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Litres per day

Gasket

Active member
Messages
192
Location
West Midlands
Guys,

As i go from trad using car to wfp with van im trying to guess how much water i will use a day, so i can get a van with best payload.

I reckon i will be doing around 15 - 20 "average" sized houses a day. 

appreciate your advice guys

 
Guys,
As i go from trad using car to wfp with van im trying to guess how much water i will use a day, so i can get a van with best payload.
 
I reckon i will be doing around 15 - 20 "average" sized houses a day. 
 
appreciate your advice guys
It's kind of a how longs a piece of string question as it depends on size of houses, whether they have conservatories, style of windows etc etc. Some guys I know don't bother conserving water and hardly turn flow off etc, others go steady and keep to a low flow. I have a 400 ltr tank and never run dry, I did a 8 while 6 day the other day and still had water left. I think most guys have 350 or 400 litres for a single operator. And invest in something like a univalve that saves lots of water [emoji106]


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Was thinking of one of the transit connects but the payload is around 600 kg, so may be just about ok with 350 / 400 L


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Was thinking of one of the transit connects but the payload is around 600 kg, so may be just about ok with 350 / 400 L


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i have  the t230 connect payload 900kg I carry a compact 325 and 6 six 25l containers I'm looking to upgrade in the next few months as I want a 2 man system. 

 
On Friday I put a 350l tank in my 08 partner and today I have done a full days booked work and 2 on the spot jobs including an external gutter clean and I've still got water left in the tank. Coming from 105l this is heaven as I didn't worry once about running out

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I started with a 650 ltr system some days I would have 200 ltr left other days I would empty the tank depends on the type of work and how much on the glass time you do compared to driving round time , if you are doing commercial work for long periods you will use a lot more than doing domestic work and driving around . Now with two of us in one van we use between 800 to 1500 ltr per day depending of the type of work 

 
Guys,
As i go from trad using car to wfp with van im trying to guess how much water i will use a day, so i can get a van with best payload.
 
I reckon i will be doing around 15 - 20 "average" sized houses a day. 
 
appreciate your advice guys
I am a happy sole trader and for three months I've been using a Peugeot partner 850kg with a 500 litre di tank and do 30+ houses per day without running out.

But get another van if you want to grow bigger.
 
When I set up 2 vans for the lads as single operators we fitted the vans with 500 litre upright tanks.

The first was in a Peugeot Partner 800 lx and the second a Ford Transit Connect T220L. The tank was swapped from the Peugeot to an 800LX Citroen Berlingo.

We have found over the years that a 500 liter tank is more than enough for a full days work for a single operator. Sometimes they used the lot and sometimes they had a little left over.

 
I carry a 350L tank & 2 x 25L barrels of pure water in my Vauxhall Combo and find that sometimes this is only just sufficient for a days work. For gutters/fascias I generally use a backpack and fill up from the customers outside tap (no point in wasting pure water for this IMO).

When I upgrade my van I'll definitely go for a 500L tank.

 
  1. I have worked with a 400 litre flat tank for around 6 years and very rarely ran out of water, But in last 2-3 months I have got 2 x 25ltr containers just as a extra if I have a big commercial as well as full day of houses. 

    In general if lads are using 2mm pencil jets in brushes then the flow needs to be whacked up otherwise the flow is trash, Get some Clarkes 1mm welding tips gives a more powerful rinse a lower flow rate setting and uses less water.
 
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  1. I have worked with a 400 litre flat tank for around 6 years and very rarely ran out of water, But in last 2-3 months I have got 2 x 25ltr containers just as a extra if I have a big commercial as well as full day of houses. 

    In general if lads are using 2mm pencil jets in brushes then the flow needs to be whacked up otherwise the flow is trash, Get some Clarkes 1mm welding tips gives a more powerful rinse a lower flow rate setting and uses less water.


Doesn't 1mm reduce flow? It would increase pressure but reduce flow?

I found the opposite to be better, I used some 3mm home made jets on a n old brush and it was much quicker to rinse. The only problem was using 100m of hoses a 5lpm pump was not enough. It was great when used with a shirt hose though. Ideally I would use 3mm jets with an 8lpm pump run flat out but it would likely use too much water. Worth experimentING though.

 
Its really only of late that we have a supply of second hand small vans with a big payload capacity.

It wasn't always the case though. The Citroen Berlingo /Peugeot Partner was a very popular van some 12 or so years ago. But the suppliers only seemed to order variants with a 600kg capacity as they competed with the Vauxhall Combi vans of the time. They were also classified as car derived vans. So if we wanted one of these second hand then we could only fit a 400 liter tank into it.

If we weren't in a hurry to buy, then there would be a few 800kgs vans come onto the market that were from British Gas, but they were blue and painted to Britsh gas colours which was slightly different shade to the standard blue Citroen and Peugeot used at the time.

There were also a few ex Forestry 800kgs vans around but they were painted a horrible green. If you wanted white, there was nothing.

