After spending ages trying to clean dried mud of bikes over the last few weekends, i was thinking about cleaning my bike before getting it home whilst its still wet. Im quite precious of bike cleanliness so it does need doing in my eyes.
Options:
Battery powered pressure washer
12 volt washer
garden pumpy type sprayer thing
5L drum of water and a sponge
Get Mrs Fiola to do sort it.
Ask Burt the dog to lick it clean

Whats best?

I’ve been biking out the back of my car for the last few months – no storage, no outside taps

Bought a mobi15 off chain reaction and it’s been ace – plugs into car cigarette lighter socket and holds 15l of water – more than enough to hose a bike down, clean it and rinse it off.

I know people have said it can leak / hoses can unclip / fuses can go but I’ve found it to be good so far. Hoses fit well, as long as you protect the corners it looks sturdy and the fuse can go if the nozzle gets blocked apparently. I’m sold on it – and if you’re electrically minded, you can purchase a 12v battery and fashion a portable rechargeable pack for it too

I’ve done it the cheap way.

I park near a river for most of my riding so just have a bucket and brush.

When I’m somewhere else I use a 8L pump sprayer with brushes. It,s a bit slow but gets the job done and has a decent pressure to it.

Got a mobi 15 and it’s great for cleaning the bikes before they go back in the car.
It’s blown a couple of fuses recently ( so I’m looking for a place to buy them cheaply!) but before that it had worked faultlessly for a couple of years.

I have one of these.

http://www.highonbikes.com/accessories-spares/tools-workshop/airace-driving-waterman-portable-jetwash-pressure-washer-12v-19l.html?gclid=CI_Ys92Wn8wCFYMK0wodL90Htw

It works well.

I use one of those weedkiller spray jobbies. Picked it up from Lidl a year or so ago. Dont need to charge its batteries, just pumps up. Nice low pressure, but high enough to blast most mud off.

Lives in the garden as we have no outdoor tap, and it’s weathered two winters well.

I bought a Nomad washer probably 5 or so years ago and it’s been brilliant.

Battery is still OK but doesn’t last as long as it did – enough for 4 or 5 tanks still and it takes 2 tanks to clean a very muddy bike.
Not cheap but has lasted very well given how much I’ve used it.

I have an Aqua2Go Pro. It has a 25 litre tank which is nearly enough for 2 very muddy bikes and the pray is a decent balance of concentrated power vs. flow.

The battery will do well over a tank, haven’t tested it to see exactly how far.

It comes with stuff to plug it in to the car’s 12V supply, you can charge USB devices from the battery and you can use the pump without the tank to draw water from (for example) a river.

It’s over a £100 but fairly impressed… once I got my hands on a working on (1st one was DOA but Winstanleys sorted me out well).

Garden sprayer type from B&Q. Cost a tenner I think. Does the job.

Basic generic brand one, 5L, seems decent pressure. Not too much. Too high pressure and you’re risking your bearings. B&Q don’t seem to do the one I’ve got any more.

We use them for Work, for cheap get Sealey, for the best get Nomad!

Dirt Worker here. Used less since we moved to a house with an outside tap (why don’t all houses have outside taps?) but only thing I can compare it to is a garden centre weed killer spray pump thing. Dirt Worker is far better and was also replaced quibble free when the early Mk1 I had died.

I had a kid about 5 years ago so in a couple of years he’ll have the dexterity to clean my bike for bargain sum of 50p a go. Worth the investment I feel.

Original Dirt Worker that we must have had about 7 years now. Forgot to fill it up last time we were at Afan and used the jet wash for the first time in ages – a mobile washer doesn’t get you anything like the same kind of clean but then it leaves some grease in your bearings as well. And you can use it anywhere.

Ours is sort of dying – the gun has got very stiff and it’s started leaking from the hose joint. Will be replacing it when it goes – what’s reckoned to be best now? I can’t see much need for rechargable (it would inevitably be flat when needed most) so 12V is fine.

the fuse can go if the nozzle gets blocked apparently.

Where did you see that? I wonder if that is causing the problem that has had mine sat in the shed for a couple of years after blowing a few fuses? I’ll have to see if I can take the head apart.

I also have a Mobi, been using it for about 8 months now. Fault free, fantastic bit of kit!

I have a MobiWasher V17, it has a battery pack (which is still going strong). I bought it in 2008 and the only problem is that the mains charger died (bought a generic replacement on eBay for very little) and the gun broke (got a cheap Aqua2Go gun from eBay for £10). It’s still going strong, I normally charge it from Maine and rely on the battery for a few weeks but the cigarette lighter still works well. It is hard to get hold of MobiWasher spares, I assume they’ve gone bust and CRC bought their remaining stock but they seem compatible with all the other brands (Aqua2Go is the main one and also most generic washers). I’d say they’re well worth it, especially if you own a car or have nowhere to wash it back home.

I bought ours as we used to live in Bristol and wanted to minimise the amount of time they were outside and visible to avoid scum spotting them and robbing us (didn’t work, the bastards!)

Tom KP

Anyone know of somewhere that sells the 8A fuse for the 12v plug at a reasonable price?
Cheapest I’ve found so far is Halfords.
Can find bags of 10A ones on the bay for a couple of quid but no luck with UK sellers of the 8A!

Si

Used to use a hand pump sprayer, but now use a DIY 12v thing – 25l water carrier for a fiver off Amazon and a 25 quid pump, hose and trigger nozzle kit from eBay. a few zip ties and jobs a good un. Enough water to get the worst of the dirt off about 5 bikes.

the fuse can go if the nozzle gets blocked apparently.
Where did you see that? I wonder if that is causing the problem that has had mine sat in the shed for a couple of years after blowing a few fuses? I’ll have to see if I can take the head apart.

Think it was in the user manual actually – saw it and clicked that it might have been why there’s reports of em failing

My Mobi (the 12v jobby) burned out its first motor within the warranty period and was fixed, but the replacement was temperamental for a couple of years before dying totally. I recently replaced that with a £10 Chinese eBay pump which needed different hoses and has been fine to date. Wouldn’t buy Mobi again, but just cobble something together.

Had a nomad for a couple of years, rinsing a wet bike is easier. As said above, not cheap but mine has been good and uses the ryobii batteries so you can buy “bare” drills etc and use the nomad battery and charger.

It is nice to pull a clean bike out of the car when you get home!

the fuse can go if the nozzle gets blocked apparently.

Yeah, I think that’s what happened to mine. Serves me right for running unfiltered rain run-off through it (this was *that* very, very wet CLIC24).

Just realised that Nomads are the new Dirt Worker. Not that I’ve had mine a while…

I use this

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Airace-Waterman-Portable-Pressure-Capacity/dp/B0050VDO1G

Well built and reliable

Mobi 12v washer owner for 6 years. Still used on just about every muddy ride and still going strong. Just the right amount of pressure to get the bike clean without blasting bearings etc.

I consider it essential kit now to make winter life easier when traveling by Van to ride.

i made one of these using a few spare bits, a 12v pump ogg ebay for about 12 quid and an old water carrier for camping.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Xcellent-Global-Portable-Powerful-Gardening/dp/B00ZGZDCWC/ref=pd_sim_sbs_200_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=41uzGR2cjAL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=8WCTXD6DN914RSHATX29

works very well. but i get a wet floor in the car sometimes as its not sealed.

^^^that one is exactly the same as the one I bought a few months ago but there’s no way I spent £40 on it.

Can’t remember how much, but I think I got it for less than £20.

Used with a 25 litre carrier. Can’t see the need for anything else tbh