Water wash gun

Currently reading:
Water wash gun

Joined
Oct 1, 2017
Messages
7,228
Points
2,256
Location
Edinburgh Scotland
Ok, here's the first of the two threads I promised in my thread about jacking and supporting vehicles.

When we bought Becky (our 2010 Panda Dynamic Eco) a couple of years ago I learned, from this forum, about their liking for rear axles corroding. Right away I thought, Well Becky's doesn't look too bad, I'd better do something about protecting it. Then I did nothing! Some time before Christmas I was in Machine Mart buying grinder discs and other stuff when I remembered reading about the Clarke Water Wash Gun:

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-cwg2-water-wash-gun/

I liked the look of it despite having read some pretty derogatory reviews about it. Well, I thought, I'm only going to wash the dirt off the axle and then coat it with something (maybe waxoyl, maybe chain saw oil, don't really know yet) so this has got to be better than a hose? I'd really like a pressure washer but don't want to buy a "cheapie" and can't justify a quality (Kranzle) one. Anyway I bought one although I did wonder if something so cheap could really work. Then it lay about on my workbench until today. Here's the actual one I bought:

P1090092.JPG

Connected up my large bore air hose and water hose (standard connectors just snapped on)

P1090068.JPG

Then turned on the water tap. Oh, that's not good, just a dribble of water. (We have good pressure, around 6 to 8 bar most days being as how we are almost at sea level). I had connected the air hose direct to the air receiver via my large bore air hose so it was at 125psi. Pulled the trigger and a very impressive jet thundered out the nozzle. unfortunately it contained so little water that it had no force (rice pudding skin comes to mind!). Well, looks like the reviews I read were right I thought to myself. Trouble is it's just not getting enough water. Wonder if I can bore out the water jet? Then - stupid me - I noticed a little plus and minus mark on the black fitting holding the nozzle on. OOOH! thought I. Yes, you've guessed it, It was set at minimum! I screwed it round towards "plus" for about two turns - till it stopped - and tried again. Now that's better, lots of water now, still less impressive than my ordinary garden hose though?

P1090065.JPG

Ah well lets pull the trigger then

P1090066.JPG

Wow! Now that's what I thought it should be like! Wonder what it would do to my dirty slabs. I wasn't expecting it to clean like a pressure washer but just look at this:

P1090067.JPG

Pretty good eh? Not quite in the pressure washer league but for just over a tenner I think that's fantastic and is certainly going to do a really good job of cleaning up Becky's back axle. Probably ought to cut the pressure back to the recommended 90 psi though? Damn it, now I really don't have any excuse for not getting stuck in have I? Unless, maybe I should wait for the warmer weather?

The only other comment I would make is it's quite "air hungry". I have a 3hp rated at 14cu ft (so probably about 9 fad) on a 90 litre receiver. It cleaned the bit shown in the picture without cutting the compressor back in but was probably near to doing so.
 
The only other comment I would make is it's quite "air hungry". I have a 3hp rated at 14cu ft (so probably about 9 fad) on a 90 litre receiver. It cleaned the bit shown in the picture without cutting the compressor back in but was probably near to doing so.

I would have to check but my compressor is I think around the 2 to 3 hp mark and a 10ltr receiver. I have used in on air impact guns so the initial 90PSI and surge from the 10L tank can shift those troublesome items however volume is the killer and it soon runs out of puff. Don't know the rated cu. I bought it some 30+ years ago to do a spray paint job with a low demand suction paint gun and to be used in more mundane tasks like air jet cleaning and tyre inflation. Anything else is a bonus.

Often people see and buy compressors without really understanding the metrics of what is on offer verses what is/will be required.

Coming back to the point of your post about the Water Wash Gun then for small area, detailed/fine control etc. then this is a brilliant solution for those delicate cleaning jobs in difficult access areas where your jet wash is a non starter.

Thanks for the heads up.
 
Often people see and buy compressors without really understanding the metrics of what is on offer verses what is/will be required.
Yup. There's a lot of ignorance/lack of awareness about compressors. My preference is for a nice, as big as I can afford, slow running, belt driven jobbie. generally a compressor like this will be relatively quiet running and have an excellent duty cycle when compared to a similar direct drive (motor and pump in one unit). I recently saw a very interesting sight at M.M. whilst waiting at the counter. A chap came in with a badly burnt out small direct drive compressor unit - actually leaking oil on the floor. When he departed I made some comment and the sales chap told me that was the second one he'd replaced for the chap. He commented that the fellow was almost certainly running something with high demand on it so that the motor was running almost continuously and these small "hobby orientated" machines just couldn't do that. He predicted that the fellow would blow that one up within the week and this time he was inclined not to give him another.

This is the unit I have now, it's the Wolf Dakota 3hp 14cfm on a 90 litre reciever. The newest version is coloured blue but is the same compressor.

P1050752.JPG

Does everything I want it to, Both my air impact wrenches, air hammer, suction paint spray gun (not used often now cellulose is so difficult to get) chassis wax injection gun, etc.

Before that I had a tiny compressor - I would guess maybe 2 or 3 cfm but on a nice big tank.

P1050805.JPG

It worked quite well in short bursts but took about 10 minutes to then refill the tank. Very annoying when spraying!
 
Mrs J is watching Eastenders so to save me from topping myself I've been reviewing some of the stuff I've posted lately and I got to thinking about this water wash gun and the poor reviews I read.

