Pressure washer recommendations

I bought a Bosch power washer from Amazon about 5 year ago, and it has been working great.
It washed patio, path, driveway, cars and window frames. It is still sitting in the shed.
It was around £150 including free next day delivery. Not sure what the model name is - it is green colour, and quite heavy machine.
It is powerful enough, and works well.
 
Generally you want something with a metal pump for longevity.

Then it's a case of getting the right features and tools with it.

Ava do good stuff. Karcher shouldn't be written off. Nilfisk should be considered.


I got a K5 universal recently for ~£200 and it's great.
 
413x said:
Just looked at this.. I'm not sure how much on ours is dirt vs algae/moss?
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Jet washing lasts for about 2 minutes. Patio magic treatment every now and then and it'll get as clear as god intended. My mum's drive is exclusively treated with patio magic and it looks substantially better than all of our neighbors who insist on wasting an afternoon jet washing.
 
dlockers said:
Jet washing lasts for about 2 minutes. Patio magic treatment every now and then and it'll get as clear as god intended. My mum's drive is exclusively treated with patio magic and it looks substantially better than all of our neighbors who insist on wasting an afternoon jet washing.
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Seeing as I don't have a pressure washer.. May as well try this before the washer
 
After some, albeit brief, research I went with this from Screwfix
www.screwfix.com

Titan TTB2200PRW-Dual Speed 150bar Electric High Pressure Washer 2.2kW 230V - Screwfix

Order online at Screwfix.com. Easy-to-manoeuvre pressure washer with quick lock and release system. Features 2 pivoting wheels and independent wheel brakes. Suitable for the cleaning of vehicles, machines, boats and masonry. Removes stubborn dirt using clean water and biodegradable chemical...
www.screwfix.com www.screwfix.com

Reasons I went for this over others was price Vs comparative examples, eg K4.
It collapses down to a small size for storage. The 10m hose is really helpful for cleaning. No need to constantly drag the thing around or relocate it whilst cleaning, and the accessories it came with all seek useful.
Only used it a few times but it's performed well at getting rid of muck on a garage door and my car.
The only downside, and I don't have a comparison so it may actually be normal, is the noise when operating it is rather loud!
 
Look for the specs showing flow rate at a given PSI, pressure alone is meaningless. Physically check you can get spares and how much they cost. Karcher stopped being a good brand years ago IMHO. If the budget runs to a hot washer the cleaning performance advantage is night and day.
 
I bought a Nilfisk and it died after a year. To their credit, Nilfisk replaced it free of charge, and then a year later that one died as well. The pump just never stays on.

I've heard that they can sometimes die if they're stored in the shed, because pockets of water left inside can freeze, expand and destroy the unit. No idea.

But definitely a mixed experience for me.
 
I bought the K5 compact, solely as it has the detergen suction tube built in. I find it really useful for cleaning bins, spraying the paving with hypochlorite etc.

With the karcher vario lance on mix/soft setting it outputs at around 4-5% dilution.

I do find you either need an uncoiled extension cord or plugged in direct to a socket, I have a couple of long spool extension cords and it will always cut out if not fully unwound.
 
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Jim99 said:
I bought a Nilfisk and it died after a year. To their credit, Nilfisk replaced it free of charge, and then a year later that one died as well. The pump just never stays on.

I've heard that they can sometimes die if they're stored in the shed, because pockets of water left inside can freeze, expand and destroy the unit. No idea.

But definitely a mixed experience for me.
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I think during colder months they recommend ensuring the unit has had all water removed due to the potential of it freezing and causing damage.

I usually stop the water supply, whilst powered on run it until the water in the hose/unit is removed but quickly catching it before the pump runs dry, then switch power off and press your trigger again usually brings out the last of it.

Had no issues with my Karcher since 2017 and it’s stored outside in a storage unit.
 
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Ive got a Nilfisk & had it for almost 10 years I thin know, it was one of the cheaper ones, but can't remember which one exactly.
It's performed well & still working & not had any issue with internals freezing when it's stored over winter (always in an unheated shed or garage), but I do try to make sure I tip the unit over to drain anything out from inside it.
Only problem I've had, is I found the patio cleaner attachment fairly useless & I got much better results using the turbo nozzle instead.
 
I had a Kranzle 160 tst which I lent out. It came back looking like it had been run over by a digger, which it had. Prices shot up through covid with availability non existent so I had to downgrade to the domestic range Kranzle 1050 tst. It is a little lacking on features but does a job and was a third the cost.

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Kranzle commercial are good units, dunno about the domestic range. If people have the space for a well maintained commercial one they are in a different league. I have a retirement home for overworked, abused and generally knackered steam cleaners here :) Amongst the winter jobs are renovating two of the best ones as they are both far too good to scrap or part out. But they were on last winter's list too...
 
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I have had a Karcher 500 series for a few years now, main use is for patio slabs and it does a good job.

One thing though, it often wont start up after a period of not being used and needs to be bled to get the motor to kick over.
This is done by removing the water inlet hose connector from the jet washer hand lance and running water through it for 5 minutes.
Put it back together and it works OK.
 
Been using my Ava P70 all summer and it's been great. Only problem I have at the moment is the release to detach the handle from the hose is a bit finicky, I've gotten suuuper frustrated with it sometimes as I can't get it to release. I might contact Ava about it.
 
Jim99 said:
I bought a Nilfisk and it died after a year. To their credit, Nilfisk replaced it free of charge, and then a year later that one died as well. The pump just never stays on.

I've heard that they can sometimes die if they're stored in the shed, because pockets of water left inside can freeze, expand and destroy the unit. No idea.

But definitely a mixed experience for me.
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My Nilfisk is over 10 years old and still works like brand new, always been left in unheated garages
 
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