Pressure Washer Safety and more

Your pressure washer is one of your best tools to do your jobs but it is also one of the most dangerous if proper safety measures are not followed when operating it.


Thousands of people are injured every year by improper use of a pressure washer and not all are by amateurs, hundreds of even so called professionals have accidents. As demonstrated here in this article and why accident attorneys shop for workers comp claimants. http://www.bignews.biz/?id=816222&keys=accident-claims-jet-wash

Most professionals use the higher powered gas machines many of which are also hot water machines. Both of these factors can cause good things such as reduced time spent doing a job, reduced amount of chemicals needed and so on. But more power and hotter water can also increase bad things as well such as the potential for increased accidents and damage to property.

First make sure your equipment is always in good working order, do not let little problems like loose connections or worn fittings turn into major trouble. Second; Wear your safety gear! Heavy shoes or boots, long sleeve shirts and long pants, safety glasses, goggles or face shields, gloves and any other item indicated on the MSDS when using chemicals. We have had too many customers that have had to call us or hospitals just because simple measures were not taken. Had a customer on his day off go check on one of his job sites. He did not bother to change clothes, walked up on a worker using the washer and he was back sprayed with caustic chemical that burned him without him knowing it until an hour or so later once the damage had already been done. He now has permanent white scare spots on this arms and legs.

Third know your equipment, how to operate it, and how to maintain it. Cleaner Times magazine has a great series for companies that have a machine shop and do their own work on their pressure washers. Go to their website and check out the archived articles to find lots of great information. http://cleanertimes.com/. Cleaner Times also have great articles on safety and covering all aspects of your business.

Keep a log book on all of your equipment. When and where purchased, where the instruction information is located if not with the log, the cost of and when and where repairs and maintenance was preformed on the equipment. This information can help you with calculating job expenses, handling insurance claims and at tax time figuring deductions. If you have to keep smaller logs with separate pieces of equipment or in separate vehicles or locations fine but make sure you routinely bring at least copies of all of them to be in one location. The best thing would be to scan the pages into a computer file and then burn a disk of the data that is stored in a fire safe or safe deposit box. This is true for all your important business documents. I had a customer just after I started working here that had a fire burn down her house with all her records inside. Her shed with her rig was saved but nothing else from all her years of work. It took her weeks just to contact all her customers because she had to look up every number, remember every name, every vendor. It took her almost two years to get her business back to where it was and to sort out the insurance and tax mess that the fire caused.

Here is another site if you are not familiar with them you should be The Power Washer Advisor. They have great information no matter what equipment you use. Here is their safety info area http://www.the-power-washer-advisor.com/pressure-washer-safety.html. They also have a great blog area where I have learned a lot so I know you can too. I feel it is much easier to direct you to the places that have good information instead of trying to reinvent the wheel or try to pass it off as my knowledge. I know there is plenty in the business I do not know and that is why I am constantly searching and reading up on things about the industry. If there is something you want to find out about and do not have the time to look give us a call. I will be happy to find information and make it available to everyone. Because if you want to know about it I am sure someone else does too.

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