A high pressure cleaning system is only as good as its accessories. Or is it? Ann Laffeaty looks at fan jet, pencil jet and rotary nozzles plus other accessories such as hoses and lances to find out where these are used and how much difference they can make to a machine’s cleaning performance.

Related story: new products, high pressure cleaners

Cleaning under pressure is a highly efficient means of removing substances such as paint, sealants and chewing gums from floors and façades. Manufacturers of cleaning machines are constantly differentiating themselves by offering a wide array of accessories for specific applications. These range from specialist lances, hoses and swivels to several different types of nozzle. But do these accessories really make much difference to a cleaning job?

According to Kranzle managing director Lutz Droitsch they make all the difference in the world. “The quality of the nozzle dictates how much power from the high pressure cleaner will be transferred to the cleaning surface,” he said. “It is very, very important to have high quality accessories in a high pressure cleaner.”

Kranzle offers a range of steel fabric high pressure hoses as well as lances, spray guns, nozzles and sludge-suckers. Latest products include the Kranzle knife jet nozzle claimed to offer four times the impact pressure
of other flat jet nozzles due to a reduced impact area.

According to Droitsch, a good accessory does not have to be a highly technical affair. “Our flat jet accessory for instance, is a very simple but highly efficient device for floor cleaning,” he said. “To illustrate how it works, if you use a garden hose with a pencil jet you will have to hold the hose very still to avoid the water going everywhere. But if you can hold the hose in a fixed position, you will have a good cleaning effect.

Nozzle that shapes the jet

“Inside the flat cleaner is a high pressure hose with a nozzle that is constantly moving back and forth. That controls the movement of the hose.”

Most Kranzle accessories are manufactured in-house. “Only if we produce them ourselves do have 100 per cent influence on quality,” said Droitsch. “It is like using a knife - if you have a very sharp knife the level of efficiency you gain is much higher than when you use a blunt one.”

According to high pressure cleaners category manager at Kärcher Volker Steigauf, more than 50 per cent of the cleaning quality produced is a direct result of the accessories. “An important component of a high pressure cleaner is the nozzle that shapes the jet of water,” he said. “The slightest change in its geometry can have an enormous effect.”

For example, he explained, a fan jet nozzle dispenses water at an angle of up to 45 degrees and can be used to apply detergents and disinfectants over a large surface area. Pencil jet nozzles spray water at very high pressures and can be focused intensively on heavily soiled areas. However, the area covered will be relatively limited due to the narrow spray angle.

“Rotary jet nozzles combine the cleaning power of a pencil jet nozzle with the surface coverage of a fan jet nozzle,” he went on. “They will cover about 10 times the area of a conventional pencil jet nozzle and can therefore be used on any heavily soiled surfaces that are not sensitive
to pressure.”

Nozzle geometry has a direct influence on the cleaning result according to Steigauf. “The Kärcher power nozzle, for example, is shaped in such a way as to produce a spray in large, continuous drops,” he said. “This results in a mechanical pressure that is up to 40 per cent higher than can be achieved by conventional nozzles. This enables the high pressure cleaner to remove dirt significantly faster, using less water and less detergent.”

Kärcher offers a range of standard accessories as well as specialist ones such as foam systems for disinfection applications and barrel cleaners for use on the inside of containers. The company also offers the Innofoam system comprising a dual spray lance,  injector and nozzle which is designed for cleaning sanitary facilities and machinery.

According to Steigauf, the customer can significantly boost efficiency and achieve the same or better cleaning result - both faster and more comfortably - by using the right accessories. “Some tasks - such as cleaning pipes and removing graffiti and rust - can only be performed economically using special accessories,” he added.

Dibo’s managing director Pierre van den Borne feels that high pressure cleaners accessories should be treated as exactly that. “The accessory is just an extra,” he said. “It is not that important – after all if you were buying a car you wouldn’t make your decision based on the accessories.”

He said many customers were unable to tell the difference between the various types of cleaning tool in any case. “Most of them will only use that particular accessory a couple of times a year. Sometimes the accessory can cloud the issue – the quality of the high pressure cleaner itself is more important.”

Among the key accessories offered by Dibo is a rotating head nozzle used for removing heavier dirt and paint. This works with a pointed beam instead of a flat beam for more powerful effect. “We also offer pencil nozzles for smaller graffiti removal tasks, and rotating head nozzles with a plastic or metal cover to protect the cleaner from dirty water when cleaning the floor,” added van den Borne.

Sales manager at Mosmatic Patrick Briano believes the high pressure cleaner and its accessories are of equal importance. “If you have a bad lance or floor cleaning accessory you can’t always achieve an efficient clean. But if the high pressure cleaner doesn’t provide enough water or sufficient pressure, you can have the best accessory in the world and it will still not do a good job.”

Mosmatic manufactures accessories for cleaning ducts, tubes, vents, restaurant hoods, tanks and roofs as well as stainless steel swivels and high pressure hoses connectors. Swivels are a straightforward accessory that can greatly simplify any high pressure cleaning task, said Briano. “Without a swivel you can end up by ‘fighting’ the hose and it will quickly become tangled up. If you have a swivel, you don’t have this problem of the hose becoming wound up the wrong way.”

Similarly, a simple roof cleaning tool can make a huge difference to the success of the finished task, he said.  “If you use a lance for cleaning a roof, all the dirt will end up on the ground below. But if you use the correct tool the moss and dirt will all drain away via the downpipe.”

More even clean

He said the use of a floor cleaning tool in place of a lance was another example of how an accessory can make all the difference to the end result. “If you are cleaning a car park using a high pressure lance, for example, you will always end up with a streaky finish because you are working at various different distances between the nozzle and the floor. But if you use a floor cleaning accessory, this has a rotating nozzle and cleans at the same distance from the floor all the time. This means you will end up with a much more even clean.”

Idrobase offers accessories for washing cars, campers, lorries, trains, motors and mechanical parts. These include a wide range of Venturi devices for spraying detergents with a foam lance, and swivel couplings between the gun and lance.

Marketing manager Bruno Ferrarese says the choice of accessory has implications far beyond the issue of cleaning efficiency. “If you mount a nozzle with a defective water-jet on a powerful high pressure washer, some of the power produced by the unit will be wasted,” he said. “As a result more time will be required for washing and natural resources such as water will be wasted. At the same time consumption of fuel, electricity and detergent will be increased with a corresponding increase in the level of pollution.

“By using a good accessory, the physical efforts of the people carrying out the task are reduced and working time decreases. In this way we are protecting the health of operators and reducing the amount of electricity used to put the water under pressure while also reducing the consumption of detergents.”