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bigviclbi

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Looking for a flat surface machine to use on paver patios and driveways. I am Hardscape/landscape company so won’t be full time but I have a lot of customers that request their pavers getting power washed. When we do it with a handheld wand it’s not time efficient. Looking for opinions/models that people have had success with. Thanks.
 
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#6 ·
I have a Milwaukee pressure washer with a Honda GX390 13 HP engine. The washer is rated at 3750 psi & 4 gpm. Which surface cleaner would be recommended for this?

Would the Mi-T-M AW-7020-8003 Rotary Surface Cleaner, 20" be a good choice? Would one with wheels be easier to operate? I would be cleaning a couple thousand square feet of concrete at my house and my brother in law would want to use it on his several thousand square feet of patio, sidewalk & driveway. My pressure washer will not inject soap when high pressure nozzles are use so how is soap applied and what soap is recommended?
 
#8 ·
hdtvluvr said:
I have a Milwaukee pressure washer with a Honda GX390 13 HP engine. The washer is rated at 3750 psi & 4 gpm. Which surface cleaner would be recommended for this?

Would the Mi-T-M AW-7020-8003 Rotary Surface Cleaner, 20" be a good choice? Would one with wheels be easier to operate? I would be cleaning a couple thousand square feet of concrete at my house and my brother in law would want to use it on his several thousand square feet of patio, sidewalk & driveway. My pressure washer will not inject soap when high pressure nozzles are use so how is soap applied and what soap is recommended?
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That or the general hammerhead, 20 would be fine, we have the 18 hammerhead, very good, we also have the 15 Mi-T-M goes on the end of the wand, both have ball bearings and are great. The 15 we use on a 2750/2.8 for decks the 18 we use for cement areas with a 4000/4
 
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#9 ·
Does the ABS cover on the general hammerhead cover a metal dome over the wand? Or is the ABS cover the actual dome? I assume the 18" creates a 16 inch path? I would think a wider path would require more PSI and/or more GPH. I think I'd rather have a faster unit with a slightly smaller path (18" cleaner) than perhaps questionable speed on a 20" cleaner. What are your thoughts? I found the 18" Hammerhead for $330 and free shipping. It is in my price range.
 
#11 ·
hdtvluvr said:
Does the ABS cover on the general hammerhead cover a metal dome over the wand? Or is the ABS cover the actual dome? I assume the 18" creates a 16 inch path? I would think a wider path would require more PSI and/or more GPH. I think I'd rather have a faster unit with a slightly smaller path (18" cleaner) than perhaps questionable speed on a 20" cleaner. What are your thoughts? I found the 18" Hammerhead for $330 and free shipping. It is in my price range.
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It's ABS, and it floats, castors sometimes get caught on cracks and what not, figure 4 inches for every 1 gpm for width, it's not exact but real good. GPM is the guiding point not psi. GPM's give you more cleaning power
 
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#12 ·
hdtvluvr said:
Just wanted to check back in. I decided on the 20" Whirl-A-Way with casters Part #: 85.403.011. I sure hope I made the correct choice but I wanted something where parts would be available for a long time.
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That's great, there is a learning curve, believe me I know. It will go faster as you figure it out.
 
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#13 ·
hal said:
It's ABS, and it floats, castors sometimes get caught on cracks and what not, figure 4 inches for every 1 gpm for width, it's not exact but real good. GPM is the guiding point not psi. GPM's give you more cleaning power
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The swirl away manual says the 85.403.011 is the 85.403.007 just with added wheels. So if a problem I should be able to just remove the wheels. I thought this might be better than getting one without wheels and deciding later I wanted them and not be able to add. I'm not getting younger and read that with wheels it is easier but can have issues as you stated above.

Thanks for all of your comments. I appreciate them.
 
#19 · (Edited)
Youngandfree said:
Did you use any chemicals or just spray water? Chemicals make it work faster.
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No chemicals on the concrete. I didn't want to use bleach (hard to find now) because I thought I'd probably have "spots" where bleach stood longer than elsewhere. We swept it all to keep all of the debris out of the yard. There were lots of tree seeds, leaves, etc on the concrete. Using the surface cleaner was a lot easier than using a wand which I have done once - what a job and it certainly didn't turn out as well as the surface cleaner job. Regarding the time it took, I had to go slower than I thought it would be. Not devastatingly slow but... Took awhile to get the speed down as to not leave streaks. Oh, I also did it in sections and then rinsed the section off along with the area where the runoff went to. Didn't want that dirty stuff sitting and drying in the sun on the unwashed concrete.

An 18" SC may have been faster walking but I couldn't find one with wheels from a company that should be in business long term. I think there was a couple chinese companies but how to get parts would be a problem. I do remember that they did not have grease zerks and I wanted what I bought to be grease-able.

I use bleach and Simple Cherry on the house. Works extremely well but bleach is a little difficult to find right now. For the house, this year I resorted to Pool bleach found at Walmart. Probably pretty old as it seemed weak. I generally use the Chlorox brand and use 4 gallons of bleach with 2 scoops of Simple Cherry downstreamed using my pressure washer with a large 0 deg tip to reduce pressure. Can still reach top of 2nd story. House is vinyl sided.
 
#20 ·
hdtvluvr said:
No chemicals on the concrete. I didn't want to use bleach (hard to find now) because I thought I'd probably have "spots" where bleach stood longer than elsewhere. We swept it all to keep all of the debris out of the yard. There were lots of tree seeds, leaves, etc on the concrete. Using the surface cleaner was a lot easier than using a wand which I have done once - what a job and it certainly didn't turn out as well as the surface cleaner job. Regarding the time it took, I had to go slower than I thought it would be. Not devastatingly slow but... Took awhile to get the speed down as to not leave streaks. Oh, I also did it in sections and then rinsed the section off along with the area where the runoff went to. Didn't want that dirty stuff sitting and drying in the sun on the unwashed concrete.

An 18" SC may have been faster walking but I couldn't find one with wheels from a company that should be in business long term. I think there was a couple chinese companies but how to get parts would be a problem. I do remember that they did not have grease zerks and I wanted what I bought to be grease-able.

I use bleach and Simple Cherry on the house. Works extremely well but bleach is a little difficult to find right now. For the house, this year I resorted to Pool bleach found at Walmart. Probably pretty old as it seemed weak. I generally use the Chlorox brand and use 4 gallons of bleach with 2 scoops of Simple Cherry downstreamed using my pressure washer with a large 0 deg tip to reduce pressure. Can still reach top of 2nd story. House is vinyl sided.
Click to expand...
Lowes sells pool bleach that is 10.5% SH by the gallon. I would have just used the house mix to give it a little something to kill the organic crud.
 
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