One of the best ways to prolong the life of your unit is to winterize your pressure washer. This is also a great task to do as part of your annual maintenance even if you're not preparing for a freeze. Some pressure washers have freeze-proof pumps, but we still recommend winterizing if it is in a non-temperature-controlled garage. I will discuss two reasons to winterize your unit once a year. The last thing I will talk about is how to perform the flush.
Another important task for your annual maintenance is performing an oil change on the unit. Here is a link to this article here: How to change the oil on a Kranzle
Prevent Damage
When water freezes, it expands and can damage the internals of the pump. It may not damage the pump head, but there are ‘wear’ items that can be damaged by freezing water. Wear items are meant to wear out and be replaced periodically throughout the unit's life. This included o-rings, gaskets, seals, and valves, for example.
Prolong Seals
Make sure to follow the winterizing procedure for the pump even if there is no water in it. The cold temperatures can impact the wear items such as o-rings, which are made of a soft rubbery material designed to create a water-tight barrier with the seat. Extreme temperature changes can cause the o-rings to become hard and brittle, leading to cracks and loss of flexibility. It's important to use RV-antifreeze instead of automotive antifreeze as they differ in the type of glycol they use.
I’ve included the differences below.
- Propylene Glycol: used in RV antifreeze. This helps lubricate your seals and gaskets.
- Ethylene Glycol: used in automotive antifreeze. This can dry out your seals and gaskets, causing damage.
The propylene glycol helps to prevent the seals from drying out and breaking down due to extreme temperature changes.
Perform Flush
To perform the flush, you will need a gallon of RV antifreeze. We recommend a short garden hose so you won’t have to run the pump as long. This is better for the pump and uses less RV antifreeze.
- Stick the inlet hose into the gallon of RV antifreeze
- Turn the power switch on
- Pull the trigger until the RV antifreeze is coming out of the gun's tip
- If you're storing the unit for the winter, disconnect the power and coil it up for storage. Do the same for the hoses if you don’t have a wall mount set up.
- When you are ready to use your pressure washer again, connect it to fresh water and flush out the antifreeze for 5 minutes.
- Before attaching a garden hose to a pressure washer, be sure to flush out any debris. If the hose is stored outside, insects and bugs may find their way inside.
Conclusion
Whether you're storing your pressure washer for the winter or performing yearly maintenance.
An RV antifreeze flush will help prolong the life of your unit.