhead" (parallel to the ground) as you did with the CARE instructions.

You'll know you have the problem if you can't orient the phone to make the image fill the screen.

The answer is, only take "overhead" photos in landscape orientation from the getgo.

Earl kindly fixed your images for us by using an editor where he told the image to maintain one orientation or another and then wrote the image to disk. That fixes the problem permanently.

<Change of subject>

Seems their "CARE" stuff is the same thing as "Reload" with my stuff. I would still look into whether you can buy some of that spray on maintainer and you may find that you don't need to take her in annually.

I also see that your guys are not adverse to using a pressure washer for normal car washiing.

KB

 

[kilobravo]

PS. FWIW Bob, I only use the inexpensive MF towels from Sam's/Costco on wheels, tires, and other dirty jobs, occasionally glass but I never let one of those touch the clear coat. The difference between those and quality MF towels is HUGE. Get some, you won't regret it and they last and last as long as you take care of them.

KB

 

[rocky5517]

You're right in that when you stand back from what you're aiming at, the pressure drops a lot. I THINK it cuts back 50% for every foot. And we've all read the complaints about how thin the paint is on our cars. My dealer took a gauge and measured the paint thickness for me, but I don't understand what it meant, and it was AFTER I had my car wrapped/treated. I watched a lot of videos from pros and I see the foam cannon ( I bought a cheap spray attachement for gardening) but most everything I saw stressed avoiding touching the car when drying as much as possible. I blow it down with a leaf blower, then clean it up with MF towels and some RELOAD, mixed with ECH2O. But many videos stress flooding the car with the garden hose, which is easy and works great. I can't see the advantage to using a pressure washer. Plus, many years ago, I was using my mother-in law-s car. I was at my shop so I decided to give it a quick rinse. I had a 3500 psi machine that could run 2 guns; it had a "dump valve" so if one operator shut down his gun the other gun's pressure wouldn't go crazy. Well. the helper let go of his trigger and of course at that moment the valve failed. In a matter of 2 seconds I left a rash along the door that looked like someone shot the car with 410 buckshot. It was about 3' x 1', and happened in seconds. And that was back when cars had good paint. Had to have the door re-painted. So, all I can say is have fun and be careful. And remember to stand back as far as possible and don't stop on any one area or you'll leave track marks, like most people do when they try to clean their wood decks. Nothing makes me scratch my head than to see a guy walking out of Home Depot with a 2500 PSI machine for his home. Unless he's STRIPPING PAINT ( get it?) from a masonry wall, there is NO reason for 2500 psi around the average home. The little 66 psi electrics are fine. when we wash EIFS walls we use them; they're light and fit on the scaffolds easy. When we're done we toss them in the garbage. For $ 150, who cares? If I have to remove heavy coatings, many layers of paint, even light parge coats of cement wash, out come the heavy duty 3500 psi/ 3.5 gpm machines. We a
use jet nozzles which rotate and can get up to 20,000 psi. I can actually remove concrete, a little at a time, with that setup.

 

[kilobravo]

Thanks, Sam, I concur with everything you said. Been using the little machines for quite awhile now and pretty sure I have never damaged the paint on any vehicle. But yep, if you hit a vehicle with a 3500 psi output which means a very narrow tip, you can EASILY and very quickly seriously damage paint, wood, aluminum, and the like.

Careful is the key.

 

[m3incorp]

The nozzles are important when using a pressure washer. I use the black nozzle for washing the cars. It is more of a spread out downpour with not much pressure. I use the white nozzle (what you see many detailers use in videos) for dirty wheels and overly dirty cars. It is stronger than the black and will remove dirt but you would have to hold it close to the car....so again not super high pressure. Amazing that for the last 50 years how we were able to use the open bay high-pressure car washes and not wash "off" the paint.

 

[Bullitt0819]

re: 'The answer is, only take "overhead" photos in landscape orientation from the getgo.

Earl kindly fixed your images for us by using an editor where he told the image to maintain one orientation or another and then wrote the image to disk. That fixes the problem permanently.'

I did both! But, I used the std 'windows' editor to rotate and save and, well, you see the results, maybe it's not up to the task. Plus, I emailed the pics to my computer, and opened the attachments directly, and rotated and saved them; maybe that has something to do with it.

