Need help setting my pressure washer up in my trailer.

ShineTimeDetail

New member
Joined
Sep 26, 2010
Messages
2,032
Reaction score
0
Ok so last year had more problems with the plumbing along with the pump I was using to pump the water up to the pressure washer. Originally it had a small electric pump but I made a mistake on my first detail I accidentally had the pump running with no water going through it. I went out a bought a harbor frieght clear water pump cause it was cheap and I needed something fast.($30). Well all the plumbing is pvc and I keep breaking conections loose if I don't turn the pump off when I'm done with the pressure washer right away. The pump is a 600 gph. What size pump can someone recommend me at a reasonable price? Also that HF pump seizes up if I let it sit for more that a day! Does anyone also have suggestions on what to do with the plumbing work? Thanks guys and happy holidays!
 
I can personally recommend this water pump for longevity and reliability.

Meziere Enterprises

I use it for cooling the intercooler on my blown cobra.

It is now six years old and has never failed.

They can be found used all the time on various car sites.

I paid $75.00 for mine.

They also make on in size "HUGE" or 55gpm

Meziere Enterprises
 
not sure what you are saying ? but if your trying to get water to your power washer from a water tank you need a pump that pumps more water then your power washer .
my power washer pumps out 5 1/2 gl per min with the cat pump on it. just check your power washer and see what the out put is.
ps use bigger pvc pipe also it will help.
but you need to all ways turn off the water any way when your done to save the seals in your power washer .
 
Yea I need a pump to pump the water to the pressure washer not. The car. I always turn the pressure washer off before I turn the pump off. It just builds up too much pressure when I don't have my finger on the trigger. I'm using half in lines.
 
What about using a gravity feed system? Having a small tank (maybe 1 gallon) on the pressure washer with a large opening going to the feed. Then having a large tank feeding that with a smaller hose. THe 1 gallon is your reserve and will get refilled when you aren't using the pressure washer. Or, you can just plumb from the large tank directly to the pressure washer. We had that setup in an Astro Van and it worked great. You didn't get huge amounts of water out of the pressure washer, but most only move a little over 2 gallons a minute, and this would keep up with that pretty well.
 
Someone else a while ago was saying just run the plumping from the tank to the pressure washer. The problem is with that I woulnt be able to use all the water in the tank because the spicket on the pressure washer sit at the quarter tank mark. Its a 100 gallon tank so I could only do a few cars then id have to drive all the way back home to refill.
 
If you have the right size hose, you will have no problem at all keeping the pressure washer fed. Even gravity fed. I have both a 60 gal and 250 gal tank gravity feeding my 4 gal/min at 4000psi with just a 3/4 in steel reinforced hose. No problems at all here.
 
Google "pressure washer unloader systems" and look at the different unloaders available. This sounds to me like what you need in conjunction with a good pump. Correction...I meant bypass valve, not unloader valve. The bypass valve would divert your feed water back to the tank when you release the trigger on the pressure washer, saving your feed pump.
 
Last edited:
interlinksupply.com has a sureflo 12 volt pump with a built in bypass at 3.5 GPM 45PSI for $115 If you want a pump replacement instead of going gravity fed you may want to look at their site.
 
so will that eliminate my pressure washer from dying when I let off the trigger?
 
Dying as in the gasoline engine shutting off or as in the pump self destructing?

The pump bypass valve will prevent your feed pump (between the tank and pressure washer) from deadheading therefore prolonging it's service life.

An unloader system on the pressure washer pump outlet would sense the pressure washer pump deadheading by way of too high of pressure and then divert the output water back to the input side of the pump but this only buys you some time as eventually if you didn't squeeze the trigger on the wand the water cycling through the unloader and the pump could overheat and damage the pump on the pressure washer.

The Ideal setup on a pressure washer with an unloader system would have a time out switch to shut the motor down after 3 minutes with the pump in "unload".

Were talking about quite a bit of $$$ to set something like that up though so just turning off the pressure washer when not in use would be the best thing to do.
 
I've had 2 pressure washers(used) that when I have the pump running onece I let off the trigger the pressure washer surges then shuts off
Is that common?
 
I've had 2 pressure washers(used) that when I have the pump running onece I let off the trigger the pressure washer surges then shuts off
Is that common?
That is a question I can't answer. I mainly worked on industrial pressure washers with big electric motors. The gas pressure washer that I have now is the only one that I have ever owned and it doesn't do that. Hold out for more folks to see this, maybe they can tell you if it is common. I can tell you that if it had an unloader on it it would not do that.
 
Back
Top