Pressure Washer

Tania bought me a AR Blue pressure washer for my birthday back in February.  I wanted a low volume pressure washer I could connect to my CR Spotless water de ionizer.  Utilizing it will allow me to use less de-ionized water when I rinse the car. The downside is connecting two water sources to it because demonized water is a solvent and left in the pump it will eat it up.  To make this work I needed a bypass for the de-ionizer.

Last year in anticipation of getting a pressure washer, I built a bypass out of PVC. When I connected it last week it literally exploded sending PVC shrapnel around the garage. Looking at it, I have no idea why it failed but the fragile nature of the PVC had me concerned to begin with.  I went to Lowe’s and looked at copper then quickly dismissed that idea due to the cost, so I started looking at PEX.  I was able to source everything necessary from Menards, including all the garden hose adapters.

Because the PEX is much more flexible than PVC or copper, I needed to build a bracket to attach the splitter valve to. I had some aluminum angle left over from a previous project that I highloked together.

Unfortunately I didn’t notice the feet on the valve were too wide for the aluminum.  I debated making a new support or adding a plate to the support. After looking at the valve again I realized I could re-drill the holes closer too each other.

After I re-drilled the holes I trimmed down the ears.

The bracket was easily attached through existing holes in the CR Spotless and the PEX went together rather quickly. I also purchased another section of Gladiator wall system. I had plenty of extra hooks to hang the pressure washer and more importantly the hose which allows me to store it in loose coils. Hopefully this will help with some of the memory these high pressure hoses have.

Now I can easily run normal water through the pressure washer to remove all the de-ionized water.