About the pressure washer trigger Gun

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When considering which pressure washer trigger gun is best for you understand that there are different styles available to pressure washers today.
• Pistol Style Guns
• Straight Through Guns
• Front Entry Guns
• Rear Entry Guns
• Dump/ Weep guns
• Open Guns

Dump Guns and open guns are operated without unloader valves because they don’t stopwater flow.

The standard pressure washer trigger gun

Almost every manufacturer supplies either a front or rear style pistol gun which stops the flow of water and necessitates the need for an unloader valve. These guns have long been the industry standard. Since this is the case these are the guns we will focus on.

How pressure washer trigger guns work

Generally the gun will have a 3/8" inlet port where the hose is attached and a 1/4" outlet port to the wand/lance.(this is when 3/8" pressure hose is used.)

When the trigger is released the gun is said to be in “closed” position stopping the flow of water. When the trigger is squeezed it is in “open” position directing water to the nozzle once again.

These trigger guns control water flow by means of a spring, ball and seat. The trigger controls the on/off of the water flow. When the trigger is released the ball inside the gun is forced to seal in the seat by the spring and the water flow. This effectively stops the flow of water and sends the unloader valve into bypass mode. When the trigger is again squeezed the flow of water and spring force the ball from the seat and water is once again directed to the high pressure nozzle.

pressure washer trigger guns are designed for safety

The design of a trigger gun allows it to go to closed position if the operator loses control or drops it.

In my tool rental operations I was once sued by a renter who claimed he lost control of the gun and was “cut open” from mid-thigh to his chest causing him to be unable to work for an extended period of time. As a result we had 25+ trigger guns impounded as evidence. What a hassle!

We learned from our investigations that this “roof cleaner” regularly used tennis balls to keep the trigger gun open to avoid the “hand fatigue” that can be caused by squeezing a trigger for an extended period of time.

PLEASE: today’s pressure washer trigger guns are well designed for safety. Don’t negate these safety features by using tennis balls, duct tape or some other method to artificially hold the trigger.
Instead look into purchasing an “easy pull” pistol style trigger gun. These are designed to require a much lesser force to pull the trigger than a standard style gun.

Repair or Replace

Most pressure washer trigger guns sell in the $15-$30 range and are generally thrown away or replaced. However it might make sense to rebuild a more expensive gun. Rebuild kits are generally available and very easy to install. Remember to replace the parts in the same order as removed and to use thread seal on the threads of the valve body cap when completing the job. It’s really not complicated as you will be removing a stem, spring, ball and o-ring and replacing with parts from the kit.

A trigger gun is a wear item which will have to be replaced or repaired eventually.

If you don’t regularly drop it or bang it around you can expect a “quality” gun to last about 250 hours with this one exception-“bleach”. Regular use of bleach will kill a trigger gun causing it to leak in as little as 5-20 hours.

There are two approaches to this problem. One way to deal with this is to buy several inexpensive guns and always have a “spare” when one goes bad. The better approach is to buy “chlorine” guns which are regular guns with internal parts designed for use with bleach. While slightly more expensive we feel this is the better choice when addressing the problems bleach can cause.

 

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