You'd think with 35 years as a programmer I would have figured this out by now

 

[rocky5517]

The nozzles are important when using a pressure washer. I use the black nozzle for washing the cars. It is more of a spread out downpour with not much pressure. I use the white nozzle (what you see many detailers use in videos) for dirty wheels and overly dirty cars. It is stronger than the black and will remove dirt but you would have to hold it close to the car....so again not super high pressure. Amazing that for the last 50 years how we were able to use the open bay high-pressure car washes and not wash "off" the paint.

 

[rocky5517]

The Nozzles are sized by degrees, that is, a 40 degree fan is pretty gentle, while a 5 degree is almost laser-like. The wider the fan, the better you are, when dealing with your car. You'd use a 5 degree nozzle to blast chewing gum off sidewalks, for instance.

 

[Questortapes74]

FYI,

Since there was an interest in the Griot’s Surface Wash and Poly Gloss products in the original posting about pressure washers, I have some photos from this morning with my daily driver at work. The last wash and preparation were 2.5 weeks ago performed with the Kranzle pressure washer. Since that time, the rain has been frequent, and I have been driving to and from work. The car has no ceramic coating or PPF/vinyl protection. As you can see, the car is quite clean (considering the driving conditions) and the water beads quite easily. I am quite pleased with this product...

 

[kilobravo]

Appreciate the follow up, Dan. Got the first shipment from OG today, still waiting on the machine from Kranzle and the Surface/Poly products from Bamazon but did get the snouts. :-)

Man, that wand is something. Stainless QD's at both inputs, killer swivel and handguard and another stainless QD at the tip. Anxious to get the rest. Grabbed a bottle of their Kranzle gear oil for the one-time only, 50-hour oil change. Also got a second foam cannon container.

 

[Questortapes74]

Grabbed a bottle of their Kranzle gear oil for the one-time only, 50-hour oil change.

With regular vehicle washes as well as other home projects (cleaning the driveway, sidewalks, decks, etc.), those 50 hours will come up quickly.

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[09cs]

That poly gloss is awesome for a quick after every wash type addition for some added slickness and shine

 

[kilobravo]

Dan: I probably will only use this machine for the vehicles as I have a larger, ICE-powered for the other tasks.

09: Can't wait to try the Poly gloss, thanks.

 

[marklboris]

Ok, I decided to throw in my two cents and just make a few comments.

KB, 5 years ago I purchased a Karcher electric pressure washer with a better aftermarket wand and foam canon. I have been very happy with it although I don't use it every time I wash my car. After looking at the one you are buying, I can see mine is just the run of the mill type but it has served me well so far. When it craps out, I will certainly get the same one as yours with all those optional accessories and can see why you are desperately waiting for it.

As far as a spray sealant/detailer, I also have to used CarPro's Reload which I found as one of the best hydrophobic sealant/detailers on the market until I got my Focus RS ceramic coated 4 years ago. As with the GT500 which is also ceramic coated (same Ceramic Pro 9H) I can no longer use Reload on either coated finish. No matter what I do, it leaves smudges, streaks and sometimes a haze. With the yearly "maintenance" that Bob was talking about that Ceramic Pro recommends, the auto detailer uses Ceramic Pro's SPORT hydrophobic spray sealer. Using this product, I don't get any of the issues that I got with Reload but it is fairly expensive. At $78 for a small 300ML bottle it won't last long. Even though Ceramic Pro recommends using Sport every 6 months to 1 year, I like using it a bit more often like every 3 months as I like to keep the finish on the car extremely glossy and slick. I have tried quite a few other products and finally found one that is almost as good as Sport and does not have the issues I had with Reload and it is Meguiar's Ceramic Detailer. At $15 for a 768 ML bottle, it's a lot cheaper but again, not quite as good as Sport but almost for what I want it to do.

As far as drying the car (not much water left on it anyway from the ceramic coat and sealant/detailer) I use a dual motor Metro Vac Air Force Master Blaster which is amazing. It is a little noisy (the air hitting the car, not the unit itself) but really like how you can get rid of all the water under the trim pieces and hard to get areas. The filtered, warm air dries the car very fast.

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