Best pressure washer

[anonymous-user]

Andy-6ufnp said:

I have one and it's a pain in the a&rse to carry and the cable and hose get in the way. Might last on long time but will also irritate for a long time too.

[Buster73]

Andy-6ufnp said:

No, don't believe in servicing these things. Only serviced my mower three time since 1993, it's a Honda and still running strong on original everything apart from blades. When it goes bang I have a few hundred quid to put towards it that I would have paid out for servicing it.

Had my Honda mower serviced by the supplying dealer last year , £115 for the pleasure.

Never asked the price but had in my mind £60/£70 .

It’ll be a long time before it gets serviced again.

[anonymous-user]

I've got a £100 Nilfisk with various atatchments. Works great. Used the 3 year guarantee to have a pump seal repaired - they direct you to a local specialist, who turned out to be a business about 3 miles from me.

[anonymous-user]

Buster73 said:

Had my Honda mower serviced by the supplying dealer last year , £115 for the pleasure.

Never asked the price but had in my mind £60/£70 .

It’ll be a long time before it gets serviced again.

Ouch

[stuart_83]

Bought a Nilfisk about 6 years ago after multiple failed Karchers.

Paid about £90 for it with various attachments. Still going strong.

I think they use metal impellers rather than plastic in the Karchers.

[BIRMA]

My expensive Karcher had a problem with the low pressure elbow just 1 month out of warranty.
I have posted this before as it was moved to another thread/title.
Anyway being a practical sort of chap I took the cover off to inspect the low pressure elbow, on close examination of the bit that fell off the metal elbow it looked porous. So I took it along to a friend who runs an engineering company who confirmed it was probably a cheap crap porous casting.
So I phoned Karcher and boy was it a case of talk to the hand, first of they said I'd probably left it out in the frost so it cracked. I did explain it was kept in my heated garage. Then said I shouldn't have taken it apart.
Ultimately it was such a dreadful customer relation experience that they should never have got away with.
In the end I purchased a new elbow from them that looked better made and I haven't had a problem in about 4 years.
When it goes I doubt I'll buy another Karcher product.

[thebraketester]

I have got a Nilfisk C130. Had it 7 years. No issues with it at all. I did get a 10m qwashers hose which is much better than the crappy hose you get with it.

[anonymous-user]

BIRMA said:

My expensive Karcher had a problem with the low pressure elbow just 1 month out of warranty.
I have posted this before as it was moved to another thread/title.
Anyway being a practical sort of chap I took the cover off to inspect the low pressure elbow, on close examination of the bit that fell off the metal elbow it looked porous. So I took it along to a friend who runs an engineering company who confirmed it was probably a cheap crap porous casting.
So I phoned Karcher and boy was it a case of talk to the hand, first of they said I'd probably left it out in the frost so it cracked. I did explain it was kept in my heated garage. Then said I shouldn't have taken it apart.
Ultimately it was such a dreadful customer relation experience that they should never have got away with.
In the end I purchased a new elbow from them that looked better made and I haven't had a problem in about 4 years.
When it goes I doubt I'll buy another Karcher product.

WOW. That is crap especially being one of the better models.

I must say it has been making a few strange noises over the last year and once finished there seems to be oil coming from the motor.

Not great but worse if the customer service is shocking.

[anonymous-user]

stuart_83 said:

Bought a Nilfisk about 6 years ago after multiple failed Karchers.

Paid about £90 for it with various attachments. Still going strong.

I think they use metal impellers rather than plastic in the Karchers.

Funny most reviews have Karcher ahead of Nilfisk but little point if it stops working.

Good to know again as I was going to just go with Karcher again. Think I have changed my mind.

[tonyb1968]

I have a Nilfisk C110, has to be well over 10 years old, no issues with it, still going strong

[anonymous-user]

tonyb1968 said:

I have a Nilfisk C110, has to be well over 10 years old, no issues with it, still going strong

That is very impressive.

They do state the Karcher is more powerful but the build quality of the Nilfisk is better.

The Karcher was just a bit crap when it came to quality IMO.

[vikingaero]

I have a Nilfisk - bought for around £40 when Amazon have their daily DFS type sales. It's good for car cleaning, but the patio washer is poor.

