Big Guy & 5.5 GPm

In my opinion 5.5 gpm is not effecient at all for a surface cleaner of that size(big guy). 24" is the largest I would go but for effeciency 20" would be the best for 5.5 gpm.

We run 8 gpm with 24" surface cleaner. It will clean as fast as you can walk, new accounts included.

There are guys on these boards that run the big guy with 5.5 machines only because they don't realize how much faster they could clean with a larger machine or smaller surface cleaner.

If you don't own an 8 gpm machine or larger you prolly won't understand how much more cleaning you can do versus a 5.5 or smaller.

Answer to original question: Yes it will work but not very well.
 
Wesley Teston said:
In my opinion 5.5 gpm is not effecient at all for a surface cleaner of that size(big guy). 24" is the largest I would go but for effeciency 20" would be the best for 5.5 gpm.

We run 8 gpm with 24" surface cleaner. It will clean as fast as you can walk, new accounts included.

There are guys on these boards that run the big guy with 5.5 machines only because they don't realize how much faster they could clean with a larger machine or smaller surface cleaner.

If you don't own an 8 gpm machine or larger you prolly won't understand how much more cleaning you can do versus a 5.5 or smaller.

Answer to original question: Yes it will work but not very well.
Click to expand...


ours are maintenance contracts and we can run thru them quickly, if I were doing heavily soiled areas all the time I would say go smaller when using 5.5 GPM unit, but for what we do it works very well and w/o the burden of 8 gpm machines (we run 3 - 5.5's) WE DO HAVE SEVERAL 20 IN SURFACES FOR SUCH APPLICATIONS, we are not limited to one surface cleaner, we have many to choose from depending on what we are cleaning
 
There are so many factors involved that one 5.5gpm machine will work better than another 5.5gpm machine.

Things like size of hose from unit to hose reel, hose from reel to surface cleaner, hose from swivel to plug/coupler/gun on surface cleaner, amount of bends (90's), etc.... also the common psi on the 5.5gpm machine is 3500 where mine is only 3000psi so that is another factor to consider.

When I first got the Big Guy it cleaned ok but I had earlier traded in a Steel Eagle 30" cleaner for the 24" and the 24" cleaned faster and I would be able to walk faster with the 24" than I could with the 30".

The Big Guy was the same situation, It would work but I could not walk that fast, no where as fast as I could with the 24". The reason I bought the Big Guy was because there are a few local companies running them and it looked like they were moving fast.

I went behind some of the local guys and talked to them and found out some very interesting things like tons of swirls all over the place, their machines were 4gpm 4000psi cold or hot water, etc....

There was more to meet the eye besides how fast they appeared to be moving from a distance.

I thought that if I can work faster with a 24" compared to a 30" then I could go faster with a Classic 19" so I got one and have been very happy since. It cleaned faster than the 24", so fast it cut around 30 minutes off a commercial location I do every 2 months removing sealer, tire marks, etc...

It really depends on a lot of factors besides the gpm, psi, hose size, restrictions (bends), etc....

When I got the 8gpm machine, I can go very fast with the Big Guy, faster than I can go with the 24" with the 5.5gpm machine. I will be getting a hot box later next year so I can do commercial work even faster running 2 hot water rigs.

Just some info to think about.





________________
Superior Power Washing<O:p</O:p
Chris Chappell<O:p</O:p
Cleaning Concrete in Corpus Christi Texas
 
Wow, alot of replies since the houston hobby layover, BTW Hobby Sucks.

Chris I will be calling you sometime this coming week as well as you Russ. I am a little split on the route to take at this time. I am unsure on which way to go as of now. Would you get 2 classics or 1 classic and one more big guy?
 
I forgot to add....

Pretty sure I was using around 100-150 feet of hose with the big guy.

We use a rotoblaster scrubber that I bought at least 5 years ago now. I have only replaced the skirt one time and the tips maybe once a year, that is how little flatwork we do. It does get greased when I head up to the shop for monthly maintenance.

For what it's worth it cleans like a madman. I lay down some mix, and can pretty much walk at full speed with it with zero zebra's. That is mold and dirt not grease and grime.
 
I would think if your cleaning just mold and dirt 5.5 would run the big guy well however when your dealing with grease and other lubricants I would think that you would have to go really slow. On one of the recent stations we cleaned, Kevin was going extremely slow to prevent striping. However this was aided with a really hot mix of caustic after the store was closed and a good amount of dwell time while we were working
 
All of the machines I have are 4k-4gpm and I've got several suface cleaners. 2-20in a 16in and a big guy. I use the big guy most of the time and even with the 4gpm machines I have no problems. I use #2 tips on mine and get pretty good rpms with no striping.I took off the 2.5 tips that come with it as soon as I got it. However I do have to move a little bit slower with the big guy then I do with the 20 or 16in. A bigger machine with more gpm's is in my future but I've got to wait a bit seeing as how I just had to spend a bunch on a new trailer that I was hoping would wait a few more months.
 
It really depends on you and what you are going to do with the surface cleaner.

If it was me, I would go and find someone that has either or both and go help them on a few jobs to see how the surface cleaners work with your machine and that will tell you or give you more ideas.

No matter what anyone here tells you, it is up to you to decide and benefit or suffer.

Each surface cleaner has advantages and disadvantages, you have to try them out and decide which is more beneficial to your business.

I have many different size surface cleaners and each has it's own uses for certain jobs that I do.

Go try them out with someone, I am sure someone would not mind letting you try them out while helping them on a job.
 
Your right Chris. I have a 4 gpm machine w/ a 20" s.c.
To do a small area a 16" would be better/faster obviously. But to do a large area, I ask, would it be better to have the 20" and cover more ground but move slower, or the 16" and run around like a chicken with my head cut off but with a smaller coverage area? Thats all I wanted to try to cipher out. The labor/time/coverage spec about it and what the better trade off is.
Thanks
 
I think that once you had the extra money for a little smaller machine like a 16" machine, you would get it to try it out and use it for the smaller areas or places that had more obstacles.

Unless the 20" can get in everywhere and do most of the work, there would not be a need for the smaller surface cleaner but if there have been jobs where the smaller surface cleaner would have worked better then that is a sign for you to get one so you are more productive all the time.

I put in a bid for a ball park last year but the county either did not have the money or did not want to spend that much. I went with my 20" classic and it would almost work for under the bleachers but the 16" would have worked better but I would have to bend the handles upward some so they would clear the backs of the lower level bleachers.

It would take too long to wand that much concrete but you would still have to wand some like the corners, back walls, and help with the rinsing.

The brands I like best are Steel Eagle and Whisper Wash. They make the best surface cleaners out there in my opinion.

Ask around in your area to see if someone has the size you want to buy and see if you can try it out so you know how it handles and if you think it will help.




_________________
Superior Power Washing<O:p</O:p
Chris Chappell<O:p</O:p
Cleaning Concrete Driveways Sidewalks and Walkways in Corpus Christi Texas
 
One thing to consider is that regardless of size you choose the overlap you will perform is going to be same no matter the size of surfacer. In the end the larger rules out in both effort and time. Some depends on walk size as if your machinery is borderline on matching you can see yourself making an extra pass in order to get the last foot or so. I can tell you that with over 20 years in floor work I would never go back to 20" machinery cmpared to running 27 and 32" machinery. If you regularly maintain 10's of thousand sq. ft. you will know this true. Littel driveways or entryways are a whole other story..
 
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