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Hi chaps,
My 2 year old Karcher K4 pressure washer has finally died after springing a few leaks, which I believe are from ice cracking the plastic connections inside the washer.
What do you guys use? I've heard the Nilfisk wahsrrs have brass connectors, so are less likely to suffer from frozen problems....
This is not for bike washing, btw!
Cheers 🙂
Ricks
With any washer you always need to drain the water from them and leave them somewhere dry and preferably someplace they don’t freeze. I used to sell them and was given a few tips from a Karcher rep on how to make them last longer. I had a budget (£60) Karcher one last 13 years using their advice.
BTW my new Karcher K4 has a 3 year guarantee, does yours?
Yep, it's going back to Amazon for refund. Pretty decent customer service chat with them.
After some digging, I'm going to try a Bosch 120. It's only for the car, so doesn't need to be hugely powerful for patio stuff.
Nilfisk ones are pretty good
The problem I've got with the Nilfisk is there's a decent amount of Amazon reviews where people have received broken motors straight out of the box. And this seems to be across the range. Karcher don't have this, but the quality of the parts is worse, as a lot of the connections are now plastic.
Been using a Nilfisk for about 5 years now . Been great. Only irritation for me was standard hose being too stiff and inflexible so changed for a rubber one.. oo err..
Moved from a budget karcher to a mid/high end Bosch
Power is much better
Adjustable nozzel it came with is a belter and the soap feed is good ..... Much better than the box you stick on the lance of the karcher
If there's water left in there during the winter and it freezes then the potential for damage is there. I know this to my own cost. Mine goes for weeks at a time between uses & I use compressed air to purge all the water during the winter months. Probably too much faff for most but after the lance splitting open & needing replaced it's an easy precaution to take. Is there any guidance in the users manual for storage during the winter?
I have had a Nilfisk for about 15 years. Left outside all year round. Has all brass fittings and pump and a big plus is that it uses standard hydraulic hose and fittings that are available anywhere. The Karcher stuff is more or less scrap if you damage a hose as they are proprietary and will cost you more than the machine did.
I like my Nilfisk, the hose is a wee bit shit but it'll be easy to fix when I get round to it. Everything else, I like- I've used/borroed more powerful washers and for things like driveway cleaning etc maybe that's useful but this think has all the power I need- I've used it to shoot stickers off my car (previous owner liked stickers), remove paint overspray, stuff like that. For everyday use it's more than enough.
I've got a small Karcher thats still going strong after 17 years .lives in the shed all year .
Couple of tips to make them last longer. Never run one without water in it - runs water through a machine until all the air pockets have gone before you switch it on then turn the power off at the end THEN turn the water off.
Some machines use water as a lubricant and cooling so if you run them even for a second or two without it it can damage the machine.
Always drain the water out of the machine and hose after use.
Always use the machine upright during use.
Don’t have the high pressure hose against anything (eg around a wall corner) as they vibrate slightly in use and wear through the hose quickly.
Store inside somewhere where it won’t freeze.
Don’t drop the hose gun on the floor, it’s a common point of failure that the gun splits (any make) - just be careful.
If it’s a cheaper machine try not to use it continuously for a long time eg when you are doing a driveway. Have a break every few minutes to let it cool down a little.
I’ve sold thousands of these things and had hundreds returned, it’s rare that in in the first few years that it’s a manufacturing fault that stops them working, 99% it’s users that destroy them because they treat them like the jetwashes at their local garage.
I’d like to know how you drain a K4..
Cheers Charlie, they're super tips 🙂
The Bosch arrived today. Super impressed with it. For doing the car, and bike tyres it's awesome. Weights 5kg, and is super portable.
That's not my belly. But it's the size of a Mobi, or similar portable washer.
I’d like to know how you drain a K4..
Basically tip and tilt it around until no more comes out. Best you can do really
Hope your Bosch is ok, we had loads of trouble with the Bosch ones and stopped stocking them as they all came back faulty but I was pretty sure a few years ago they were being made by a 3rd party and labelled up as Bosch as the quality wasn’t nearly as good as other Bosch kit. That was a fair few years ago now so they are probably very different now.
I used to own a top of the range Alto (now called Nilfisk!) when I worked in the shop, bought it for a pittance and binned it because the hose wore away and you couldn’t get spares for them back then - wish I’d kept it as the same quality one now would be £500+.