Pressure Washer Buying advice please

[John Chapman]

I am looking at buying a pressure washer to be kept in an outside garage and
to be used mainly for washing cars.
I am attracted to the Karcher B202 Plus on special offer in B and Q with
trolley and toolkit for £87.
The specification on this model is
100 Bar
6 litres a minute
1.6 kw motor
As someone who has never owned a pressure washer could anyone please advise
me

1 Is Karcher a good and reliable make ?

2 Is this specification fine for cleaning cars or will I be disappointed
with the performance ? The only comparison I could make would be with the
supermarket car wash where you feed coins in and buy some time with a
pressure washer. Will performance be anything like that which is fine for me
but time always runs out too quickly ?

3 Am a little concerned that all pressure washers seem to have stickers
saying Protect from Frost. Had intended to keep washer in unheated garage
which is built away from house. Is frost a problem and are there any easy
solutions ?

All advice most gratefully received.
Many thanks in advance.

P S I know I can take it back to B and Q if it is no good but I reckon the
packaging might get a bit soggy in the process.
--
John Chapman
Stupor Mundi

[TonyK]

John

Irrespective of the washers spec etc be vary wary of washing a car with one.
I personally have taken a resonable amouth of the clear coat off the front
of my BMW coupe with one :-( and my F-I-L did even worse damage to his cars
paint. The problem is not so much with the washer itself but it you have
stone chips it *can* lift the laquer or (I assume) even the paint. I know
that paint was lifted clean off my wifes cars bumper with a steam cleaner,
the garage paid for it to be resprayed.

Just a work of caution. Plus I found it never actually "cleaned" the car,
just lifted the surface grime off.

Tony

[Mucker]

Yes, it will remove paint & mine is a Karcher from B&Q some years back.
Although well used for patio cleaning etc. its no use on the car unless you
have a brush attachment even then I've gone back to the hose & sponge as the
machine is noisy.
"John Chapman" <jcha...@clara.net> wrote in message
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[Hamish West]

> 1 Is Karcher a good and reliable make ?

Mine is OK, and it's 4 years old.

The basic nozzle is fine for cleaning under the wheel arches, behind
the mudflaps, and the wheels.
I use the rotating brush attachment for the car body. Works well for
me, but it's not quick.

> > 3 Am a little concerned that all pressure washers seem to have stickers
> > saying Protect from Frost. Had intended to keep washer in unheated garage
> > which is built away from house. Is frost a problem and are there any easy
> > solutions ?
> >

This is perhaps to avoid the machine's innards being split if there's
any water in them that could freeze?

[wanderer]

John Chapman <jcha...@clara.net> wrote:

<snip>

> 1 Is Karcher a good and reliable make ?

I can't comment on Karcher - I've been using the same KEW washer for
many years now without any troubles, only had to replace the nozzles
after about 15 years, and that was carelessness on my part!

> 2 Is this specification fine for cleaning cars or will I be
> disappointed with the performance ? The only comparison I could
> make would be with the supermarket car wash where you feed coins in
> and buy some time with a pressure washer. Will performance be
> anything like that which is fine for me but time always runs out
> too quickly ?

I used to use my car for work, which included much country lane and
some off-road travelling. I used to use the pw to get the worst off,
then shampoo the car, and finally rinse it using the pw again.

I think the Karcher has an adjustable fan spray or jet nozzle, same as
the Kew. NEVER use the jet on the car, it'll damage the paintwork. I
always use the fan spray setting on the car, it's less vigorous.

I've also got a brush attachment, and I sometimes use that to break
through the worst of the road grime.

> 3 Am a little concerned that all pressure washers seem to have
> stickers saying Protect from Frost. Had intended to keep washer in
> unheated garage which is built away from house. Is frost a problem
> and are there any easy solutions ?

Again, the Karcher may differ, but I always run my Kew for a few
seconds with the hose disconnected when I've finished with it, and tip
it up as well when it's all switched off, just to be sure there's no
water left in it. It's all part of the putting away sequence! It's
lived for the last 5 years in an unheated garage with no adverse
effects.

[pgiblin]

Consider B&Qs own brand performance washer, the specs seems the same as the
Karcher you listed...but its only 49.99. There was a review in last
weekends papers (Times/Telegraph..not sure) and the B&Q scored well.

You can use it on cars if you use the 'spray' setting which is less
powerful...however as has been said they don't clean particularly well.

PG

"wanderer" <wander...@tesco.net> wrote in message
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