Small Pressure Washer?

[ggray]

My marina has its own water supply. RO I think, so the water is good.

However, the pressure/volume is not there to wash the boat effectively. The distribution plumbing is not particularly large.

I'm considering either an electric booster pump (wouldn't use it long as it would impact my dock mates!) or a small pressure washer like this:

http://www.amazon.com/AR-AR118-Elect...r_1_18&sr=8-18

I think this is more pressure that I need so may need to find an appropriate nozzle to do no damage.

I've seen videos on you tube with 12v pumps drawing from buckets to wash cars, but the stream wasn't impressive, but since I do have some pressure, perhaps it's worth experimenting with.

A simple solution (storage could be an issue) would be desired.

If anyone has had a similar situation and found a reasonable solution, I'd appreciate learning from them.

[a64pilot]

I have that pressure washer, it is not too much pressure. Obviously be careful on the bright work.
It's small, compact and cheap and has worked better that I thought it would and the hose connection it comes with is junk, but easy to find a good one at a home supply store.
I've installed two hose bibs, one at each end of the boat I got from Hopcar, intent is to keep the boat cleaned off and not have to rely on shore water.
Pressure is high, but flow is well within what my onboard pump will supply, it doesn't draw all that much power either


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[rwidman]

I used a small electric pressure washer on my boat. It cleaned it well but it damaged the tape striping. The lesson here is, be very careful how you use it on your boat.

[a64pilot]

Crazy as this sounds it's best use seems to be saving water, it's only using water when the trigger is pulled, and even then about 1 gl per min and it's easy to use it in bursts. The pressure seems to require less water flow than just a hose with a sprayer nozzle.
I though it would get bird droppings out of the anti skid, but it doesn't, I use soft scrub and a brush to get that, but it is good for rinsing things off. It is good for getting droppings off of Sunbrella, just be careful of course. Two ft away and I don't think it will hurt anything, get the tip right on something and it could cut through.
It's much weaker than say the ones at a coin car wash, it won't hold a candle to them.


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[ggray]

Thanks!

[HopCar]

Another option is to just fill your water tanks and wash down with your onboard system. You could even supply the pressure washer from your on board system rather than draw directly from your dock system.
As has been noted you can do more work with less water with a pressure washer but it's pretty easy to do damage as well. It will blow caulk out of places you don't want it to and it will raise the grain of any wood you clean with it.

[valhalla360]

Watch out around non-skid strips or vinyl lettering. It's easy for the power washer to lift the edges.


As others have suggested, the actual volume with a pressure washer is pretty minimal though we haven't had good luck keeping one fully operational for long.


PS: I kind of doubt your marina has RO (reverse osmosis) water. It may be low in minerals but unlikely to be RO.

[CGirvan]

Would this work if run with a Honda 2000 gen and fed from the saltwater wash down pump. It would then be usable away from the dock for those of us who tend to stay away from marinas.

[wrwakefield]

I have the same [or very similar?] pressure washer.

I echo everything A64 already told you the unit.

It is also great for cleaning the anchor chain during retrieval after anchoring in sticky ooze mud [for those times when the raw water deck wash down can't remove the thick goo quickly enough...]

It uses far less water than a good pressure nozzle on a hose for the amount of cleaning accomplished. [I never use it with salt water because we have a water maker, but one probably could get away with that if the raw water was well filtered, and the unit flushed and rinsed with fresh afterwards...]

I figure if I get 5 years part time use out of it I will be happy @ US$20/yr.

Cheers!

Bill