The Nilfisk replaced a Karcher which dropped all it's oil when a seal blew. I ran that Karcher for about 10 years with no oil.

[alorotom]

ELUSIVEJIM said:

anothernameitist said:

Karcher have an online out let shop.

Basically customer returns that are refurbished and look like new.

Aldi and Lidl sometimes have washer on offer too.

I seem to remember Nilfisk having good reviews too

Thank you for that one. Will have a look at both

Appreciate everyone's view so far

I have a K4 from the outlet - had it over a year now and it didn’t come in retail packaging and was a little scuffed on the base but works perfectly.

We have the hard floor scrubber from there too and that was also in non-retail but was perfect!

[anonymous-user]

vikingaero said:

I have a Nilfisk - bought for around £40 when Amazon have their daily DFS type sales. It's good for car cleaning, but the patio washer is poor.

The Nilfisk replaced a Karcher which dropped all it's oil when a seal blew. I ran that Karcher for about 10 years with no oil.

I hope I am not the only one who has never put oil into their pressure washer.

[anonymous-user]

alorotom said:

I have a K4 from the outlet - had it over a year now and it didn’t come in retail packaging and was a little scuffed on the base but works perfectly.

We have the hard floor scrubber from there too and that was also in non-retail but was perfect!

I was looking at the K4. The outlet is a great price but when you add the Dirtblaster Spray Lance is very close to the Screw Fix price which is new.

But the Nilfisk is getting good reviews as well.

I wish I just was the type to buy one without taking a year to decide

[anonymous-user]

Andy-6ufnp said:

Tim662 said:

If you want the best pressure washer for cleaning cars then this is it

https://www.elitecarcare.co.uk/product/kranzle-k10...

I have one and it's a pain in the a&rse to carry and the cable and hose get in the way. Might last on long time but will also irritate for a long time too.

I have always found that wheels make these things much more user friendly..
https://www.elitecarcare.co.uk/product/kranzle-k10...

[vikingaero]

ELUSIVEJIM said:

vikingaero said:

I have a Nilfisk - bought for around £40 when Amazon have their daily DFS type sales. It's good for car cleaning, but the patio washer is poor.

The Nilfisk replaced a Karcher which dropped all it's oil when a seal blew. I ran that Karcher for about 10 years with no oil.

I hope I am not the only one who has never put oil into their pressure washer.

Most modern ones don't have oil. The old Karcher I had did. It even had a sight glass on the side of the machine to view the oil level.

[anonymous-user]

vikingaero said:

Most modern ones don't have oil. The old Karcher I had did. It even had a sight glass on the side of the machine to view the oil level.

Thank you for that info mate.

Helps knowing I wasn't losing the plot

[timberman]

I have a Nilfisk E140,

I paid about £200 for it about 7 years ago complete with patio cleaner + some other attachments for cleaning drains and stuff.
It works great and makes light work of cleaning the car, patio/block paving, even garden furniture,

the only thing I will say is the supplied hose was a rigid plastic thing that proved awkward to use so I replaced it with a much better rubber one from ebay.

If I ever need another I'll most likely get the same again.

[markcoznottz]

vikingaero said:

ELUSIVEJIM said:

vikingaero said:

I have a Nilfisk - bought for around £40 when Amazon have their daily DFS type sales. It's good for car cleaning, but the patio washer is poor.

The Nilfisk replaced a Karcher which dropped all it's oil when a seal blew. I ran that Karcher for about 10 years with no oil.

I hope I am not the only one who has never put oil into their pressure washer.

Most modern ones don't have oil. The old Karcher I had did. It even had a sight glass on the side of the machine to view the oil level.

I use a karcher hd6/13c for mobile work, I stripped last winter and put new seals in and oil change after 10 years! Approx litre inside. The commercial machines can't ever break to the point of being scrapped as such, as there's hardly any moving parts, a quite clever design and all parts are available. It also survived those two very bad winters outside. If you really want to do things in style get one of the three phase pump and motors the car wash boys use, take your head clean off. As I understand it most of the decent pumps are made in Italy, so quite often a branded pressure washer will use a lot of off the shelf parts .

Edited by markcoznottz on Sunday 21st April 19:19