Water tank for Pressure washer

henke

Hi

I am considering buying a pressure washer just for domestic use and cleaning up around the house. However, water pressure is not great in my area and am concerned the tap wont be putting enough water to it. Can anyone recommend some sort of tank that can be filled and connected to a pressure washer that might help? Assuming such a thing exists. Thanks.

bren2002

i use a 100L water butt.
I weigh down the pressure washer input hose inside the butt and use a regualr hose to keep it filled.

Black_Knight

henke wrote: »

Hi

I am considering buying a pressure washer just for domestic use and cleaning up around the house. However, water pressure is not great in my area and am concerned the tap wont be putting enough water to it. Can anyone recommend some sort of tank that can be filled and connected to a pressure washer that might help? Assuming such a thing exists. Thanks.

You can buy pressure washers which draw water from a tank/bucket/barrel. They're more expensive though.

I've pretty low water pressure at my house, but the simple Nilfisk C120 I have works fine with it. Throws the odd hissy fit for a second or 2, but 99% of the time it's perfectly fine.

Turn on your hose full blast, then time (the more accurate the better) how long it takes to fill 1 litre of water (while the hose is going full blast). I can do the same here (in a while) and give you an idea what water pressure I have here vs yours.

henke

Thanks I will do that in a while and reply. The model I was looking at is the Karcher K5 which is 300 in woodies at the moment. Not sure if a model at this range would draw water from a water butt. I know the higher end petrol ones do this. In this case I would assume you would need your water source at an elevated height above the pressure washer.

Black_Knight

henke wrote: »

Thanks I will do that in a while and reply. The model I was looking at is the Karcher K5 which is 300 in woodies at the moment. Not sure if a model at this range would draw water from a water butt. I know the higher end petrol ones do this. In this case I would assume you would need your water source at an elevated height above the pressure washer.

Nope. The likes of the petrol one you mentioned would draw water from a source, no need to have it elevated. They're useful in commercial circumstances where water supply isn't always at the place of work (streets etc).

That karcher, from what I googled, said it uses 500l per hour. Your tap would need to dispense 8.333liters of water in 1 minute. My nilfisk uses 440l per hour, or 7.33 liters of water a minute. Try it out, see what flow rate you have.

Alkers

You can easily get the attachments to connect any power washer to the tap output of a waterbut. You won't have any issues then unless you have a long hose between the waterbut and the pressure washer. It helps if you have the waterbut mounted off the ground

listermint

Any pressure washer can connect to a water butt. Including the c120 listed above. You just drill a hole in the end and fit a tap connection. As long as the butt has water in it...

Audioslaven

Low water pressure is what destroys a washer. Get an IBC tank or a simple round barrel. Let it fill and just use gravity to feed the washer with more pipe outside the barrel than inside the barrel. This is what I do and never an issue. This is better than a bad mains supply

GinSoaked

I have the exact opposite problem. Water pressure is so high it blows all the hosepipe joints if not the hose pipe itself so I have a 220l chemical barrel (used for holding the stuff they use on farms for cleaning) with the top cut off and a half inch tank connector fitted to the bottom. I just put the hose in the top and allow it to trickle fill the barrel once you get going with the pressure washer you can adjust the flow to keep the barrel about two thirds full. The pressure washer is attached to the tank connector at the bottom of the barrel via a quarter turn valve.

henke

Black_Knight wrote: »

You can buy pressure washers which draw water from a tank/bucket/barrel. They're more expensive though.

I've pretty low water pressure at my house, but the simple Nilfisk C120 I have works fine with it. Throws the odd hissy fit for a second or 2, but 99% of the time it's perfectly fine.

Turn on your hose full blast, then time (the more accurate the better) how long it takes to fill 1 litre of water (while the hose is going full blast). I can do the same here (in a while) and give you an idea what water pressure I have here vs yours.

Black_Knight wrote: »

Nope. The likes of the petrol one you mentioned would draw water from a source, no need to have it elevated. They're useful in commercial circumstances where water supply isn't always at the place of work (streets etc).

That karcher, from what I googled, said it uses 500l per hour. Your tap would need to dispense 8.333liters of water in 1 minute. My nilfisk uses 440l per hour, or 7.33 liters of water a minute. Try it out, see what flow rate you have.

Sorry only got around to trying this today. I timed at about 10-11 seconds to fill 1 litre with the hose and tap on full. I think in the example where your machine uses 7.33 litres a minute that would be about 8 seconds for every litre.

So not sure if I have sufficient pressure. A barrell/water but might be a solution.

charlesanto

I find most of the comments and advice here very hard to believe; to suggest there will be higher water pressure from a tank at ground level than mains is almost impossible. Consider the standard domestic water tank (usually in the attic) is fed by mains water the pressure must be higher than a tank sitting at ground level.

Another way to think of it, how would get water from a butt to your tank in the attic

GinSoaked

charlesanto wrote: »

I find most of the comments and advice here very hard to believe; to suggest there will be higher water pressure from a tank at ground level than mains is almost impossible. Consider the standard domestic water tank (usually in the attic) is fed by mains water the pressure must be higher than a tank sitting at ground level.

Another way to think of it, how would get water from a butt to your tank in the attic

You don't need any pressure thats what the pressure washer is for.

The problem for some people is that the flow rate from the tap isn't enough to run a pressure washer so filling a water butt of some kind gives the pressure washer the volume it needs.

charlesanto

GinSoaked wrote: »

You don't need any pressure thats what the pressure washer is for.

The problem for some people is that the flow rate from the tap isn't enough to run a pressure washer so filling a water butt of some kind gives the pressure washer the volume it needs.

Thank you, most are talking about pressure hence my confusion.