Regular line pressure through pressure washer acc.

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JHZR2

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This is hopefully an easy/dumb question. For the sake of starting, assume that I DO NOT have an actual pressure washer. I do, but my question is for another reason.

Say all I have is a pressure washer rubber hose, gun, wand and nozzle. If I connected domestic (60 psi?) water up to it, would any practical amount flow? Remember, I'd be hooking domestic supply straight up to the hoses or wand, NOT going through a pressure washer pump.

Of course I won't get a huge, high pressure flow, but that's ok. Will it work at all? I know these things connect with quick connect couplings which may have a lot of pressure drop, plus a pretty small diameter hose.

But if I'm not looking for a ton of pressure, would this work and flow out through a nozzle, even if I modified a nozzle?

Thanks!
 
You will need a much larger opening at the business end!

60 psi is a trickle compared to a real pressure washer.

But the answer is yes, with a properly sized orifice you can shoot water, albeit at very low pressures...
 
I have squeezed the trigger with the pressure washer turned off before, and yes, water flows out. But it's a small, weak stream of water.
 
A pressure washer wand wont put out but a trickle with house pressure. It wont do what you are expecting. They do make similar wands just for this purpose that basically have a tiny little exit spout that bumps the water pressure up a bit for cleaning patios and walkways of leaves and such.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Say all I have is a pressure washer rubber hose, gun, wand and nozzle. If I connected domestic (60 psi?) water up to it, would any practical amount flow?


You'll get a bit of a stream, but it's pretty mediocre. You don't have as much volume as a 5/8 garden hose, and you don't have much pressure to back up the limited volume you do have.
 
Originally Posted By: exranger06
I have squeezed the trigger with the pressure washer turned off before, and yes, water flows out. But it's a small, weak stream of water.


That isn't what I'm asking. A pressure washer pump not operating will have a huge amount of pressure drop and flow restriction. I'm looking for just connecting the line set right up to the hose without the pump system between.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: exranger06
I have squeezed the trigger with the pressure washer turned off before, and yes, water flows out. But it's a small, weak stream of water.


That isn't what I'm asking. A pressure washer pump not operating will have a huge amount of pressure drop and flow restriction. I'm looking for just connecting the line set right up to the hose without the pump system between.


no 60psi only gets so much water through the tiny orifice hole. The pump isnt restriction the hole on the end of the pressure wand is.

you would be lightyears ahead with a regular hose & spray attachment.
 
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I wouldn't listen to the posts of people who haven't tried it. If you wanted speculation, you could speculate yourself.

One problem is that the pressure washer hose fittings are not compatible with garden hose fittings, so it would be tricky to try it.

If you have a "soap" nozzle, it will have a fairly large hole in it and might flow OK. Or you could leave the nozzle out altogether.

So... what are you trying to do?
 
I've tried it, it's not good for much other than rinsing soap off the car. The wand and trigger are nice though but the flow sucks. You're better off getting one made to hook directly to the hose, better flow and a more useable spray pattern.
 
Forgive me for speculating, but I'd imagine it'd be comparable to the "jet" feature on a multi function garden hose attachment. What sort of tip is on the nozzle? 40*, 15* etc.

Do you know your spigot's GPM? The more the better obviously.
 
Originally Posted By: brages
I wouldn't listen to the posts of people who haven't tried it. If you wanted speculation, you could speculate yourself.

One problem is that the pressure washer hose fittings are not compatible with garden hose fittings, so it would be tricky to try it.

If you have a "soap" nozzle, it will have a fairly large hole in it and might flow OK. Or you could leave the nozzle out altogether.

So... what are you trying to do?


Really I'm trying to use a telescoping pressure washer wand to clean second story gutters.

If I have to modify/drill out a nozzle, no big deal, I'd just like to leverage the wand to reach up there without hassling with the pressure washer. So flow is important but I think mechanical agitation is just as important...
 
Where are all of our BITOG college educated engineers that are not collecting food stamps and other government assistance???

Cleaning ability is a combination/balance of pressure AND volume.

Lets see if we can figure this out by the books. Of course there will be many variables. There is a significant pressure loss just having your nozzle discharge 20' above ground level, let alone drops due to nozzle, hose construction, etc..

For academic purposes, lets assume that you can hook up your pressure washer hose directly to the house spigot at 60psi (remove the possible garden hose loss). Assume the spigot can provide 8GPM, so no volume loss there.

Assume you have the largest pressure washer hose - 3/8" i.d. and it is 50'long.

- 60psi inlet pressure.
- 3/8" x 50' hose (double or halve chart readings due to 50' hose, not 100' in charts)


By this chart, at 60psi, the maximum gpm thru a 3/8" 50' hose is 7gpm (3.5 x 2, 5th. line from bottom) Max gpm can only go down.
water-discharge-hose-diagram.png


Now, go to chart No. 1 of this page: https://www.dultmeier.com/pdfs/tech-library/02Water8.pdf Halve everything for 50' hose length.

With a starting pressure of only 60 psi, there is only one direction, DOWN, am I correct? You cannot increase the pressure hose outlet beyond 60lbs.

Looking at chart No. 1 (Dultmeir link), it looks like for a 50', 3/8" hose, you could run about 2gpm at 50psi (halve the 20psi chart line).

