Pressure Washer Help Please!

[SwainRacing]

Ok I bought a nice pressure washer for at the track to clean the quads once done racing in the mud. I also have a 55 gallon drum of water. I am gravity feeding the pressure washer but I am not getting very good pressure out of it.

What are you guys doing to make this work so you get good pressure out of your washer? Do I need to add a 12v pump to help feed the water to the pressure washer? It is a 2.3gpm washer. Any help would be great! Thanks!

[DieselBoy]

most pressure washer's need some force-feed, if your feeding from a tank you have to prime it and it will go, but if you had a pump it would help....

[antman]

yeah, a 12v pump should help fix the problem.

[fasterz]

nah you dont need a pump just have the water coming out of the hose and screw it onto the power washer with the water coming out, this fills the pump and gets rid of the air pocket and itll work, may take you a few times to figure it out but itll work fine

[lil400exman]

you need to have gravity feed. A 2.3 GPM pump is not self priming. A larger 4.5+ GPM machine is. Do a gravity feed and you will be fine.

raise it up about 2-3 feet in the air and put the line out on the bottom of the barrel and put the pressure washer below that. A 2.6 GPM machine will not run this system dry. a machine like mine (6.5 GPM) will though!:o

[antman]

this may sound like a stupid question but is there some kind of hole or valve at the top of your 55 gallon container with the water in it that will let in air as the water goes out??? cause that would definatly cause a problem cause the water would not be able to flow freely out cause it would be creating a vaccum inside the container... just a thought

[SwainRacing]

Thanks for the replies! I did prime the water the whole way to the gun befor I started the washer. And yes I do have a opening to let air in the tank. I only had the tank laying in the trailer, which may have been only a foot above the washer, but I had a 20 foot garden hose on it.

So if I raise the tank up 2 or 3 feet, and shorten up the hose so it goes from the tank right to the washer out side the trailer this may work? I will try this and if not will try the 12 volt pump. Thanks again.

[DieselBoy]

We used our Generac to drain the pool and without a pressured prime, it wouldn't really do much. if you held it under water and primed it with a 40psi city water hose than it would get going pretty good but not full pressure, but keep the hose short.

Personally I would get a 12v pump and be done with it but it can work otherwise...

[bulkdriverlp]

i dont think you need a pump just shorten the hose.

[SwainRacing]

Ok I got it working! Just put on a 6 foot 3/4in hose and it worked great! Didnt even have to lift up the barrel or add a pump, still just laying on the floor of the trailer. Thanks for all the help!

[Titanium]

Originally posted by antman
yeah, a 12v pump should help fix the problem. ;)