We have a local company that formulates and retails everything from grease and oil to aerosol lube. They offer a degreaser that is an industrial soap, but can be mixed in a ratio with diesel for extra hit. It worked really well but we are rarely over that way and I remember it was pretty expensive at retail. I was just curious if you guys have found much that does well without extreme pressure washing? I don't like pushing water into everything so we usually use just a residential type washer.. Well, I think we have a 5ksi gasser but that's it. Like to find more available products if they are out there.
If it has diesel in it, you need to be sure you can collect it all. You can just let it run down the drain.
Purple Power.
Have really good results with the lemon Simple Green.
Make my own Gunk which is brake clean, paraffin or jet fuel and diesel. The water based concentrates can cause damage to certain metals stainless whatever if left on and they don't work nearly as well.
Purple Blaster is the preferred degreaser in my area. And it’s a lot more effective mixed with water than pure.
That keeps the weeds down in the yard . . .
Diesel bad choice. Kerosene better. An interesting cleaner is LA's totally awesome.
Gunk has diesel in it a small amount maybe 5% and kerosene which is jet fuel or parrafin another small about. The major ingredient is brake clean. So it's not like using full diesel it just helps as a surfactant vs the dry brake clean. Gunk is the best cleaner i have used so made a similar version of it because it's expensive never had any luck with the purple power concentrate or other water based cleaners and they attack metals.
Louisiana's Totally Awesome works well. Kind of expensive though
Caustic soda hot through my pressure washer. Works great. Wear glasses and a rubber suit in the driveway. I have a chemical injector and have calibrated it to the % concentration desired so only clean water going through the pump and coil.
Zep orange degreaser, doesn't hurt aluminum bits like purple and works great at full strength for removing carbon buildup from egr valves and similar parts. A turbo nozzle sized for the pressure washer you're using really improves things too, hot or cold.
Curious if a wet sandblaster with a pressure washer would be good for stripping paint off equipment? Can you add something to the water to prevent rusting? I gravity feed my pressure washer from a water truck so it's easy to add soap or something else.
I have one of those attachments and it does work but not really fast. No warpage I've noticed on blasted sheet metal, but unless you have a 3500psi washer it will take a long time to get much done.
Yes they make a product called hold tite it's a concentrate to stop flash rust. I have also read but never tried citric acid as a flash rust inhibitor. I have a vapor blaster it's a Geoblaster 400 same as the new Ecoquip Elite. It's better than a dustless blaster different design the tank is pressurized with a pump vs the DB. I run it off a 750 compressor bought it for the used equipment I get at auction for myself and it's very messy to run you get soaked. It does work am using garnet but it's a lot of work and not that fast A pressure washer with media injection would work but take forever would be good for blasting small parts.
I ended up just trying some of that citrus HD degreaser by ZEP. I probably could have pizzed on it and got more grease off. 100% worthless but I just didn't want to damage anything just yet with cleaners. i really think I just need to get a Hotsie. let the heat do more work than pressure. I'm not a guy that wants to try to use 20ksi in a pressure washer. But at least I can find the machine now...
I haven't found one that lasts. Probably ok with the home jobber 120v units though.
I have a Landa Hot washer they are a pain in the ass like a Hotsy but super hot water is the only thing that melts off old grease and oil. Sometimes a Gunk type degreaser helps it also and is needed. Like I mentioned I make my own have tried every type of water based degreasers concentrates from Walmart, Sams Club parts stores citrus ones whatever they evaporate too quick vs the Gunk that soaks the grease oil doesn't evaporate as easy why it works better needs to soak
Mine too is a Landa. Diesel fired and works very well. Many don't realize how much better very hot water works. Some times I cut the water flow back and allow the washer to make steam and then get the area hot followed with the high pressure hot water and the grease will go away. This is usually the case with trucks, or equipment that has been greased but not washed over several years. The old grease and caked dirt is like a brick that has been glued on. I've had several of those turbo nozzles and they do well but as mentioned don't hold up very long.
The turbo nozzles work good but can't handle very hot water ceramic bearing. I bought a AR Annarovi I think turbo nozzle more expensive don't use it with hot water and it's lasted a long time vs the cheaper ones at Home Depot Walmart. Mines an older Landa 3500 psi issues I have gotta bleed burner pump after it's been sitting and get debris in the nozzle tips plugging up. I have heard that you can back off unloader pressure valve and use as steam cleaner tried it but get clogged tips as the temp is all over in mine gets very hot maybe I need to use a soap tip or something.
I purchased five in total of the Landa machines for the shops. Good support in those days and was friends with a guy when starting an industrial supplies distributorship. I found 4gpm, and 2000psi is a very good balance that doesn't wear the operator out and offers a good service life. 3000psi and above in an auto body shop type atmosphere was too easy to cut into plastic parts and took a lot out of the guy pushing the pressure gun. Even still 2000psi is too much in the retail car wash operations..... If you have a PWHS series of machine the pressure reducing valve is just inside and opposite the burner motor. Never have had any problems with mine with either clogging, or burner. I always allow coil cooldown after use by running cold water through for a couple of minutes and run caustic soda through the coil every fall circulated through my aqueous parts washer cabinet. Degreasing larger equipment and such outside I tend to use the chemical injector and the caustic allowing it to dwell then rinsing hot as it speeds drying and lessens flash rusting. Diesel fuel put through a bug sprayer put directly where you want to clean works pretty well also. So does oven cleaner which is basically caustic soda with a thickener.
Yeah that's what PWHS I have from an auto body shop actually with a 4000psi 4.2 gpm Landa pump. Yeah it can damage paint if you get too close. I always let it cool after using the heat. Never tried running caustic soda in it I'll give it a shot.
That washer should have a General tri plex plunger pump and 6hp Baldor electric motor. The best there was IMO.
So far, as popularity goes, When I was working for a chemical distributor, Super Clean was the sales leader in our territory. Drums and totes. Decent product & pricing. Walmart is the largest distributor of Super Clean selling most of it in retail packaging.
Purple zep from tractor supply 50 bucks for 5 gallon works wanders it will dull paint beware full if that's a concern.
It seems theres a lot of good ways to get the greasy muck off our machines . I use my Hotsy and that purple degreaser sometimes. When it comes to the run off does anyone have any simple ideas to contain and maybe treat any of it? I dont have a wash bay with drainage and settling pit but my yard drains into a couple of catch basins i fabbed out of 18" pipe and a 3 chamber oil separator tank then off to the roadside drainage ditch. I spread a big chunk of filter cloth under the machine before i start which catches lumps of grease dirt and paint chunks . Even this seems overkill to a guy who came from days when out waste oil was saving for the summer to spread on roads as dust control,but things are getting fussy in todays world.
Yeah, it’s getting very difficult to wash in some jurisdictions. In Bethel, we have to wash in a containment boom. Then, let the water eventually evaporate. Shovel the debris into the dumpster. Thus, not much washing gets done. In a certain Idaho City, private industry can’t wash without a reclamation system in place. But, the State IDDoT and university can storm drain it.
Unfortunately when there's a lot of caked on/dried gunk there's no avoidance of mechanical cleaning, scraping, scrubbing, chiseling. They're a consumable if you do any serious washing. One thing that we found helps the life of em is purge the air out of hoses and guns, especially on longer hose runs then put the turbo on.
I read somewhere here on the forum about Citrol by Schaeffer Manufacturing. It's expensive but it is my "go-to" when I need to get something really clean. I only purchase this by the gallon, not the aerosol can. My primary cheap stuff is usually Sams Club degreaser. Nothing works really well unless you have hot-hot water or steam.