Solvent in a pressure washer ?

Charles in Aus.

Well-known Member
Is this possible without ruining the machine or blowing myself up ? I am thinking of Kerosene [ certainly nothing really volatile like petrol ] in an old pressure washer to use as a degreaser for the inside of tractor transmissions .
I am happy to be called mad for suggesting this if that's the case. :)
 
You're mad :) Seriously, don't. What's the average psi in a diesel? 300? A pressure washer goes way above that.
 
I would stick to water in your power washer; those things put out a fair volume and I'd think you would have a real mess after spraying a few gallons of kerosene through the washer. Not to mention you probably don't need to be breathing vaporized kerosene.

Here in the US you can buy an air compressor accessory called an "engine cleaner". It's just an air nozzle with a liquid pickup that you stick into a jug of solvent. Not nearly as much pressure or volume as a power washer, but they do a good job of cutting through dirt and sludge.
Engine cleaner attachment
 
If you want to go on the cheap you can use 1/2 cups of liquid laundry at a time dumped over the inside then use water in your pressure washer. I did that years ago when one of my employees ground up a carrier bearing in an Oliver 1850 until the big gear dug its way thru the hydraulic pan above the gears. Lots of fines.
 
Yeah, but it's not spraying and atomizing a flammable liquid all over in open air, and near a gas or electric motor that's not designed for sparkproof, maybe splashproof at most. Not to mention inside the pump are seals made for water contact not fuel.
 
It will work until the seals rot out. Then you get to buy another pump. Stick with water and the chemicals made for pressure washers.
 
Kerosene is an oil. I could think of a lot of different products better than oil to degrease. If it worked then you would have to degrease the kerosene. I would use the power washer with water and use detergents such as purple power to degrease with. Then stubborn spots use oven cleaner.
 
Charles in Aus.:

S T O P !

Are you suicidal? Do you have a "Death Wish"? A Diesel Engine operates by "compression ignition"; and Kerosene is nothing more than highly
refined Diesel Fuel; and YOU want to compress it to SEVERAL THOUSAND PSI . This is a recipe for Disaster! Besides, any FUEL when sprayed
into the "open air" becomes HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE (some will even automatically ignite) and any spark or open flame can have devastating
results.

Instead, use any good, spray-on Degreaser such as "Simple Green", or as others have suggested use plain old ordinary Liquid Dish Soap;
spray it on and let it do it's job, THEN rinse it off with plain Water through your Pressure Washer.

STAY SAFE

Doc
 
Okay #1 flammables compressed in a pump not designed to do so, doesn't sound like a good idea to me, it might not torch in the pump but I'm guessing the pressurized finely atomized kerosene vapor would be a
very exciting and bad day waiting to happen (read headline "Local dofus burns barn and tractor up, three fire departments respond, details page 3....). #2 If you do decide to do it please video it, this way
the world can learn if this is a good or bad idea and the U-Tube royalties might cover some of your medical bills or help support your dependents 'cause you're a recent Darwin Award Winner. #2A If it doesn't
blow up, catch fire or otherwise earn you the nick name "FIREBALL" do you really want to clean up the mess you'll have left.... think about it a kerosene film on everything with in 10 feet of where you
"degreased" and then you'll want to grind or weld in that area or if done outside grow grass? I don't think so #3 I can't improve on the other comments as they said Heat, Pressure and a detergent will get
you where you want to be safer, cheaper and without the creation of anther super fund clean up site. Yes I know the darn government has passed so many rules that mean we're not allowed to do a lot of things
that used to work pretty good but there has been a lot of work put into developing safe (and legal) ways to accomplish what we might want to do in our shops. Yes I know my Grandpa cleaned a lot of truck parts
with gasoline, kerosene, Naphtha and other solvents but he didn't have a pressure washer or a parts washer so he did the best he could do with what he had. Consider he owned and ran a fleet of 10-12 garbage
trucks and didn't have either a pressure washer OR a parts cleaner (he died in 1958) jump forward 25 years and I'm working at a golf course as their mechanic and for my little fleet of lawnmowers I had both
that's called progress. Also consider if you use a good detergent it will help draw out some of the oil residue from the castings so you'll have less chance of re-contamination from stuff the oil retained in
you castings and the nooks and crannies of the assembly. Clean would you rather eat off a plate that had been wiped with kerosene or washed with a detergent?
 
THANK YOU ALL !

It appears that I am mad for even thinking of this :D

I have no wish to feature in any You Tube video or to have my own paragraph in the next edition of the Darwin awards .

I will admit that the possibility of compression ignition never occurred to me .

Please rest assured that this particular brainstorm has well and truly passed .
 
Go back to your high school science class! There is no oxygen in the compressed petroleum product. For it to diesel you must have oxygen. An airless paint sprayer operates at a much higher pressure than your washer and does not explode because there is no oxygen. I still do not think it is a good idea but not really dangerous but It would be too costly and would also do a poor job , Unwise? Yes Dangerous ? No. Just think if pressure alone caused the combustion , the combustion would be in the injector pump rather than in the combustion chamber. When I worked for Ford we would light a lighter at the end of an injector nozzle and it would give one flash of flame and not go back into the nozzle
 
I would not use kerosene, as it would damage the pump seals and hoses. Their are plenty detergents that with water are more effective than kerosene, that will not damage the pressure washer.
 
I definitely wouldn't try it, more likely to damage pressure washer.

They do make gismos, can't think of what they are called, where you used compressed air. The fast moving air creates a low pressure that will suck the Kerosene and spray it out nozzle. It works on the Bernoulli principal much like a paint gun. Can you use a paint gun?

Kerosene is very similar to mineral spirits which I use to clean my paint gun with, no harm there.
 
Might not ruin pump, but you will create highly atomize vapor that is extremely explosive.

Just sounds like a Darwin award to me.
 
Respectfully, you guys have NO IDEA what you are talking about.

You aren't feeding the kerosene in through the garden hose. You would use the siphon tube on the outlet side of the pump that's designed for applying detergents/solvents/degreasers.

When you use the siphon tube on your pressure washer to apply detergent/solvent/degreaser, you have to use the ***LOW*** pressure nozzle.

The pressure washer will not draw anything through the tube on high pressure, so there is no "atomized cloud of vapor."

You CAN use kerosene, but there sure are a lot better degreasers out there.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top