Pressure Washer Question

[mkpatrol]

What sort of pressure washers do you guys own?

Its my birhtday in a couple of weeks & have told the missus I want a pressure washer.

I only want to spend about $300 max as I wont be using it commercially. I do realise if I spend 300 on a Karcher that it will last longer but if I can go cheaper I will.

So any of you guys who have one, any brand, can you give me some feedback,

Thanks in advance,

MK

[chimpboy]

My el cheapo one from supercheap has served me well for more than two years now, and it gets quite a lot of use. $99, I think they are even cheaper now. I would struggle to justify spending any more than that.

Jason

[85lux]

i have spent some time working with a mate who makes his living out of repairing pressure washers. all i know is that from what i have seen, a cheap karcher is very cheaply manufactured. probably best to buy a karcher or gerni than some other no name one.
people a all concerned with the operating pressure of the pump. it is a combination of pressure(psi/bar) and volume(l/min or gal/min.) that is effective. a garden hose has the volume but no pressure, thus is not very effective. a small pressure washer may have the pressure but no volume and is thus not very effective. it's a combination of the two.
also, the pumps use the water running through them to keep cool. when the pump motor is left running with the trigger out, the water inside circulates and heats us. this heat keeps building until the head of the pump overheats and it dies. this is the most common cause of failure and is avoidable. so if your not going to use it for a minute or two, turn it off.

[80UTE]

I brought a Karcher industrial with diesel fueled water heating . Hot wash is great for engines gear boxes oily stuff, cold wash for the mud after playing for a weekend. It has high pressure and high volume so its got it all but for 3k + it should. I also have dirt bikes and as far as cleaning goes it the hot wash that makes the cleaning the most effective. Yes it was a lot of $$$$$ to spend but it gets used every weekend and should last me a life time. The great advantage is that it to big and heavy to lift into a car/ute etc so one ever asks to borrow it and i dont have to answer them with what the F**K were you thinking.

Wally

[mkpatrol]

I hear you about the Karcher, they all have an auto cut out now to prevent this (according to the pamphlet).

I had the Kmart cattledog this evening & the Arlec one has all the features of the Karcher one (auto cut off and all) but only cost 99 bucks with a 2 year warranty. This is what prompted me to ask.
I only want to use it for washing the cars and the occaisional wash of the stenciled concrete in the pergola, so if I get say 5 years out of it then I will be happy.
They also use half the water than the hose & the guy at the local car lovers gets the shits if I take my own bucket & sponge down & only use the pressure to rinse.

I do realise I will only get what I paid for but if some of you guys are getting a few years out of them then maybe they are worth it.

[RockyF75]

i got a cheapish petrol one and its great, must be about 4+ years old now, never had it serviced or nething, sum american brand like general machinery or sumthink. Mate has a $599 one from repco, 'scorpion' and i found thats pretty damn powerful for the price. Another friend got electrocuted from a electric one so i rekon i'll steer clear of em, water and tricity just dont like eachother , and petrol one r stronger imo

[mkpatrol]

Just thought I would give you guys an update on the pressure washer situation.

I bought an Arlec Enforcer because I liked the design of the thing. It sood upright, had a 5m hose, adjustable nozzle, built in detergent dispenser, the nozzles could be placed into the machine for storage so they would not have to lie on the ground and you could wrap the power cord to the handle. This would be good I thought

First one broke a wheel while assembling it.
Second one was missing an axle for the Wheels.
Third one leaked from the bottom of the detergent dispencer but otherwise worked ok.
Fourth one leked from a different spot in the detergent dispencer & didnt work as well as the third one.

Kmart refunded my money.

Just happened to be down at my local Bunnings & was about to look at the GMC variety when the missus said "look there is a pressure washer for $79"..... I thought "they must be crap" .... but then I had a closer look.

The brand is Alto, made in Denmark..."things are looking up" I thought. 2 Year replacement warranty, they are reduced from $159.... "this is looking better all the time" I thinks.

So I get it home & put it together, it is twice as heavy as all the cheapies I looked at, which can be a good thing because it is built stronger, it has 2 spray wands, one adjusts from direct spray to fan and one which does figure eights and & clip on detergent dispencer. So far so good.

First test, the lawn mower, I crank it up, bleed the air out, switch it on & away we go with the figure 8 wand as the adjustable wand was too strong.
Cleaned it up in 5 minutes flat.

It is quieter, has more pressure even though the rated pressure is the same for both machines, everything is built 10 times better & the quality is fantastic for the price.

Rating value for money

[ausyota]

This is just some info for anyone else looking at buying a pressure cleaner.
I sell pressure cleaners at my work.
DO NOT go with a cheaper model in the Karcher brand. They are built crap. We have had so many come back for repair that we dont sell them any more. Sure the higher models in the range might be OK but the cheap ones (up to a couple of hundred bucks)are crap.
You may as well go with a no name $90 one it will last as long if not longer.