I assume that this would be through a 3/8" nozzle hole. Reduce the nozzle hole and maybe the pressure might climb towards 60psi, but there will be less gpm.

Do you think 1 - 2gpm at 50 - 60 psi is going to clean much???? Then, take off the misc. losses such as the 20' height above ground level. etc..

Engineers, show my mistakes. The 3/8" hose (if yours is even that large) is the big loss factor here IMO).
 
Wow, nice charts. This is precisely why I asked a very basic question without any description of use. I didn't ask for an assessment of if/how something would clean. I asked very specifically if there would be flow through the tubing.

Per my initial post, I accepted that there wouldn't be huge flow or high pressure. That's common logic. My interest was more in the system of quick connect couplings and piping in the spray wand triggers, if there is a bunch of pressure limiting/reducing stuff in there which makes the pump necessary. I thought I was asking a pretty straightforward question that I simplified as much as possible.

Furthermore, Nobody has any idea how clean or dirty my gutters are, or what I'm actually trying to do. My gutters are professionally cleaned at least once a year, and visual observations are performed then. All I need to do is help some maple seeds (samaras) through the system with some mechanical and water assist. Coupled with a wifi camera on the telescoping pressure washer pole I can utilize, I can do a ground based observation in real time and clean things up, without having to step foot on a roof.

I was neither asking for a specific pressure or flow rate. I simply asked if any quantity of water would flow (nondescript request, I know), with the caveat at the opening that I wasn't expecting big performance.

So... Thanks for the charts, I understand the potential limitations. How about answer the question asked?
 
The pump, fittings, etc won't make a difference on on the amount of spray/cleaning ability at the low pressure of the garden hose. The spray nozzle can't flow anywhere near the amount the hose can deliver even with some restriction. Keep in mind that a pressure washer cleans by transferring energy. The pressure washer has low flow but high pressure and the high pressure is the energy. Your garden hose has the opposite, high flow low pressure, when you use that tiny nozzle your taking away the energy of high flow so you're left with the low energy of the low pressure.
 
Ya, I'm a bit confused too. Your analogy, tom slick, backs up my statement that cleaning ability is a balance between pressure and flow(gpm).

high pressure/low gpm
low pressure/high gpm
The best is a balance of "adequate" pressure/"adequate" flow to suit the project at hand.

Imagine a thunder storm routing very high flow thru the gutter at very low pressure. JHRZ implies that this is not cleaning out the loose maple seeds (or not?).

If you look at my link, with a 3/8" hose, he could achieve around 4gpm at 10psi.

If thunderstorm volume at low pressure doesn't budge the seeds, how is 4gpm out of a 3/8" hose (with nozzle drilled out to 3/8") going to budge them??? And my example is a best case scenario, without the other misc. losses the system will impose (quick connects, height........at 10-20' height you are going to lose 4 to 9 psi).

My answer to your question is that the flow and/or pressure would be enough to deliver a stream of water into the second story gutter, but not enough to get your job done.

For under $10, you could make a 3/4" PVC pipe assembly to attach to your garden hose that would deliver the maximum flow and pressure possible out of your hose bib. http://www.instructables.com/id/Rain-Gutter-Cleaner/step2/Assembling-the-cleaner/
FX1Z4JTH5EDU31Y.MEDIUM.jpg
 
1) I don't have caked dirt in there that needs high pressure (and ime high flow doesn't help when these situations occur).
2) the use of pvc to reach a second story is a much longer and floppier item than is shown in the picture. It requires at least 1 1/4" pipe as far as possible to retain stiffness, and when that fills with a column of water, it is heavy.
3) I can borrow a 20-ish foot pressure washer wand and use it with no real cost other than some coupling adapter
4)again, the gutters aren't filled with caked in compost with plants growing in it. We just have a ton of maples that drop seeds that I'd like to help along. I don't need thousands of psi or tons of gpm to do that if done systematically.
5) a decent rain will send most of these down anyway, further invalidating the claims of the need for lots of cleaning capability here.
6) I primarily want to inspect for these things bunching at corners in the gutter and at downspout openings and help them out with a bit of prodding/bit of water.

This question really is only as hard as people try to make it. I asked a simple question, I'll assess how it works for my intended use. If I need to do any real cleaning with it, I'll pull the pressure washer out. If I can avoid it, great. If I can modify a $3.89 nozzle from Amazon and use the telescoping rig to easily get to the second story, also great and easy.

This really isn't that hard.
 
Sounds like you have already figured out that you want to do it.

Do you know how you are going to adapt the connector on the pressure washer hose to your garden hose...?
 
Originally Posted By: brages
Sounds like you have already figured out that you want to do it.

Do you know how you are going to adapt the connector on the pressure washer hose to your garden hose...?


It's not that I figured anything out. I asked a simple question before I try something. Like you said earlier, if I wanted speculation, I could speculate myself.

Taking a barbed hose fitting and a hose clamp to the quick connect male end to affix some tubing is just a parts bin pull out. Wire tying the wifi camera on the top of the pole is nothing. Borrowing the telescoping pressure washer pole is nothing.

All I wanted to know is if water at 60 psi would flow through those quick connects at all. Had I heard that the pressure drop was so high or that there was a reducer in there, it would have answered it.
 
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