Seems these can be had for anything from £30 upwards these days.
Are the cheaper ones worth having?
Main uses would be the "usual suspects" like the car, shed, patio/paving, brickwork, UPVC windows etc..
Usually I think Pressure Washers I think Karcher? Also are there any special requirements other than a mains socket and a hose from the outside tap?
Any tips on any good deals would be appreciated.
cheers, Paul
Could be. However you get what you pay for so don't cry too many tears when it breaks down early.
You won't get a karcher for £30, leastways not in my experience. Karcher are the mutts nutts I believe.
You will need a set of wellies. Be careful turning the pressure on car panels 'cos it can cause damage. Be careful also when cleaning the gaps around patio stones, you will break out the flimsy material from those gaps.
Also, if your house isn't protected by a modern ELCB/RCB/MCB consumer unit make sure you get one of those plugs to power it from. Won't hurt to get one anyway.
Andrew
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I lost patience with a cheapo pressure washer a few years ago and purchased a Karcher 650M like this:
Looks like you could pick one up for
I've used a couple of them and neighbours have bought them. The really cheap ones don't seem to last very long and are a throw away item since you won't get spares in most cases. For very occasional and light use, this may be OK if you are OK with the economics.
The mid range DIY store own brand are somewhat better in the sense of being more powerful, but on a couple I tried, the accessories were not very well made.
I looked at power, quality, parts availability and service when I bought one and decided on a mid range Kaercher. I tend to use it pretty much every week for at least one of the tasks you describe and have been pretty pleased with it. The power is there, the accessories work well and it has been reliable.
You need to have a reasonably good water flow available at the machine.
For mains power, there should be an RCD device. Under current wiring regulations, any socket in the house that could be used for portable equipment out of doors muct be protected by a 30mA RCD, and so in new installations this is normally done with an RCD in the consumer unit. If you don't have this, then the alternatives are to fit an exterior socket with built in RCD, wiring it in to an existing circuit, or to use an RCD adaptor. Whichever you choose, do use something though.
Another factor is storage. If water is left in a pressure washer and it freezes, there is a risk of cracking the pump. This invalidates warranties in most cases. Ideally, you need to find a place to store that is not going to freeze, or make very sure that the pump is completely empty of water before storing. The latter may not be possible with some pump designs.
aldi have a special coming up:
31st March, 2005 Pressure Washer 2100W £ 79.99a.. Produced by Kärcher exclusively for Powercraft
(whooda thunkitt a major brand name making cheapo products for a discounter)
b.. 2.1kW long-life induction motor c.. 450 litre/hour water flow d.. 130 bar pressure e.. Spray gun with 6m high hose f.. Spray lance with variable high/low pressure regulator and dirt-blaster for 30% more cleaning power g.. Soft-bristle, water power rotary wash brush h.. Integrated detergent tank (comes with 0.5 litre concentrated detergent) for instant feed i.. Garden hose coupling j.. Automatic stop/start spray gun trigger feature k.. Automatic detergent suction (when rotary spray or spray lance on low pressure setting) l.. Full instructions provided.
of course, because it hasn't got the Kärcher badge and costs less than a Kärcher it's going to be complete rubbish which will, within days, have someones eye out
RT
Thanks Andy. Probably looking at the K2.89M for £80 from Argos as it seems to come with some tools and looks a reasonable spec for the money. It seems you can get machines like the Nilfisk Alto's for £50ish from Machine Mart but you don't seem to get a variable power nozzle or a brush.
One question, you see these things demo'd from time to time on the likes of QVC and I know they mock up the things they're cleaning to best demonstrate the machine, but how good are they? They always seem to show them literally cutting through a swathe of dirt and grime and it seems hard to believe that water alone would do this with muck that may have been in place for years (i.e. patio).
cheers, Paul
In message , Paul Hutchings writes
I use a Karcher, model unknown, for cleaning concrete slabs and paths and it is absolutely brilliant!!!!!!!!!!! Takes them back to new, well worth buying if you have an area like that. Be wary of using it on car paint work, I have stripped paint from plastic bumpers and cut through the rubber seal on the windscreen, this was all in one day until I got used to the power of the machine.
I got a Ferm one from Screwfix over 3 years ago and it's been great. Can't remember the exact model No. and I can't be arsed to go to the garage to have a look but it was about £80, has been used every couple of weeks since the day it was bought, and we've had no problems whatsoever - he says, crossing fingers and toes now that the 3-year guarantee has run out :o)
Mogweed.
for 30% more cleaning
detergent) for instant feed
pressure setting)
How dare they sell stuff that cheap. Those people are scum. It should be top price so Little Middle Englanders can pay that much, fuelling rip off Britain, and giving themselves a sense of superiority knowing those on the council estate buy cheaper brands than what they do.
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I'd say that that is a pretty good buy for the price, although it seems to have been replaced by the K297M with similar spec.
