The $5 Fitting That Saved a Customer $8,000

A routine maintenance visit from Evans traced a failing natural gas pressure washer to one wrong valve at the machine’s gas inlet. Three companies told the customer to replace the building’s gas line, and a plumber quoted $8,000 to $10,000. The replacement fitting cost about five dollars.

Lead Installer and Technician Jade Labit has worked at Evans for 12 years. We asked him for the scariest find from a routine maintenance visit. 

“The one that sticks with me wasn’t dangerous so much as expensive,” Jade said.

What did the technician find on the first maintenance visit?

On his first visit to a new customer on route, Jade planned to conduct routine maintenance on a pressure washer and oil-water separator. The pressure washer was only a couple of months old, an off-brand electric unit with a natural gas burner, bought from another vendor. But it wasn’t working properly. 

A local company installed it and told the service manager that the building’s gas line was too small to supply the machine. The recommended fix involved hiring a plumber to run a new line from the meter at the road to the back of the shop. 

The plumber quoted $8,000 to $10,000. Two more companies came out and agreed with the first. Sometimes that’s the cost of business. But our Evans technician looked closer and discovered a major misdiagnosis. 

The Evans technician found the problem. 

The burner was starved for gas by a valve at the machine, and the burner control shut it down each time. Everyone before Jade had blamed the building’s line. 

“What I was seeing on site didn’t add up to an undersized line,” Jade said.

Jade finished the normal maintenance, then took a closer look. The installer had put a check valve on the inlet of the pressure washer’s gas valve, where it connects to the building’s gas line.

“That valve is made for ranges and furnaces, which need high pressure and low volume,” Jade explained. “A pressure washer burner needs the opposite: high volume at low pressure.”

The valve wasn’t opening fully, so the burner wasn’t getting enough gas, and the burner control kept shutting it down. He had seen it many times before.

How was the pressure washer fixed?

The restriction sat at the machine, downstream of any new pipe, which means a larger line would have fed the same starved burner.

“They’d have been out the money and still had a pressure washer that shut down,” Jade said. That means the customer would have paid $8,000 to $10,000 only to find the problem unsolved and start the diagnosis process over again. 

Jade swapped the valve for a standard gas line fitting that cost about five dollars. The machine ran as designed. The repair was able to be performed at the time of maintenance on site without a long wait time. 

The service manager, as Jade reported, was extremely happy and grateful.

Preventing Equipment Problems  

As an experienced technician, Jade was able to identify and solve the problem relatively quickly. So, why did multiple other vendors misdiagnose the pressure washer issue? 

Jade points to two failures. First, it was likely that the installer lacked burner experience. The company that set up the unit does not specialize in natural gas pressure washers. Second, the companies that came after didn’t do their own due diligence. Nobody checked the first diagnosis. And the companies that followed repeated the installer’s conclusion without testing it. 

“Someone who knew these burners would have spotted that valve right away,” Jade said.

Skip the Expensive Breakdown with This Advice 

Know the specifications and check every detail. After 12 years of service calls, Jade can’t emphasize this advice enough.

“Small details on natural gas burners cause big problems, and every spec matters,” Jade said. “Knowing the specifications is most of the battle when troubleshooting burners.”

Here, a technician who checked the specs and kept looking saved the customer a lot of hassle and at least $8,000. 

What does an Evans scheduled maintenance visit include?

Evans Equipment & Environmental provides national scheduled maintenance programs, local pressure washer service, and ongoing support for every piece of industrial wash equipment we build and install, plus those we don’t. 

Each visit follows a checklist specific to the system. A maintenance visit for three pressure washer units will look a little different than a maintenance visit for a large custom wash bay. A typical visit for Evans technicians covers the same components. These include:

• Inspection for wear, leaks, and electrical issues
• Checks of pumps, motors, belts, valves, and control panels
• Water testing for pH, nutrient levels, and oxygen saturation
• Cleaning of filters, strainers, and tanks
• Photos and maintenance sheets for your records
• Operator training

From design to daily use, we build wash water treatment systems that last. With scheduled maintenance, you can help prevent compliance violations and keep your equipment running at top speed.

Get on the Evans maintenance route for 2027

Jade caught this fault on a routine route stop, before the customer signed off on a new gas line. Evans is scheduling its 2027 maintenance route now.

A scheduled maintenance program puts a trained Evans technician on your wash equipment at a frequency and scope that fits your operation, with coverage nationwide. Each visit ends with photos and maintenance sheets you can hand to an auditor. 

Call 800-377-5872 or contact Evans to reserve your place on the 2027 route.

Frequently Asked Questions