Downstream Chemical Injector vs X-Jet and the X-Jet M5

In the early days of the power washing industry, contractors relied heavily on high pressure and hot water for most cleaning jobs. In those days, chemicals were milder than modern chemicals. They were injected before the pump and carried through the entire pressure washer system to eventually emerge super-heated from a high pressure nozzle. In time, we learned that high pressure can be more damaging to surfaces than proper chemicals. Modern contractors use chemical to break surface tension, pressure to agitate stains, and water to float them away.

Many chemicals that are used in the power washing industry today will damage your pump due to their harshness so they must be applied after the pump.  This type of chemical injection is referred to as downstream chemical injection.

Downstream chemical injectors are designed to be mounted as close to the pump as possible. They work on a venturi draw principle. The faster the water travels by the venturi the greater the amount of vacuum it will create. The vacuum suction is needed to draw chemicals from their holding tank. Any restrictions that are placed in the discharge line such as high pressure spray tips, extra pressure hose etc. will slow down the water, and lower the vacuum at the venturi until it stops drawing chemical. The spray tip must have a large orifice to lower the pressure and cut down on restriction. But, lowering the pressure at the nozzle will limit the amount of pressure hose that can be used with this style of injector. Even with all of these issues, the downstream injector is still the chemical application method of choice for most power washing contractors. However it is for these reasons that the X-Jet has become so popular in building cleaning.

Chemicals that are commonly used in the mobile power washing industry often need to be applied to areas that are beyond the reach of the normal application tools and methods without the use of a ladder. Climbing up and down a ladder is not only tiring and time consuming but it also presents safety issues as well. Ladders won’t work in all areas. The ideal situation is to be able to stand on the ground to apply the chemicals.

The X-JET Original was designed with this thought in mind. It serves as a chemical injector and a nozzle as well. It is mounted at the end of the wand instead of at the pump. The X-Jet comes with 15 feet of chemical pick-up hose and a set of chemical proportioners that will allow you to draw chemicals at a ratio of 2 to 1 all the way down to 480 to 1. Using this device you can project a chemical and water mixture up to 40 feet. This means that when you are cleaning a building you can easily reach up to the top of a 3 story building while standing on the ground. Since you have a 15 foot chemical pick-up hose you can cover a lot of area in a short period of time without needing to move your chemical supply so often. The gallons per minute and pressure of the pressure washer that you will be using must be determined prior to choosing the size of X-Jet that you will need. The X-Jet is rated for pressures up to 5000 psi.

The X-JET M-Jet M5 will do a similar thing however it is designed with an adjustable spraynozzle that allows the user to select a wide fan pattern for covering large areas more efficiently. The wide spray patterns will not project as far as the straight stream will but for the lower areas it will allow you to move much faster because you can cover wider areas with a single pass of the wand. The spray pattern being adjustable allows you to select the pattern that you require for the particular job.

If you should decide to purchase a downstream injector, X-Jet or even a spray tip you will need to know the volume and pressure of the machine you intend to use.