The home pressure washer enables performing far more specific cleaning tasks than simply washing floors, surfaces and objects, thanks to the application of a wide range of accessories.
This article will deal with such a special accessory for your pressure washer, the pipe-flushing probe, which is very useful for easily performing on one’s own the unclogging of manholes and gutters in our homes.
READ ALSO: PRESSURE WASHERS: ALL THE ACCESSORIES TO EXPLOIT THEM AT THEIR BEST
CLEANING WITH THE PRESSURE WASHER
The pressure washer is the ideal tool for caring for the exteriors of our homes while keeping driveways, yards, gardens, balconies, terraces, gates, gutters, steps and walls clean.
In fact, the power of pressurized water removes easily, quickly and effortlessly the materials that weather agents deposit on floors, facades and furnishings (dust, soil, mud, moss, foliage) and the small debris and trash carried by the wind that accumulate in corners.
In addition to saving time and effort, there are many important advantages of cleaning with a pressure washer over the use of traditional mops and water hose. Efficiency, first and foremost: the result achievable with a high-pressure water jet is far superior to that of a feeble spray or sweep.
Let’s then consider the environmental savings: the pressure washer, for the same result, cuts water use by 70 percent; moreover, it can remove tough dirt, mold, moss and scale without using polluting chemicals.
It is versatility, however, the best advantage to take into consideration.
ALL THE USES OF THE PRESSURE WASHER
A pressure washer can lend a big hand in routine and extraordinary cleaning, going far beyond the “boundaries” of your home. How? Thanks to a wide range of accessories that multiply its functions.
If the spray gun operates the simple water jet, the lances open up the first range of possible uses, from the combined action of the foaming lances with a detergent, to the removal of rust, paint and scale achievable with the sandblasting lances.
Heads and nozzles, on the other hand, allow directing and adjusting the jet in order to achieve a more or less superficial, general or point cleaning action, while the fixed and rotating brushes help in cleaning delicate surfaces.
This operational variety makes pressure washers the best allies for:
-
Cleaning your garden
-
Cleaning roofs and gutters
-
Cleaning your pool
-
Cleaning your bike
-
Car wash
-
Cleaning boats and RVs
-
Removing graffiti
If the length of this list has amazed you, prepare to be even more surprised when you discover that with a pressure washer you can also keep manholes, sewer drains and gutters clean and free of blockages.
UNCLOGGING WITH THE PRESSURE WASHER
One special accessory makes the home pressure washer capable of performing unclogging operations without resorting to expensive professional work by skilled technicians: the pipe-flushing probe. Before we appreciate its characteristics, however, let’s learn what fillings and clogs are due to.
Residue from food, detergent, soap, hair, toilet paper and everything else that ends up in the drains of sinks and toilets in our homes, combined with limescale, gradually accumulates in the external pipes, reducing their internal diameter and making it difficult for water to flow smoothly.
When these sediments create a real plug, they cause clogging of manholes and drains, preventing wastewater effluent from flowing into the sewer system and causing it to flow back down internal pipes. The consequence is the unpleasant rising of sewage from toilets or sinks, with bad-smelling flooding of floors and home environments.
You can clean the gutter with the pressure washer and the drain nozzle from the ground, eliminating any risk of falls.
How to proceed:
- connect the pressure washer gun to the drain nozzle
- insert and slide the drain nozzle slowly and carefully into the clogged pipe until you reach the point where the blockage is located
- only at this point - and only if the drain nozzle is inserted by about half a meter, so as not to risk it escape - operate the pressure washer gun
- the water pressure will push the drain nozzle through the obstruction, while you continue to push the drain nozzle along the entire length of the gutter to remove any other blockages
- after the entire passage has been completed, stop the pressure washer and pull out the drain nozzle.
So you’ll have cleaned up your eaves channels in a very short time and without any special effort. With the pressure washer and a drain nozzle you can also clear clogged sewer pipes, while with smaller diameter drain nozzles and more flexible materials you can also unclog the drains and elbows of your home plumbing system.
The same thing may happen along downspouts and gutters which, blocked by foliage, topsoil and guano, cause rainwater to spill along roofs and walls, with the serious risk of seepage and damage to building facades.
Whether in an emergency or for preventive maintenance, instead of resorting to an expensive purging service, you can use, precisely, a pressure washer equipped with a pipe-flushing probe: a special accessory using the force of pressurized water to move, through dedicated holes, a special nozzle with a head capable of dissolving obstructions along pipelines.
HOW TO USE THE PIPE-FLUSHING PROBE
Available in various lengths, pipe-flushing probes are attached to the pressure washer spray guns. Once the machinery is on, pressurized water flows out of the head back jets which, thus, is quickly pushed down the pipeline until the metal, rounded tip meets the obstacle and fragments it, allowing the water to drain away and normal flow to be restored.
By taking the probe out and repeating the operation several times, especially at pipeline sharp bends and bottlenecks, the pressure washer will be able to perform perfect unclogging. Once purging is complete, the regular nozzles allow the same pressure washer to clear manholes and drains of any buildup that has settled over time, eliminating the sources of odors.
The same operation can be carried out with the gutters, either by climbing up onto the roof - after properly harnessing and securing oneself - or introducing the probe from the ground through the gutters: the force of the pressure, in fact, allows the pipe-flushing probe to operate safely even upwards.
Smaller-diameter and more flexible pipe-flushing probes also allow for the unclogging of pipes inside the houses, easily coping with both the more numerous sharp bends and the greater twistiness of drains.
Finally, if you own a pressure washer and a pipe-flushing probe, frequent and repeated drain maintenance can be performed, keeping pipes clean at all times, increasing drain efficiency and forever eliminating the risk of inconvenient flooding.
