DIY Portable Mobile 12V High Pressure 8L Bike Bicycle Car Washer Cleaner

Hi there and welcome to my 'ible' #53.

Being in Autumn/Fall with the incoming Winter season, keeping the bicycle clean is a tedious task.

Of course, if you have an electric jet washer (retailing price £90/100-100/115$), you can complete this task in minutes

(altough, you need to be careful during the cleaning phase, staying away from the bearings of the bottom bracket and the wheels hubs, because the pressure of the water may damage them).

Most of the "portable" jet washers need a plug for the electricity, or they have to be attached to a water tap, or you have to use a bucket, therefore they are not very portable.

If you have a car, you can use the plug (12V) of the former cigarettes lighter, if you don't have one, you need to plug your electric jet washer somewhere else.

If you want to be completely autonomous, having a mobile device with a proper 7 Litre tank, you have to spend £140/164$.

Karcher sells a jet washer which is good, but (in my humble opinion) it's a bit chunky for a portable device. Its tank has 4 (or 7) Litre capacity, but it's a bit bulky as a portable pressure washer.

Seeing these prices made me think to convert my old 8 Litre Garden Pressure Sprayer.

A few years ago I decided to buy one, because it's portable, it doesn't require electricity and so far it did the job.

Now, in the past years I washed my bikes numerous times, but having a weak water jet, it took ages to complete this task.

Even increasing the pressure of the tank, the water was coming out with a ridicolous pressure.

I've seen the 12V High Pressure Car Sprayer Water Pump Kit on Ebay on sale, at £14.99 and I've decided to build my own DIY portable pressure washer on the budget.

In fact, I already have the tank (purchased a few years ago) and the Lipo battery used to power one of my drones (Lotus T380G). #reuse

Supplies

For this Instructable you need:

8L Garden Pressure Sprayer – Portable Hand Pump Chemichal Weed Spray

https://bit.ly/3zGND3w

Portable 12V High Pressure Car Sprayer Water Pump Kit Jet Washer Cleaner Hose UK

https://bit.ly/3NAENdf

Long Heavy Duty Zip Ties - https://bit.ly/3haPTK7

Zip Ties

11.1V 3S 25C Lipo Battery 2200 mAh - https://bit.ly/3h2XFp7

Dean connectors (or XT60 depenging on the battery you have/use)

PTFE tape (water)

Soldering on Iron & tin wire - https://bit.ly/3Ushh54

Heatshrinks

Hacksaw

Scissors

Step 1: Connecting the Hoses

Connecting the hoses is a super-simple task. Secure the hose will suck the water from the tank to the pump, using a zip tie. On the other side of the pump screw the male Gardena connector, wrapping previously the PTFE tape (for water).

After these steps, unscrew just one female Gardena connector (orange hose), pulling the hose off the plug, cut the hose to the length you need (70/80cm) and re-screw the connector.

Step 2: Soldering the Dean Connector

In order to use my 11.1V 3S Lipo Battery, I had to solder the male Dean connector to the electric cable of the pump.

WARNING

Please double check the polarity using a tester, as the 11.1V 3S Lipo Battery is quite powerful and can easily catch fire if you don't know how to use/handle it.

Step 3: Removing Spray Nozzle and Trigger Lock

Removing the Spray Nozzle and Trigger Lock is another super-simple task.

Just unscrew it off the tank and, using a hacksaw, cut the tread as you need a slightly larger hole for the hose of the pump.

After inserting the other side of the hose inside the tank, secure the filter using a zip tie.

Double check the filter is placed at the bottom of the tank.

In this way you'll be able to use every single bit of the water.

Step 4: Attaching the Kit to the Tank

Attach the pump and the battery to the tank, using the long zip ties (6).

Attach some adhesive Velcro to the tank, in order to hold the battery in place, securing it using 3 long zip ties.

The idea is to create a loophole with the zipties that keeps the battery in place, being at the same time easy removable.

WARNING

Keep the Lipo Battery away from the water when you fill the tank, because otherwise it can catch fire.

Eventually, next Halloween, you can use this device as a sort of working proton pack, dressing up as a Ghostbusters ;-)

Please be aware that the tank can't stay still when empty (because of the added weight of the pump and battery).

To solve this problem, I've unscrewed the bottom of the pump, attaching the cap of the shaving foam.

I wanted to find a better solution, but the cap is made of sturdy plastic, it matches the diameter of the pump and it's exactly long 5cm (which is the gap between the bottom of the pump and the floor). #recycling ;-)