just a homeowner seeking advise on my needs

[Dissociative]

ok guys, i have a 2650psi 2.6gp 6.0HP honda KARCHER power washer.

My experience is only the 5-9 times i washed my 10x10 cement patio with the dirt blaster tip i bought from homedepot. It came with the colored tips as well but they don't cut the dirt like the rotary one does. marginal results at best



3-i want to wash some flagstone retainer walls...just your standard IL flagstones cemented together to make a wall, old and dirty. what should i use?

4- is there a way to make this thing work better on washing my truck?..it never seems to get the grime off i mean if i run my finger down the paint after i wash it i still see a clean line and a dirty finder...




i haven't used any real soaps, just what i got a depot. and have no real experience with this...other than i bought the thing and totally know for sure i am not using it right..LOL.



thanks all you guys!! help a brother out....






-----later that day---------



ok guys....i am very impatient and my truck was horrible from a 1700 mile road trip...so i went and found a local pressure washer company to me..these guys sold me 2 5 gallon pails of soaps..

1-sledghammer
2-glisten vehicle wash

they said my machine was sufficent and shoudl do the job just fine with these soaps...

i used the car soap, and although much better than ZEP i was using i feel i must be missing the "touch" to really get the performance i was looking for..

1-soap seems to not go on foamy with black tip, rather just goes on and runs off....as soon as you hit high pressure it foams up a little bit but most has run off truck by then..

2-they said to wash top down but as soon as i start washing top it rinses all soap off middle and lower...???

other than that for 140.00 total did i get hammered over there?...


Chemicals From High PSI LTD

no online ifo for the car wash he sold me...said it has wax in it and won't be extremly hars on paint like others????


· SLUDGEHAMMER - This concentrated cleaner/degreaser tackles every cleaning challenge! It is designed for prespray application and is safe to run through your unit's Chemical Injector.


------even later------
well i washed my truck and my Taurus but i think i used damn near a gallon of this 70 dollar pail of cleaner...seems kinda steep to spend almost 7.00 on soap per car wash..i realize i soaped both cars twice but for 7.00 i could get a drive through wash..

should i be like just barley covering the car with soap?..i wish this black tip i have woudl throw about 50% less water and actually foam a little more when applying it....how do i do that?...

also tried the tip i had that popped in and out and adjusted fan to point but it's a total POS and came apart in my hand...big let down...popped it out for low pressure and it just sent water flying everywhere and was not working at all...it must have brokoe somehow...are these style tips just trash?..

----------days end------

my thoughts are i prolly should have brushed the car/truck?...

any help on this stuff...i knwo its a helluva long one..sorry...

[Roishe Cheng]

I've been detailing cars for a long time. Unless you have a very good coat of base wax, removing dirt using just chemicals alone can be tough. It's a fine line because as bump up the strength of the chemicals, either you start stripping wax or affecting the finish. If you want to use a slightly stronger chemicals to clean the paintwork then you should SEAL the paint first with UPGP (Ultima Paint Guard Plus) or Wolfgang 3.0 paint sealer.

When I foam cannon a car, the foam is so thick that you can't even see the car's color anymore, it's just pure white. Here are some pics of the foam after 3 minutes of dwelling, as you can see the color is starting to show again but it goes on very thick.

Best thing to is to foam cannon the car and using a horsehair wash brush, quickly brush it then just rinse and you're done, apart from wiping or electric leaf blower.

The foam below btw, is from a Karcher 1800 psi electric power washer .







I use DP XTREME FOAM from here:

DP Xtreme Foam Formula High Yield Foaming Auto Shampoo- Foamaster gun car wash

A little goes a long way.

I use a CAMSPRAY FOAM attachment for my PW. You can buy it here:

Cam Spray 527100 - Foamer Attachment

[Mountain View]

I never power wash my vehicles, it doesn't do as good as the ol' bucket and brush technique. It may sound funny but I've found that Johnsons Baby Shampoo gives the best results for a car or truck wash.

[dcoronado]

Roishe,

Man that is serious cling on that foam, I bet those cars come out really nice looking.

[Adrian]

Roishe,
Welcome to TGS.
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