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How to clean your heavy equipment

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We tend to be very particular with it comes to completing our job and sending the invoice to the client to make the payment but there is one thing that we neglect a lot and which can cost a company dearly. We for variety of reasons do not give a lot of importance to maintain our heavy equipment. It is perhaps the only most important thing in a jobsite that remains covered with filth and hardly catches the attention of anybody. The operator is perhaps the only person who is concerned about it as he has to work inside the cabin and he can’t work with all the filth covering the face of the machine. Well, it does not make any sense to keep earth moving machines in dirt just by assuming that there is no use to clean it as it is going to become dirty again the next day.

On the contrary, what makes sense is to keep the machine clean, properly oiled and always up and running. Not cleaning the heavy equipment can lead to serious implication that may even result to sudden break down of the machine or replacing vital parts that will cost a lot. What is rather needed is to clean the machine couple of times in a week and if possible more than that. This will not only keep the machine clean but will also lengthen its life.

You can make use of a power wash machine if you know how to use it or can give it to a cleaner who will charge you a petty sum to clean the machine and you get back washed earth moving equipment with no filth on its body. Firstly, if you want to clean the machine on your own, you can buy a power washer and can begin with cleaning the machine right from the word GO. However, you may want to read the manual first before you start handling it. You may have used a power washer previously but if you have a new one now, you may want to try it out steadily.

Put the power washer on high pressure so that the water is sprayed with high pressure and it reaches the interior of the equipment. The interior of the machine is known to accommodate most of the dirt and grease. In order to degrease, the water should be sprayed at high pressure and should hit right at the target. This will help to clean the most critical portion of the machine. However, it is also important to add some detergent which creates foam and helps to degrease easily.

Using cold water will take more time and water to clean the machine. Therefore, it will be advisable to use warm water for this purpose. The water should not be boiling hot though. Just mild warm and it will do its work. Please note that cleaning heavy equipment on a monthly basis will not allow the grease to harden and can be easily removed.

How to clean a machine with a power washer

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Heavy equipment have to go through a lot of dirt and stains on a daily basis. The kind of work it goes through can only suggest the amount of mud it has all over its body and through that one can also understand the mud it has eaten and must be rotting inside its body. It is said that heavy equipment should be cleaned on a regular basis and if not done then there are higher chances of it getting damaged. People spend a lot for buying a machine and they can’t see it rotting just because it has eaten a lot of dirt and the guys are finding it hard to remove it from the machine.

Well, there is a very simple solution to this problem and that is to clean the machine using a power washer. It is also known as “Pressure Washer”. It gives you the access to reach those areas which are ideally not possible for human hands to reach. Well, in order to clean the interiors of the machine, you do not have to open apart each and every piece of it and then spray the dirt out. All you can do now is just use the power washer and get rid of stains and dirt that is in and around the machine.

It is also very simple to use a power washer and can be done by you or by your children (only if they are young enough to understand how it works). Also, it does not put a lot of stress on you. You have to select the time on the power washer that you think you will take to wash the entire machine and you also got to make sure that you have sufficient gallons of water that will sustain till the time you are cleaning the machine. The garden hose should be ¾-in diameter as that should suffice to connect to the washer’s inlet. You also got to make sure that you have tightened the hose connection so that no air passes in the line.

You need to ensure that you have set the spray want to 0 pressure so that there are no kick-backs when the power washer is started. Once you are done with this, you have to turn on the water faucet completely. Once you do that, slowly squeeze the spray wand so that you can wash out the air from the stuff. You can then start the engine and allow it to warm-up for a minute after which you can adjust the pressure and the settings on the spray making it ready to shoot water.

While you are working on the power washer, it is advisable that you keep the user manual handy as different power washers work differently. So you may need them when you are actually working with it. You may also ready it first and then try the washer. It may seem difficult but the moment you use it for the first time, things will turn out to be quite smooth for you.

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