Hose Lengths

S

Sopowerclean

New member
My question is how much hose do most people use for pressure washers? (high pressure hose) I bought a new truck that is a F 350 4 door long bed and i cant back into as many driveways as i could with my F 150 shortbed. I have to leave truck on street now and could at times need up to 400 feet of hose to reach backside of some houses. is this going to be a problem? I have a Tuff Skid 5.2 gpm 3000 psi mounted on a 16ft open ttrailer. i still have my portable cold water unit i could use in extreme cases. thanks
 
This would depend on the type of unloader you have. I have the flow type and have been told not to run more than 300 ft of hose.
You will lose some flow and pressure in longer hose runs, I have been told 100 psi per 100 ft of hose. Never checked on it though.
I use a roll a tape, so I can measure exactly how much hose I need to get to the farthest point and not pull extra hose for no purpose.
 
thing's to think about

When useing hot water all the hose should be unrolled to make it last the longest.
At 400 ft your downstreamer will need to be moved closer to the wand to work.
You will get reduced pressure because of water friction inside the pressure line.
Buy a real good hose reel if your going to put 400 ft on it. That's going to be heavy.
The water temp will be less at the end of a 400 ft run also.
 
I run 250' and that is almost always enough.........even if on the street. As was said above, the big problem I could see if maybe a downstream injector wouldnt work.........but the pressure drop should be no big deal.

I also drive a F-250, extended cab, with an 8' bed........and tow a 16' trailer...........so I know what you mean about driveways.........however, you just need some practice with it. You'd be amazed at some of the driveway's I've backed that whole rig up..........you just need to get used to it.

A guy that worked for me last year told me I should quit pressure washing and teach people how to drive trailers :)
 
This link will show you the friction pressure loss in hoses of different diameter

http://www.arnorthamerica.com/hosefriction.html

Regardless of the unloader in place, runs of hose greater than 250' should have at least one pulsation dampener placed as close to the coil as possible to protect it from pressure spikes. At the end of a long run you can send a significant spike back to the coil before it ever reaches the unloader. This may cause the coil to expand slightly in response to the pressure which will stress welds or fatigue the pipe. Longer runs mat best be served by having two dampeners. Cat makes one you can find here

http://www.catpumps.com/select/accessdetail.cfm?AccessID=67&link=1

General also makes them as well

http://generalpump.com/dMisc.asp

Hope this helps? Cheers
 
We operate with 150'-175' power hose attached to the hose reel and various quick-coupled lengths (50',25' 10) if the need arises. Very seldom do we need more than 175' while doing an average size house with access to their driveway. Besides, who wants to drag any more hose than they have to?
 
You need to listen to what Michael says about the pulsation Dampener.
I had a machine running with 200 feet of hose. I was pulling on the hose, trying to get the last couple of inches out of it. The pressure spiked, lifted all 250 lbs. of meoff of hte ground, and threw me ten feet. I had a bruise that ran from my wrist to my shoulder, that lasted for abou 4 weeks.

Scott
 
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