When shopping for a pressure washer, you’ll likely come across various categories such as power washers powered by electricity or gas. You can also choose from washers intended for residential use or for use by professional power washing companies. Depending on the kind of surfaces you’ll wash, you can opt for hot water or cold water power washers. To use cold water when pressure cleaning surfaces, you only need to connect the machine to a water source and it creates the necessary pressure for cleaning. However, machines using hot water have an additional feature by which the water is heated to high temperatures before spraying.
How Hot Water Pressure Washers Work
When you turn on the water source and connect it into the pressure washer, it enters an inner heating chamber. This chamber has a heating coil with a circular or helical winding configuration. The coil is made of a steel pipe or tube with a width of half an inch, Schedule 80, and extending up to 200 feet in length. If you’re using a gasoline, propane, or diesel oil machine, the coil allows the water to be heated by the flame. Electric machines have the coil immersed in the hot water chamber to heat it. Having run through the heated chamber, the water exiting the machine has reached a temperature of 200°F or 93.33°C.
Why Hot Water Pressure Cleaning is More Effective
Various factors help hot water act more effectively on the dirt and grime of the surfaces you need to clean.
- Water when heated to high temperatures has molecules with more kinetic energy, moving faster than at lower temperatures. The heat helps the molecules of the oil, dirt, and grime from the surfaces loosen their internal bonds. As a result, the water is able to dislodge the grime much faster. When combined with the velocity of the pressure washer, the cleaning becomes highly effective.
- The heat raises the absorption power of the water molecules because of which the dirt molecules adhere to them more quickly making it easier to wash them away.
- The detergent you use contains surfactants also called surface active reagents or softening agents. They add to the cleaning action by breaking down the oil and grease at their molecular level. This action is very similar to the effects of hot water and soap on dirty, greasy dishes.
- Heat has the effect of reducing the surface tension of the water. As a result, the water molecules can penetrate the dirt, grease, and grime and clean them quickly.
Advantages of Using Hot Water Pressure Washers
Hot water pressure cleaning has many advantages as compared to cold water cleaning.
- The high temperature of water allows you to clean surfaces thoroughly and effectively even at low pressures or pounds per square inch. This factor allows you to clean them without the risk of chipping away or eroding the surface.
- The hot water and steam effect can give you not just clean surfaces, but also germ free areas.
- Pressure cleaning with hot water can be conducted in less time while cold cleaning can take you longer. Thus, hot water cleaning can help you cut back on some of the labor hours. You’ll also save on the detergent you use since the heat gets much of the cleaning done by itself.
Disadvantages of Using Hot Water Pressure Washers
While hot water when combined with pressure washing creates the perfect cleaning action, using such pressure washers can have their downsides too.
- Hot water pressure washers are typically bigger and bulkier because of the added heating mechanism they have on board. This is why; you might find that transporting them may be more cumbersome.
- They are more expensive as against cold water pressure washers.
- Hot water pressure washers need more extensive maintenance. They include a burner assembly, heating coils, protection from excess pressure, and other complex mechanisms that need to be tuned at least once a year depending on the frequency of your usage.
If you only need to prepare surfaces for painting and strip away old, peeling paint or remove encrusted clay and mud, cold pressure washing can prove to be highly effective. But, if you’re dealing with tough oil and grease such as in automotives, driveways, garage floors, and sidewalks, you need the power of the hot water pressure washer. However, you must be very careful when using hot water on delicate surfaces. It is also advisable to check with their manufacturer before using hot water on them.
References:
1. “The Best Hot Water Pressure Washer.” Pressure Washr. n.d. Web. 13 Sep. 2016.
2. “Hot Water vs Cold Water Pressure Washers.” Wash Wisely. n.d. Web. 13 Sep. 2016.
3. “When to Use a Hot Water Pressure Washer or a Cold Water Pressure Washer.” Hotsy. n.d. Web. 13 Sep. 2016.