It appears to come with the variable pressure lance and the DirtBlaster and a brush.
I don't pay too much attention to shopping channels except when flicking past, and am sceptical of anything that is sold with anonymous personal reference on a TV show or anywhere else. For all we know, the person singing the product's praises is the marketing manager's brother in law.
I've had pretty good results with the pressure washer.
Most things are cleanable with the variable pressure lance. Typical use on a car is to use it on highish pressure to remove the dirt, then drop the pressure to apply shampoo and rinse.
For patios etc. the DirtBlaster is very good. This has a rotating nozzle and will remove most things. To give you an idea, it will strip the paint and start to eat into softwood if used close to it. You definitely don't want to use this on a car.
I also bought the angled spray lance - good for doing gutters etc., and the rotating car wash brush. The brush does a pretty good job as well and is more substantial than those typically sold for hoses.
Another thing that I thought of after writing the first email, is that eye protection is a good idea. Grit from cleaning can tend to fly about.
In message , Paul Hutchings writes
We have had 2 Karchers fail in the last 6 years - the plastic pumps splitting on both occasions - apparently metal pumps start with the 5 series and upwards. Our excellent local garden machinery dealers had a good deal on Stihl pressure washers (better than the best price I could find on the Web) so I decided to splash out on a RE116K model (140 bar, maximum 660l/h). So far, with limited use, it seems very effective and it is considerably quieter than the less powerful Karcher machines - it will be interesting to see how well it lasts!
Hi Paul
You very much get what you pay for. Karcher are the biggest, thats all. Alto (then KEW) invented the concept of the DIY pressure washer.
Look for an aluminium pump, not plastic and an induction motor.
Ignore pressure, it is generally bumped up at the expense of flow rate. Motor size is as good a guide as any.
Karcher, Gerni, Machine Mart, Draper, Stihl, Alto, Sealy - all much the same for DIY machines.
Dave
In message , Magician writes
Ryobi ?
Dave asked;
Ryobi ?
Made by FAIP in Italy, also sold as Gerni & other brands.
"Badge engineering" is rife in pressure washers! Nothing wrong with most of the Ryobi range.
Dave
I bought a £50 one from Woolworths 4-5 years ago and it's worked fine. I never bothered to look at the make before but just checked, and it's a Lavorwash Deltajet Delta Pro 1200. There were a number of accessories you could mail off for described inside the box -- I got a car wash brush which uses the pressure to drive a rotary brush. (The next year, Woolworths had same one for same price, but including that brush.)
Be careful with car. I've heard of cases of pressure washers being able to strip the paint off, particularly with the new low solvent paints which are now being used on cars. I always adjust the lance to produce a spread jet when pointing it the car. I have a metal post supporting part of my porch, and when I directed it at that, it did take the paint clean off...
I always feed mine from a water butt, and one of the main reasons to get one was so I could use the free water in the water butt for things like washing the car. I did wonder if sand and other muck in the water which washes off the roof might quickly destroy a pressure washer, but it hasn't.
I recently found it brilliant for cleaning the white PVC gutter fronts on my house whilst standing at ground level. As a kid, I must have missed out on not having a 1200W water pistol;-)
Water play is a wonderful thing, whether you are 4 or 40.... :-)
Just cleaned my stone and flag steps out back, 3 years of muck and moss and dirt build up, with a karcher and a lance head that sprays a jet of water in a circle 'dirt blaster'. Cleaned it up like new and didn't take a lot of time (probably about 30 seconds per flag/step).
My suggestion is to get an extension for the pressure hose, makes doing you car or garden a load easier because you dont have to move the washer around as much, I found that with the standard length hose it was pulling the pressure washer over when I was moving around the car. The longer hose also allows me to keep the washer away from the spray.
Paul
can I add to this with another question.....when chossing a Pressur Washer -what should one look for? It is motor wattage, flow rate o pressure? I reckon I'll end up on Ebay - but there are hundreds o choose from - is there a general rule of thumb in terms of what should look to "maximise"
Thanks
Ale
-- alexbartman
I bought the 30 quid one from B&Q. I've treated it like dirt and it still works. It's about four years old now. I never drain it or clean it. I leave it outside in the rain. For months. It snows, it freezes, it thaws. The damn thing still works.
It's noticeably less powerful than a friend's Karcher. But that cost five times as much. It's fine for cleaning patios.
Note that pressure washers in general are useless for cleaning cars, no matter how much they try to claim otherwise. To get enough pressure to clean the dirt, you'll bend the panel. Car cleaning requires a sponge/foaming brush to get rid of the dirt and a simple hose pipe (or bucket) to rinse. Whilst the pressure washer would do the rinsing, it isn't really necessary.
Christian.
They are fantastic for cleaning patios. It is probably their greatest use. Even the cheapest models will utterly transform the appearance from black to original concrete/brick. The more expensive models will just do it quicker, as they pump more water and can cut through a wider swathe at the same pressure.
Christian.
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