They don't seem to bear out my experience and it occurs to me that, as with all things involving fluids, it's all about volume? Remember how I was so disappointed with my initial try out, before I turned up the water control? - should have read the instructions shouldn't I - Well I got to thinking about this and, now having read the instructions - somewhat belatedly - Where it says the gun can siphon from a drum/tank: https://www.clarketooling.co.uk/product/clarke-cwg2-water-wash-gun/ Well, without having tried this but having seen how poor it was with the water supply turned well down, I would guess that to get the sort of result I got with the water turned right up you are going to need a good supply at good pressure. I must try it siphoning out of a bucket, just out of interest as I'll probably never use it this way.
 
Hi Jock,

it'll be interesting to see how your water wash gun performs if you connect it to a bucket of water.

Here's my experience of mains water fed vs container fed and pressure washing.

I got an electrically powered pressure washer from Lidl a few years ago.
I live in a rural area, the mains water pressure varies quite a bit, but it's never high, certainly never in the 6-8 bar range. Only on the best days can I use my pressure washer, otherwise it's use a garden hose or wait 'till another day.
Iirc my pressure washer pumps c. 6 litres/min.

On the days when the water pressure is low, the pressure washer starts making a strange noise, a type of surging sound (possibly 'cavitation'?) and hardly works. The manual says to check the inlet screen to the pump isn't blocked - it isn't, I've even tried removing it to avoid any slight restriction. But if I fill a container (I use a large garden 'Trug' = 45 litres), leave the garden hose running into it, and use a suction hose from the Trug to the pressure washer, it works fine. However the flow from the garden hose cannot replenish the Trug as fast as the water is being drawn off, so I have to stop at intervals.

It would appear that the water in the garden hose can't be rushed or 'sucked out' faster, it will only come out at a certain rate which depends on the water pressure supplying the hose minus the losses due to the hose itself.

Regards,

Al.
 
it'll be interesting to see how your water wash gun performs if you connect it to a bucket of water.

I'm really interested my self to see how this works Al. Very busy looking after grand children just now and now my younger boy's Astra has failed MOT on emissions and rear shocks (the shocks don't surprise me as he uses it for carrying all his work tools, but last time I drove it, it ran well so the emissions thing must have happened very recently). The garage plugged in a scanner and told him there's a coil problem (Vauxhall coil packs don't seem all that reliable, it's "eaten" 2 so far but we have had it a long time) and the lambda is reading permanently high (rich). I'm guessing that if the coil is causing misfiring that may be the source of the high lambda reading so I think we'll start with that. Just hope the Cat and/or O2 sensor/s aren't "goosed" too!

Once I've sorted all this out I'll make up a wee siphon hose and try the gun out with a bucket of water. I'll post on here when I have.
 
I'm really interested my self to see how this works Al. Very busy looking after grand children just now and now my younger boy's Astra has failed MOT on emissions and rear shocks (the shocks don't surprise me as he uses it for carrying all his work tools, but last time I drove it, it ran well so the emissions thing must have happened very recently). The garage plugged in a scanner and told him there's a coil problem (Vauxhall coil packs don't seem all that reliable, it's "eaten" 2 so far but we have had it a long time) and the lambda is reading permanently high (rich). I'm guessing that if the coil is causing misfiring that may be the source of the high lambda reading so I think we'll start with that. Just hope the Cat and/or O2 sensor/s aren't "goosed" too!

Once I've sorted all this out I'll make up a wee siphon hose and try the gun out with a bucket of water. I'll post on here when I have.

Well for once things are turning out pretty well. We're not needed for the grandchildren today, not that we think of that as a chore, we just love every minute of being with them.

Also, before I could get out to pick up the car - remember he's way out in Midlothian, the chap who owns the small garage out at my boy's, where the car is now lying, is needing his works van wrapped so he's done a swap with my boy! He'll fix the car and my boy will wrap his van! Sorted, I hope. Think he'll have to pay for parts but I'd need to buy those anyway.

So, today I've been messing about with the water gun and things turned out pretty much as I expected.

I started off connecting it up through my pressure regulator/trap. So about 50 ft of 1/2" (13mm) bore hose to the regulator and then about 16 ft of 3/8" (10mm) bore rubber hose to the gun. regulator set to 90 psi with the trigger pulled. I then found some standard 1/2" bore garden hose just under 4 ft long and fitted a quick connector to the end - to act as the siphon pickup and filled a bucket with water.

P1090106.JPG


With the siphon hose in the bucket I pulled the trigger and --- well, pretty much I got a Scotch Mist! impressive "windy" noises but not a anything of much use

P1090108.JPG


I turned it on the slabs but it didn't really even "tickle" them. The cleaned rectangle on the right was done with the garden hose connected - see PS at the end of the piece.

P1090107.JPG

Then, just in case turning the air down to 90 psi - remember when I tried it the other day I was running it through just the 1/2" hose with no regulator in the system at the receiver pressure of 125 psi - I coupled it up to the mains garden tap again and pulled the trigger. Now that's more like it.

P1090104.JPG

But how will it work on the slabs? will the lower pressure mean it looses potency?

P1090105.JPG

Great! it seems to work just as well as it did on the higher pressure! So if we look at this

P1090111.JPG

The cleaned rectangle was done with the water supplied via the tap and the bit to it's right was "attacked" with the siphoned water supply. The conclusion has to be that unless you can run this with a good flow of mains water it's pretty wimpy. But, get enough water going through it and it becomes quite a potent piece of kit. And yes I did check the siphon hose wasn't collapsing.

PS. - Just in case any of you eagle eyed guys out there spot it, I actually did the high flow test first but had started writing the text before I sorted out the pictures so it has come out the other way round. Don't worry about it, it makes no difference to the results.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top