My pressure washer blew up last night. Plugged it into the cigarette lighter and the red light on the plug was red, flicked the switch on the pressure washer and it powered up for a second then died. Tried switching it off and on again but nothing. Then noticed the red light on the plug was off so I wiggled it and it came back on but still no power to the washer. Then after about 30 seconds there was a bang and smoke started coming out of the washer! Quickly pulled the plug and checked it out. No real burning smell and no obvious problem from the outside.
Tonight I’ve just opened it up and discovered the on the inside where the power lead connects there’s a resistor across the +ve and -ve terminals and that resistor has exploded. All that’s left is the casing and the innards, which appear to be like brown fluff are sprayed over the inside.
Three questions
a) any idea what caused it to explode?
b) is it dead or should I just try replacing the resistor?
c) do I need the resistor to be there?