If you wanted to fit a 500 liter tank then you had to opt for the niche Citroen Dispatch/Peugeot Expert/Fiat Scudo with a payload of between 825 and 900kgs depending of whether it was a 1.9 or 2.0 engine. These were much more expensive.

.

 
Doesn't 1mm reduce flow? It would increase pressure but reduce flow?

I found the opposite to be better, I used some 3mm home made jets on a n old brush and it was much quicker to rinse. The only problem was using 100m of hoses a 5lpm pump was not enough. It was great when used with a shirt hose though. Ideally I would use 3mm jets with an 8lpm pump run flat out but it would likely use too much water. Worth experimentING though.


Smaller jets will restrict flow. Water will travel faster through the jets but as you increase pressure you reach a point where the flow will become turbulent and flow is then restricted.

We found using 1.4mm jets from Gardiners (which are half the size of 2mm jets) that we had to turn our flow down as we got too much splashback. This is fine if you are using a backpack as you save water, but I couldn't get on with the slow rinse rate.

In the old days when we didn't have flow controllers, we used 3mm jets. At full pressure it was a lovely rinse as it flooded the window, but we wasted a lot of water during the washing and scrubbing phase. I would get through 475 liters (all the water I could carry) by lunch time.

When Varistream controllers were launched I bought one and found very quickly found that the 3mm jets were too big. They were replaced with 2mm jets. Rinsing was slower but overall I saved water, did more houses as I was able to work all day and rarely used the 100 liters in containers I carried separately on the van. (I had a trailer system in those days with 3 x 125 liter tanks.)

 
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Doesn't 1mm reduce flow? It would increase pressure but reduce flow?
 
I found the opposite to be better, I used some 3mm home made jets on a n old brush and it was much quicker to rinse. The only problem was using 100m of hoses a 5lpm pump was not enough. It was great when used with a shirt hose though. Ideally I would use 3mm jets with an 8lpm pump run flat out but it would likely use too much water. Worth experimentING though.


It may reduce flow a little but I have found the difference he right now balance. For me to use 2mm jets I would have to almost double the flow rate on my controller.

I don't want to spend to long rinsing and wasting water and time in the process.

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It may reduce flow a little but I have found the difference he right now balance. For me to use 2mm jets I would have to almost double the flow rate on my controller.

I don't want to spend to long rinsing and wasting water and time in the process.

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I'm not too bothered about wasting water as long as I have enough to last me the day that is. Water is fairly cheap, very roughly I spend about £5 a week on resin and filters etc and I'm not on a meter  so an extra quid or 2 a week wouldn't bother me if it meant speeding up the days work.

I've tried smaller jets and there's too much splash back or reduce flow and it doesn't rinse fast enough like spruce says.

 
I've used a Partner 600lx for the past 3 years with a 400l tank, it's just enough for a day, but more and more I'm finding I have to go back and refill to finish my jobs. 

Also with the payload so low, it doesn't leave me much left over for kit.

I'd like to get a Renault Traffic or similar sometime. 

On the up side it's handy for tight streets.

 
I've used a Partner 600lx for the past 3 years with a 400l tank, it's just enough for a day, but more and more I'm finding I have to go back and refill to finish my jobs. 

Also with the payload so low, it doesn't leave me much left over for kit.

I'd like to get a Renault Traffic or similar sometime. 

On the up side it's handy for tight streets.


With early Berlingos/Partners PSA 'secretly' allowed for a driver of 70kgs which was in addition to the payload. So I would brim your tank, and get you van weighed with you driving it. You may have a little extra payload you didn't know you had.

.

 
hi gasket,i'm glad you now feel the need to move to something bigger,it seems like you have a "blank sheet" as in you need to go bigger but don't really know what size etc.

first things first,water is the cheapist commodity on your new van,even on a meter 1000l should cost around £15-£20 per including sewerage (i'm not on a meter but i beleive those costs are there or there abouts)

water is the product that earns you the money so you should give the size of the tank a great deal of thought,i'm not dissing or knocking anyone but if you have to take extra barrels with you on a daily basis or go home to fill up you have too smaller tank,its as simple as that tbh,now the summer is coming and that orange ball in the sky is shining down you would need to turn the flow up a tad to allow for extra rinsing or spotting will occur,so that means more barrells or complaints about runs/spots etc.

i'm very good friends with jeff brimble and he can clean a three bed semi with only a litre of water but in saving water jeff loses productivity ie he's not earning as much,for me its about the money if i'm honest not about saving water.

the point i am trying to get at is buy something like a vivaro/traffic or transit and install a 650l tank-honestly you will find in the future you will use it all on a daily basis and should/ would also allow some leeway should you need someone on a part time basis,

i'm on an 800l tank/single user but will happily use 600l on a daily basis (the extra litreage allows for the hot weather we are having at the moment)

as a side note on hot sunny days i'll revert back to 3mm jets,yes ok the flow is higher-which is fine but the pressure is reduced resulting in less splashback which is what i don't need in hot climes

hope this helps

 
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