One way to get the cheapies to last longer is chuck a cable tie on the trigger so they are permanently on and use the power switch to turn them on and off. The cheapies dont cut out from pressure and load up the pump.

[Tiny]

What sort of pressure washers do you guys own?

Its my birhtday in a couple of weeks & have told the missus I want a pressure washer.

I only want to spend about $300 max as I wont be using it commercially. I do realise if I spend 300 on a Karcher that it will last longer but if I can go cheaper I will.

So any of you guys who have one, any brand, can you give me some feedback,

Thanks in advance,

MK

the cheaper karcher ones have plastic heads, alloy are better, and the gerni basic and aussie h101s are under the $300.00 mark. some of the Altos from bunnings. gerni's medium one is the same as the aussie h110 pus, but you can get the same washer without the wheels and trolly for around the $350 mark, they are the aussie h110 standard and are the way to go in a med size cleaner. as you move to the larger ato, gerni, lavor, aussie and the bigger karcher you get brass heads but looking at min $700.00 mark.

Make sure you get one with an induction motor, the cheap supercheap, karcher and similar have brush type motors and burn out very quickly and the plastic heads are crap, they will not last.

h101 and gerni basic type


H110 plus and gernis med one, standard h110 has no trolly and wheels and the gerni one is green


the gerni and aussie ones have a turbo headd option which increases the efective working pressure by direction the water jet in a circular motion. these make cleaning concrete etc mush easier.

the basic ones will heve a 1450psi rating with 6Lpm, effective pressure of these units with the tubo is around 2000psi

the larger ones ie h110 are 1750Psi and turbo = around 2150Psi effective flow on these are also 6Lpm, only the larger untis get larger flows.

largest single phase output is 2000psi @ 9Lpm, then you need to go petrol/ diesel or 3 phase. the larger units in single phase are around $1000.00 but are well wirth the $ imo as the flow makes a huge differnce in the cleanin power

[Tiny]

oh and auto cut off is the way to go, the unloader which is the valve system that regulated the pressure has a spring loaded shaft. on lage more expensive machines these acualte an internal valve that bypasses the flow back to the inlet of he pump. on the cheaper models these will have an arm of them the depress a mico switch and cut the machine off. when you depres the triger and release the pressure in the system the valve is relaesed and come off the microswitch turning the machine back on. on the cheap chinese crap ones like the cheap karchers alstos etc thsy just wol like a cheap air compressor and continually unlad themselves causing water hammer and a lot of wear and tear on the whole thing.

TW chack the box, packed and or assebled in denmark (ALTO) does not made in denmark.

most of he better machines come from italy and some from germany, in fact gerni buy most of there models from a company called faip. faip are the "hobby" size wing of interpump who make a large proportin of the larger electric drive and hot water pressure cleaners. they also make wet endss for heaps of people who make engine drive machines including most in aus INCLUDING KARCHER

the other 2 main suppliers of pressure triplex piston pumps o pressure cleaner applications to aus users are bertolini and CAT

[dirtyGQ]

had a bosch one from repco $89 it was great till some low life scum rat stole it !!! now have a karcher and have had for 3 year just gotta watch when you use a garden hose that the water coming out of it into the unit isn't hot (from the sun) otherwise will blow some seal inside and the pressure hose is easily kinked and destroyed as i have done

[Doggy]

I was gonna warn you about buying arlec crap, but I guess you found out the hard way....almost everything made by them is utter shite

[Davidh]

Another problem with the cheapies is that the trigger hose is too short.
I can barely reach the roof of the car when the unit is right next to the car.

[sudso]

Its my birhtday in a couple of weeks & have told the missus I want a pressure washer.

I only want to spend about $300 max as I wont be using it commercially. I do realise if I spend 300 on a Karcher that it will last longer but if I can go cheaper I will.

Buying your own present?

From what I've seen and used of cheap PW's I think some are ok.

Mate's got a GMC one. (2 yr warranty for home use only) and the only prob was the hose and fittings were crap. (leaks)
He bought some decent pressure hose and fittings to suit now all is good.
He's had it for about 3 years.

[squarebear]

i got a GMC from bunnings $99.00 .2 yr warrenty works fine

[bru21]

we bought a kartcher one for a tad over 1k it has a briggs petty motor. biggest crap heap ever. the frame has wheels but cannot be pushed or pulled as the hoses exits / enters either side of the wheel shits me every time to the point i just use the hose. the cog is so high it wants to fall over all the time. when you start it you smack your hand even when you are careful not to. the unit is 400x400x300 but the frame is 700 x 700 x 1000 making it get in the way. the pressure in inadequate and is worse than any other one i have used you can spray your feet direct and stand it. i will make a new frame soon as it is that much of a pita

i used a electric s/f one and it cut the vinal saddle of my moto like a knife, thats what i was hoping for when we got this

[mkpatrol]

[quote="sudso Buying your own present?

[/quote]


Yep, I have her trained well