Reccomendations for washing equipment. hose, pressure washer, etc.

[gaziCL9]

Just moved into a new house and am looking to pick up some equipment, primarily for washing my car. Browsing through home depot's site and google there are so many choices and I'm not familiar with many brands/types of equipment. I want to spend as little money as possible. After all I am a poor college student.

I'm looking to buy:

• Garden Hose --considering buying one of those clothlike hoses that can easily be put away or reeled
• Reel for hose --perhaps one of those self wind reels that uses water pressure. buying one of the automatic ones would eliminate the need for a soft garden hose
• Pressure Washer --primarily just for washing my car
• Foam Sprayer (?) --not familiar with these but they look pretty convenient for a quick wash or winter washing. i'm not sure it this is simple an attachment for a hose, or whether this can attach to the pressure washer

Any help is appreciated.

[Jscort98]

I use a normal green/grey hose fore washing and but you have to reel it up by hand. Haven't heard about the automatic ones but it sounds cool. I don't have any experience with pressure washers but if you want a foam cannon which creates lots of thick suds a pressure washer is required. A foam gun can be used with a hose and it will do a pretty decent job. Search through the forums for "foam gun" and "foam cannon" for more info.

[MBenz]

Well the sky is kinda the limit here when i comes to how much you can spend on this stuff. A quality economical washing setup would be a goodyear hose, An adjustable nelson nossel
, and a wall mounted reel that you just loop the hose over. I've never used a foam gun or cannon but they sound cool.

Pressure washers open up a whole new can of worms. They are great for washing cars. Most of the home depot/lowes ones are crap. They tend to leak and usually don't last long. I have a Jordan pressure washer (made by a company here is Colorado) and i have used the bloody piss out of it for the last 5 years and it still works perfectly. It was not cheap. I bought an electric one from home depot to use to wash of the docks at the lake and it was done within 6 weeks. When it comes to equipment, you get what you pay for.

[todd@bsaw]

Decide on a pressure washer first, then pick the rest. Also, are you going to be using hot or cold water in the hose? Find out what temp. your water heater is set at, because most hoses have a temp. rating. Running very hot water through a cheap hose will only cause it to bubble and burst after use.

[Accumulator]

Originally Posted by gaziCL9

Just moved into a new house and am looking to pick up some equipment, primarily for washing my car...

Congrats on the new digs!

I'm looking to buy:
Garden Hose --considering buying one of those clothlike hoses that can easily be put away or reeled..

I tried some of those (high-buck ones too) and I hated them, they kinked much worse than the conventional rubber ones and were very awkward/unnatural ergonomically; I sent mine back. I'd go with a conventional Gilmour/Flexogen or Swan industrial-strength hose, or even a Craftsman one.

Reel for hose --perhaps one of those self wind reels that uses water pressure. buying one of the automatic ones would eliminate the need for a soft garden hose..

A good reel is one thing (give some though to how you'd mount a wall-mounted one, the hose/etc. is *heavy*) but I'd avoid the gimmicky "self-wind" ones. I'd bet on those not working as well as advertised, at least not for long.

Pressure Washer --primarily just for washing my car..

As noted, get a good one. There are some threads that explain what to look for (which type of pump, etc.). My Karchers never lasted long, just a little while past the warranty period.

Foam Sprayer (?) --not familiar with these but they look pretty convenient for a quick wash or winter washing. i'm not sure it this is simple an attachment for a hose, or whether this can attach to the pressure washer

I *never* wash without my Gilmour foamgun, which hooks onto the regular hose. The foam cannon units for pressure washers are used in a different manner, so you might want to consider how you plan to do your washes.


Also, give some thought to your water quality; I run multiple filters, a softener, and I just got a deionizer setup for my final rinse...and I have municipal water that some people would think is OK to begin with.