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Thread: Pressure Washers

  1. #1
    Member sx rider's Avatar
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    Pressure Washers

    Hey guys,

    Just wondering what pressure washers you all use, karcher is obviously popular but are they the best and if so is it worth getting a k5 vs a k4 for example?

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    Guest arry's Avatar
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    Just for car washing or for anything more heavyweight? Occasional use or going to be used for long periods a lot of the time?

    The cheaper, lower pressure units are fine for washing cars but struggle with anything heavier, like patio / stone cleaning. Just doesn't have the oomph. The little Karcher I have is ok for washing cars / bikes but struggles to clean the ***ae (is a cnut) off of my stone water trough garden feature. That's a ~100bar cleaner. The K5 is 150 ish from memory, so would no doubt manage it a lot better.

    On length of use - again, washing the odd car with an air cooled motor is fine as it's not in use for extensive periods. But if you're doing a whole decking area for example, you'll want the K5 as its motor is water cooled and thus more reliable for use over longer periods.

    So I guess the answer is, depends on what you plan on doing with it, and for how long / often

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    living on the edge p.nicholas's Avatar
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    I bought the Karcher K4 back in 2016, it was on offer for £119 and still going strong.
    It's like arry said if your going to use it for heavy usage pay a bit more

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    The Karcher K2 goes on offer every now and again for £70 odd. We bought that for car washing and it's fine.

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    Member sx rider's Avatar
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    Thanks for the advice guys!

    Predominantly it’ll be for car washing but I’d like to clean patio and brickwork occasionally too. Think I’ll go with a water cooled unit to make sure it’s not stressing the motor out.

    Karcher seems to dominate the market so will probably go for one of theirs!

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    Banned sideways14a's Avatar
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    I just broke my old Karcher, it was a 1400w model - did ok but did not have huge balls behind it - fine for car though.

    The other night i found an Amazon warehouse deal for a top end K5 full control Karcher with all the bells and whistles for under half price so... its now here and i have just used it.
    Much more powerful but has lots of controls to the output ect, comes with loads of tools i already have! and seems to have bluetooth app - on a pressure washer ffs

    Still its washed the car fine, has a long hose and is very heavy but has huge grunt behind it so if you need something to shift really bad muck thats your daddy.
    Tools wise, the floor / path cleaner unit and several others.

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    Member sx rider's Avatar
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    Sounds really good!! What is the Bluetooth for? I remember joking about having Bluetooth on my washing machine a few years ago but it’s an actual thing these days.

    K5 might be the one for me, hope I don’t accidentally strip the paint of my car with it though

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    Banned sideways14a's Avatar
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    Feck knows i didnt read the manual...
    I recon its so you can have a legit reasons to fiddle with your penis with one hand in your pocket while cleaning your alloys, folk will ask wtf are you doing and you can pull out your phone and say - adjusting my psi's

    Or something.
    But if your only washing a car, the smaller ones are fine but if you want some balls behind it then the bigger models are the ones. I have a snow foam attachment and it shat it pants at full power - i was like Dumbo the flying elephant only urinating bubbles while flying around my (private, fk you!) car park....

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    Banned sideways14a's Avatar
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    One thing the big k5 has is a water filter, and while i have only washed once so far its not left any marks.
    Normally i am too lazy to dry the car so i leave lots of deposits - but when i checked it earlier not a mark on it so.... maybe its down to the filter.

    If it is then imho its worth the price on its own. i hate drying cars.

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    Member sx rider's Avatar
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    Haha, ah cool the water filter will be handy, can give the house windows a clean and not worry about marks

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    Guest mathew8717's Avatar
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    I have been using a kartcher unit for ages now, currently have the k5 full control unit. The all in one lance is a diamond, barely need to change it throughout the day.⁸

    I use the thing more than most doing patio and driveway cleaning, can be 3-4 days a week some times and it's more than man enough for the job. I always planned to replace it with a bigger trade unit but three years on the kartcher is still here.


    Couple of things I have found with them.

    I always buy from screwfix, purely for the warranty, any issue they have always replaced on the spot no questions, I had a patio head give up and as it came with the kit I brought they replaced the whole lot not just the washer head.

    The little yellow locater things in the end of the tool eventually come loose after lots of use, took me a while to figure out what happened but it unscrewed from the lance and left it in the trigger. Pair of needle nose pliers to remove it and a bit of superglue and its mint again.



    Also I had a spell where a couple appeared to have given up, had about 3 units in 3 months all with the same issue, plug it all up and just nothing happens, got them replaced through screwfix and it kept happening.

    Did some investigation and they can get air locked, seems to happen when you use a really long hose pipe. Mines 100m so can happen.

    All you need to do is plug the hose into the unit, don't connect the trigger unit, and leave the power off. The turn on the hose and let the water run through for a couple minutes. Connect it all back up and fire it up should be golden.

    That was two years back now and if it ever happens just bleed it and she's fine. So I bet the units I had replaced just needed bleeding and hadn't packed up at all.

    Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

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    I was in the market for a pressure washer last year and ended up buying a Nilfisk. They are really good value and you get so much more than you get with a karcher. However teh main reason for buying one was when doing my research, I found that karchers have plastic pumps which over time become brittle and break. There is no way to repair them so the JW is junk. The Nilfisks use an aluminium pump which is far more durable and long lasting.

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    Banned sideways14a's Avatar
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    I think the K5 and above have metal pumps, but yeah plastic not good.

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    Member sx rider's Avatar
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    Did you get a 10m hose with your k5? Seems to be different lengths available for different places.

    K5 seems like it might be the winner though, I’ve not heard of Nilfisk before but they look good too

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    I <3 BBS LM Actual_Ben_Taylor's Avatar
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    Where's cheapest for a K5 at the moment?

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    Member sx rider's Avatar
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    It depends on the version but the non compact version sells for £280 at Argos which seems to be the cheapest

  17. #17
    Banned sideways14a's Avatar
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    £370 for the k7 on an amazon warehouse deal
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/K%C3%A4rche...e-deals&sr=8-1

    Thats diddy money for a big fella like that, 2.8KW will was away mount Everest within a couple of mins.

  18. #18
    Banned sideways14a's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sx rider View Post
    Did you get a 10m hose with your k5? Seems to be different lengths available for different places.

    K5 seems like it might be the winner though, I’ve not heard of Nilfisk before but they look good too

    Nilfisk seem good, i was thinking of going with one of them but as i had all the tools for the Karcher i thought i best stay with them - thing is the dam K5 i got came with everything i already have !!!

    No idea on the length of its hose but its long, i will go out tomorrow and measure it - should be ten lengths of my willy.

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    Guest DLowe's Avatar
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    I'm using a k4 karcher....

    One thing that really let's it down is the short, plastic and not flexible hose for the lance...

    But 12 quid gets you a rubber 8m replacement from ebay and it transforms the experience

    Sent from my SM-N970F using Tapatalk

  20. #20
    I <3 BBS LM Actual_Ben_Taylor's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DLowe View Post
    I'm using a k4 karcher....

    One thing that really let's it down is the short, plastic and not flexible hose for the lance...
    The hose on my old K4

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