Yes another pressure washer question

[Pook]

So I thought it best placed to ask this question here, its a bit of a minefield I know so bear with me. So I bought a Karcher Foam lance today (cheap I know at only £14 so haven't really went for top quality). Now I have BH Auto Foam to use as I used this out of a pump spray as a pre-wash but wanted to try it as a foam. Ive read the good post on DW regarding how to work out how much concentrate to use in the lance bottle and I have a question: Using the calculation on DW, it took 9L of water to empty my lance bottle of 300ml of water (the lance bottle on my Karcher holds 600ml so I just did half). Multiply that by 0.04 (4% PIR) gives me 360ml. Now that means I need to use it neat in the bottle with no dilution, and even then it would give slightly less than 4%. Does this seem feasible and does anyone have any experience? Most things ive read people generally need to dilute the bottle 50/50 give or take. I then thought i'll just try it - so on the wifes car I used it neat - it did seem quite thick but it ran thinish (like reviews said it would), and this was all fine, but then I looked at the bottle and it had used like 150ml of concentrate for a small hatchback, I did not have to spray it very much so this seemed like a large amount. Total head f**K! Maybe with concentrate in the bottle as opposed to water, the pressure washer sucks more out I don't know. Im just confused now. My biggest concern is just using it neat may be way way too strong and I end up doing some damage. Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[Jassyo06]

So I thought it best placed to ask this question here, its a bit of a minefield I know so bear with me. So I bought a Karcher Foam lance today (cheap I know at only £14 so haven't really went for top quality). Now I have BH Auto Foam to use as I used this out of a pump spray as a pre-wash but wanted to try it as a foam. Ive read the good post on DW regarding how to work out how much concentrate to use in the lance bottle and I have a question: Using the calculation on DW, it took 9L of water to empty my lance bottle of 300ml of water (the lance bottle on my Karcher holds 600ml so I just did half). Multiply that by 0.04 (4% PIR) gives me 360ml. Now that means I need to use it neat in the bottle with no dilution, and even then it would give slightly less than 4%. Does this seem feasible and does anyone have any experience? Most things ive read people generally need to dilute the bottle 50/50 give or take. I then thought i'll just try it - so on the wifes car I used it neat - it did seem quite thick but it ran thinish (like reviews said it would), and this was all fine, but then I looked at the bottle and it had used like 150ml of concentrate for a small hatchback, I did not have to spray it very much so this seemed like a large amount. Total head f**K! Maybe with concentrate in the bottle as opposed to water, the pressure washer sucks more out I don't know. Im just confused now. My biggest concern is just using it neat may be way way too strong and I end up doing some damage. Any help greatly appreciated.

l always do 1:4 200 mls : 800 mls water in a 1 litre bottle,so put 125 mls of product in your 600 ml bottle....but this dilution ratio is non specific because it all depends on how much dirt is on your car

Go buy a good snow foam lance it will save you money in the long run as you'll use less product...ie a good lance will foam up far better ergo it will dwell longer on your car and clean far better for the of sake £20,the Karcher is guff in comparison to a proper budget lance,l know because l had a guff Karcher lance myself

 

[Pook]

l always do 1:4 200 mls : 800 mls water in a 1 litre bottle,so put 125 mls of product in your 600 ml bottle....but this dilution ratio is non specific because it all depends on how much dirt is on your car

Go buy a good snow foam lance it will save you money in the long run as you'll use less product...ie a good lance will foam up far better ergo it will dwell longer on your car and clean far better for the of sake £20,the Karcher is guff in comparison to a proper budget lance,l know because l had a guff Karcher lance myself

Yea I kinda knew it was low quality, I just didn’t want to commit to higher end as I don’t know yet whether I’ll continue to use foam or revert back to the pump spray so kinda just wanted to experiment. It actually seemed to work well and foamed up well, but I’m wondering is this cos I used it neat in the bottle lol. Like I say when I fired it through with just water in the bottle, it took 9L to go through only 300ml of bottle, which in comparison to others, 9L seems a very large amount for such small amount out of bottle. Most were coming in at about 12L for a whole 1 litre bottle. I might dilute 50/50 and give the missus car a second sweep and see how it looks. I’m worried neat is too much.

 

[Peter123]

People tend to overthink this! If you purchase a good quality snow foam bottle and lance (https://shop.autofinesse.co.uk/wash...ckk6h1O_sSczM_991zoVIS9oMMbbIWdhoCtQoQAvD_BwE) , a good guide is to put around 1 to 1/2 inches of concentrate into the container and top it up with water and then use it.

 

[Bristle Hound]

I have a 2 year old female cocker spaniel

@q5man - Pic's plez
(Apologies for going off topic)

 

[Peter Huggon]

I’ve been planning an upgrade to my cheap 15+ year Karcher which has finally died also but have been worrying about whether it is worth it. One thing I noticed is that when we moved house the performance also changed ... I think we have lower water pressure now plus maybe my outside tap is a smaller connection and I now think that this was limiting the ability of the washer to produce the required flow/pressure. If I do buy a new washer will this perform any better?

 

[scotty76]

I’ve been planning an upgrade to my cheap 15+ year Karcher which has finally died also but have been worrying about whether it is worth it. One thing I noticed is that when we moved house the performance also changed ... I think we have lower water pressure now plus maybe my outside tap is a smaller connection and I now think that this was limiting the ability of the washer to produce the required flow/pressure. If I do buy a new washer will this perform any better?

Not sure. But if it helps most Karchers can draw from a water butt so obviously the pressure of that isn't high.

 

[Peter Huggon]

Not sure. But if it helps most Karchers can draw from a water butt so obviously the pressure of that isn't high.

That’s true Scotty76 ... I guess I was thinking a water butt is a fairly unlimited supply if you put a big enough connection in, but as you note, it will still be a lower pressure than the mains. Maybe my hose pipe is twisted too.