Tired of your dirty used pads building up into a big pile because you hate to clean them?  Are you tired of your pads not getting fully cleaned?  I know these are pretty common complaints that many detailers have.  I know personally I was never a big fan of cleaning pads and would wait till I was running low on clean pads until I would actually get out the pressure washer and clean my used pads.  This is where a product like the Lake Country System 3000D Deluxe Pad Washer becomes a useful tool.  Once assembled it quick and easy to clean pads as you finish using them rather than just letting them build up in a pile.

Your Lake Country System 3000D Deluxe Pad Washer will arrive in a box like pictured above.

There is little assembly required with the 3000D Pad Washer, and these are the only loose items that come with the unit.  Directions for assembly are also included, which is quite simple.  There is one packet of Snappy Clean Boost pad cleaning powder, a 10 micron filter and four (4) plugs for the bottom of the catch basin.

The filter has a stamp on the with the word “TOP” as shown above.  When you place the filter into the catch basin this side will need to be face up.  You are only going to be using this if you set the pad washer to use the “Filtered” method.

Filtered: Cleaning solution is recycled through a replaceable (10 micron) filter at the bottom of the catch basin. The filtered cleaning solution drains to the bottom of the pail for multiple cleanings.

If you choose to set the system up to use the “captured” method, you will need to take the drain plugs along with the included rubber washers (as shown above), to plug the bottom of the catch basin as shown below.

Assembly is fairly straight forward.  The “Captured” setup is described as follows:

Captured: The catch basin retains the dirty solution without the use of the filter. Simply fill the pail to the bottom of the catch basin (1.6 gallons), close the drains on the basin, then discard the dirty solution when the basin fills up.

You last option for setting up this washer is the “Standard” option.  With this option will simply just not use the catch basin at all.

Standard: Remove catch basin and use full pail until cleaning solution needs to be replaced.

Once you have the catch basin set up for the system you choose to use, you are ready to add water and put the unit to use.  You take the packet of Snappy Clean included with the system and pour it into the bottom of the five (5) gallon bucket.

You will then add approximately 1.6 gallons of water to the bucket and mix the Snappy Boost cleaning solution.

Rather than needing to measure out 1.6 each time you need to refill the washer with the cleaning solution, you can simply fill to the amount required the first time and place a line on the side of the bucket with a sharpie for easy filling without measure in the future.  Another option would be to place the catch basin into the bucket and fill with water till it just reaches the bottom of the catch basin.

At this point you will drop the filter in if you are going to be using the “Filtered” setup, which this is the option I chose to use.  You can now drop the top on and you are ready to start cleaning your pads.

Watch for a follow up post in a few months after being able to use this system for a longer period of time.