Pressure washers

[Grumps]

Hi, I am hoping to get a pressure washer before to much longer and having started looking around it looks a bit of a mine field. I've spoken to Ant about it and he's says the aldi one is good value for money but if I jump up a bit on the budget you seem to start getting more bang for your buck. I can't spend a load but any recommendations upto £100? What is the minimum pressure I should be looking at? It must have the snow foam attachment too.
Thanks all
Grumps.

 

[Synclare]

Pressure washers are death to cars Dave, seals are not designed to withstand highly concentrated blasts of water. No end of cars around with peeling lacquer a result of the Pol's and their traffic film remover chemicals and jet washers. Snow foam just a fashion in my opinion. Hose the car down to soften dirt before washing off with running hose and leather down after. But then I'm just an old git

 

[Shelly]

We're got a Kracher @Grumpy
But we don't use it on the cars
And it lasted for years ( just brought another one )
We found Tesco was the cheapest place to get it from

 

[Grumps]

It's more for Jues 4x4 Adrian really as it gets in a right state constantly although I do like the idea of the snow foam for the Zed. I'd like it for other jobs as well like cleaning the conservatory etc. See what your saying though mate.

 

[Shelly]

We got lots of different attachments with ours @Grumpy
But don't know about snow foam attachment

 

[Shelly]

We only got our pressure washer a couple of weeks ago
And tesco has lots of different ones in stock
Asda don't sell them
Tesco had more than BQ

 

[mid life crisis]

I'd second the vote for a Karcher @Grumpy
Just got to shop around for the best deal,think I got mine from Tesco as well when they were doing some deal with the clubcard vouchers

 

[Shelly]

Ours was a good deal too
Original price £99 we got it for £79
Also got club card points
What a bargain

 

[Bampz]

Bought my Kracher washer a few years ago and still going strong its about a 100 br pressure cleans the house and patio no problem don't use on the Z but have used on daily drive with no issue as long as not to close and use a wide jet, the one I have has a built in tube with a non return valve which you can put into a bottle of diluted car shampoo to spray over car on lowest rinse setting and as you turn up pressure automatically shuts off , cost about £120 comes with brushes

 

[Redline]

Like everything Dave, you get what you pay for. Here's my twopenneth.....
And a few hopefully helpful hints.

Agree entirely on the use of pressure washers on cars. They are an immensively useful tool but NEVER ever use high pressure on a car, especially the paint unless you want to start stripping it for a respray. Ok for low/medium to rinse off etc though. Pull the trigger away from the car before you start using it - that's every time you pick it up. Otherwise you'll accidentally blast the car at some point.
I have a Kaercher (admittedly not a cheap one) but, it does 150bar. That's 50% more powerful than most. It gets used at that pressure only on the patio and the conservatory every spring. It makes what used to be an all day marathon into a two hour job.

The advantages of Kaercher are the tools.
From patio cleaner, brushes, extensions etc. Makes them versatile.

The standard hose on cheaper units is however generally short. Doing a large car can be pain because they don't stretch all around without having to move the washer itself.
A 8 metre or 10m hose is much better. They are a bit difficult to control as they constantly want to curl up. Have a reel that keeps it tidy though.

I also use a snow foam attachment. Much better and quicker than a hose based one. 15 seconds to cover the whole car. Much quicker and even coverage.
OK - It uses more foam stuff but not dramatically more if your careful. Well worth it.

I also have a wheel brush but I rarely use it on the washer. Just as easy to use a bucket with that to be honest.

For use on the conservatory roof (and upstairs Windows that can't easily be reached) I use a 3m extension with variable angle/power nozzle. That also does under the cars to remove winter salt etc. Great addition.

They MUST be stored where frost can't get them. If water freezes in the pump you have a dead washer.

 

[Faheem]

@Grumpy I got a free pressure washer with my insurance policy. It's the Karcher K2 I believe.

Now when I used this pressure washer on my project zed this happened

Since this happened I have got into the habit of leaving a large distance between the end of the pressure washer and the car that I'm washing.

As a result I've not had any issues.

P. S Obviously my project car has been resprayed at some point and the paint job was just awful, loads of over spray and the surface had not been prepped prior to spraying.

 

[Shelly]

Thanks for the photo @Faheem
I didn't realise it could do that much damage
I'll keep on using my bucket and sponge

 

[MidlifeZ]

I use a Nilfisk C110 but have changes the hose for a proper rubber one lol which cost about the same as the PW, never had a problem.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NILFISK-A...009393?hash=item51b5d55a71:g:FgwAAOxynLhSC525
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nilfisk-A...412672?hash=item41b24f4100:g:iCUAAOSwxg5XztuU

 

[Faheem]

@Shelly My point is it all depends on how confident you are with the paint job on your car.

If the paint job was applied correctly - I. E. the surface that the paint was going to be applied to was sanded prior to painting - then this would likely never have happened.

I still use the pressure washer on my main car just do it very very carefully with a lot of distance between the washer and the car and everything is fine so far.

For those interested in the end I applied filler on to the car where this had happened and gave the whole car to be plasti dipped, after a couple of days I went to check on the car and my god they've ruined my project zed.

They said that because the car has been painted on before I gave it to be plasti dipped the dip wouldn't stick.

This thoroughly annoyed me as they expected for me to pay the full amount with the s*** job that they'd done - ridiculous. I didn't agree to that as Id obviously agreed to pay them after they'd completed the job properly. Now I've got to go and argue with them at some point this week.

I asked them to dip the car in a dark grey and the dip looks like primer.

Moral of the story: don't use a pressure washer to close to a car.

 

[MidlifeZ]

That sounds terrible mate, hope you sort it out.......Sounds quite simple to me I wouldn't get into an argument I would simply ask them if they feel they have fulfilled what you asked for, remember to stay quiet and let them dig themselves in......Silence is better than shouting, good luck and keep us updated.

 

[Davyhoogy]

Get to B&Q

 

[Shelly]

Great price

 

[MidlifeZ]

This is mine
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/2717...=9046376&device=c&campaignid=620800750&crdt=0

 

[Grumps]

Thank you everyone for your offerings. Must say the b and q one looks tempting at that money but I've not read up on it yet.

 

[Davyhoogy]

Me either I saw it yesterday but I haven't looked either so not sure what attachments it can take