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So today we're going to talk about troubleshooting So today we're going to talk about troubleshooting tips and techniques for when you think you might have a bad unit around, that really isn't bad, but there's a problem somewhere in between. Okay, number 1: the manual is your friend. Again, read it all the time; keep it handy; there's a lot of troubleshooting techniques and tips in there at the end of the instructions. So, that's always a good reference point—that'll help you a lot.
All right, so electric pressure washers…there isn't a lot that can go wrong with those.
Either you don't have power to the outlet you're going to; you've got the GFI that's tripped; you have to reset that. Your electric pressure washer may have stopped because it overheated; it may not have the auto-start/stop feature on there. So if you weren't using it—you weren't pressing that gun all the time—and you had the unit running, it may have overheated the pump. It may have seen its day.
It just quit on you. It may not be getting a proper amount of water coming to it, and it may have stopped. The troubleshooting guide in your manual will pinpoint that for you pretty well too. That's really about it with an electric pressure washer.
There isn't much—as long as it's hooked up; you got water going to it; you have electricity going to it; not much can go wrong with those. So for gas pressure washers, if it suddenly stops on you; number one, you probably ran out of gas—is probably the first thing that's going to happen on that. And if it overheats, you're going to see water spraying out from the pump somewhere; it's going to be making a loud whining noise. You're going to know something before that actually breaks down on you as well.
If you hear something that doesn't sound right, I would shut that thing off as soon as you possibly can, and investigate from there. Another tip you might look at: if you're having problems with your presser washer sputtering or it's giving you intermittent pressure, there may be a leak somewhere. Maybe you're not getting a full flow from the hose supply. There might be a leak somewhere in your hose—or your high-pressure hose.
That can be a very good sign that you get sporadic pressure. Check all your connections to make sure everything's nice and tight. And again..
.read that manual. So there are a number of reasons you may not be getting full pressure out of your pressure washer. One is that you're not getting—again—the proper flow.
You need that; that's very important for a pressure washer. Say your pressure washer is rated at three gallons per minute (GPM); you need at least three gallons a minute. I would tend to say at least five gallons a minute—probably a couple of gallons minute more—than what that pressure wash is rated for. You want to run a short garden hose.
You don't want to run a long garden hose. I typically say anything longer than 25 to 50 feet is too much—you get what they call "friction loss" going through that hose when you have a longer hose. The longer the hose you have, the more friction loss you have that equates to a loss in your gallon per minute to the actual pump. So again, keep that garden hose as short as you possibly can.
Expand and lengthen your high-pressure hose. That's going to give you the length you need. It's much better to deal with the high-pressure hose—lengthening that whenever possible. When you see on our website that there's adjustable pressure.
..that's what we're talking about. We're talking about that pump's gonna have an unloader [valve].
Loosen this up or tighten it down to increase or decrease the pressure on the pressure washer. That's an option that is really nice to have, because if you're doing delicate work…
you're doing stucco or something like that—or trying to clean some siding that's really delicate— you can reduce the pressure on that pressure washer. Another thing we see sometimes on new pumps that are shipped out—even pressure washers—someone will hook it up and they'll say, "well I don't have the right pressure coming out…
doesn't seem like the right pressure." This unloader might have gotten turned down…
this is the first thing you want to check out. You want to open that all the way up and get the full pressure out of that. If you still have low pressure, there may be something else going on..
.there might be something wrong with the hookup. It's not always gonna be the pressure washer right off the bat. A lot of your lance connections and other connections; you may have some o-rings.
.. they start wearing. On this particular unit, there is a split o-ring.
That was causing some leaking earlier when we were trying to use our pressure washer, and that was the cause of the leak and the lack of pressure we were getting coming out of the spray gun. So something as little as this can cause big problems with your pressure washer. Again, it's not the fault of the pressure washer, it's just some of the equipment that you're using. All right, so when you're not using your pressure washer, you've got water circulating through that pump.
That water's circulating at a very high speed. It's creating a lot of heat. When you don't have water circulating through that pump—because you're not pressing that spray gun—that water heats up very quickly and it's going to cause damage to your pump. You're either going to get a blown-out pressure relief valve; it's going to blow the pump all together.
Either way, it's going to cost a little extra money to get that going, so when you have that pressure washer running, you want to be pressing that trigger on that spray gun. Even with the bypass, I mean, the bypass is going to help you to an extent. Unless you actually got that bypass running through an onboard water tank to supply water to you, you still don't want to play games with that. It's a matter of a minute or two— with a bypass—if you're gonna have problems with that pump.
So again, when that pump is running and that pressure washer is running, pull the trigger. Work with that pressure washer. If you're taking any break at all, if you're gonna take any more than a minute or two, turn the machine off. So I get the question a lot about if you can use different diameter high-pressure hoses with your pressure washer.
The answer is, yes, you really can. It's not the best scenario, but if you really want to go with it, and that's all you have, it's not a problem. As long as they connect together, and you have the right fittings to make the connection. As a rule of thumb though, you really want to have the smaller diameter hose attached to the pump first, and then from there, go to the larger diameter hose and you'll be fine.
Can you repair a leaking pressure washer hose? Short answer: NO. You don't want to mess with it—it's high pressure you're dealing with. It can literally blow up in your face. So it's definitely not recommended.
Replace the hose. After all this great information we've provided for you today, if you're still on the fence, if you're still not sure what you want to look for…
go to www.PressureWashersDirect.com/BEST and you'll find all the recommended pressure washers, all the best accessories—everything else you need to know is going to be right there for you to check out. If you're still not sure, feel free to give us a call.
We're here to help you.