What To Use

mark-b

New Member
I mainly do residential pw but have decided to venture into fleet/car washing. I actualy landed a good size car lot around here-350 cars and a solid waste company-30 trucks. I've only used sodium metasilicate mixed with bleach for house washing. Called up my local chem. distributor and asked if sodium hydroxide would be ok to use for these applications. He told me that it was to harsh and I could get away using potassium hydroxide. Are either one of these alright to use for this? I'm woried the sodium met. won't be strong enough for the trucks. Pros-cons for these?
 

Larry L.

PWN TEAM - Moderator Emeritus
I think if it was me,I'd use two different soaps,one for the car lots and one for the solid waste company.
 

Scott Stone

New Member
You do not want to use potassium Hydroxide for fleets, for two reasons.
1. It only comes in a liquid. That means expensive. Of course, it is probably more profitable for the distributor, and a lot more expensive to you.
2. More importantly, it does not rinse cleanly. That means that it is a mother to get the vehicles clean, and looking clean.

For me, Sodium Metasilicate chems have usually worked well. I know that Dave Olson uses Sodium Metasilicate as well, but he buys it in a liquid form. I use them on garbage trucks, and on cars. I just mix it in different strengths for each. If I need something with a little more punch, I will get something that has Sodium Hydroxide in it.
That's just me though, and formulations can vary from supplier to supplier.

Scott Stone
 

Dave Olson

New Member
Yes Scott is right, we use a Sodium Metasilicate based product for fleet cleaning. We also use it for many other applications.

We apply our detergent using a hose-end sprayer. The only thing in the hose is water. The head of this sprayer has an adjustment so we can change the amount of the mixture right at the head!

We use a Potassium Hydroxide based product in kitchen exhaust systems. Does real well on animal fats and vegtable oils. If you have that type of soil in the back of the garbage trucks it may work better.

When we have done garbage trucks we use a stronger solution of our sodium metasilicate based product and of course hot water.

I will try to post a picture of our hose-end sprayer. We use it for all products that we use (caustics, bases, acids) to clean stuff.

Dave Olson
 

Attachments

  • tps-hoseendsp.jpg
    tps-hoseendsp.jpg
    12.2 KB · Views: 166

Mike Gwas

New Member
Go with 2 soaps. Sodium Hydroxide products is all I use on waste trucks.... Nothing can touch it. It will work on cars but I do not recomend.....
 

mark-b

New Member
Thanks for the help-much appreciated. i washed the garbage trucks with the sodium metasilicate and had to brush alot of them. These trucks were in rough shape as they just don't get washed enough. The owner wants me to do them every two weeks so I'm hoping the washing will get easier. I might try the sodium hydroxide next time. I found out another power washing co. a few miles from me uses sodium hydroxide for everything. Talked to one of his guys at a car lot yesterday ( i was icognito) and he told me one soap for all-concrete, trucks, cars. I'll of course heed the advice of the members of this board and use sod. met. for the car lot. Thanks again.
 

Our Sponsors

Top