pressure washers

Hi all
I’m in need of a pressure washer to clean my mums patio then for general household duties, cars, van, bikes etc. Halfords have the Karcher K2 on offer for about £100 is this decent or should we spend more? go for a different brand. no need for cordless or bike specific.

any tips advice gratefully received.

thanks

Don’t buy a Karcher!

Nilfisk are worth a look.

There was a decent pressure washer thread a month or so ago. Karchers weren’t the pressure washer to choose if I remember correctly.

I was told not to buy a Karcher so bought a Nilfisk (?) instead. Absolute garbage. 2 went back under warranty and still ended up with the same symptoms. Gave in and bought a Karcher K2 instead thinking it couldn’t be as bad/unreliable as the Nilfisks I had and its been spot on for the last 3 or 4 years I’ve had it.

ok will have a look for that, i tried a search but everything seemed to be from a few yrs ago.

In contrast my Nilfisk is head and shoulders better than my old Karcher.

I’ve had Kärcher and Nilfisk. Kärcher was fine, no complaints, I stupidly left it stored outdoors during a heavy freeze and the internals burst. Still worked but leaked horrendously.

Had the Nilfisk for 3 years… it did just stop working end of last summer. Could bring myself to bin it with an eye on repairing. Plugged it in a few weeks back and it mysteriously just worked.

So if it keeps going, it’s fine!

ok will have a look for that, i tried a search but everything seemed to be from a few yrs ago.

Pressure washers recommendation

TL;DR – Nilfisk factory outlet.

Another knackered Karcher.. Long hose to blame? Anyone got a Kranzle?

I started this ^^^ thread recently. Lots of helpful info in there on this subject

I stupidly left it stored outdoors during a heavy freeze and the internals burst. Still worked but leaked horrendously.

Had that happen to the previous one and not yet tried the current one after our -10C freeze over winter!

Old one split a piece of plastic inside:

Karcher K3.80 by Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

I pulled it apart to repair, then lost interest and just bought a new one in the end….

I normally run them dry to try and remove all the water inside before putting away, but can’t remember if I did last time….

I suspect it might be dead.

Just purchased a new jet wash after 10+ years with my old Karcher. Made the mistake of leaving lance pipe on for 1st time in 10yrs whilst it was freezing temps. Split the internals :-( Otherwise i was confident of another 10 years.

Did my homework on another Karcher. They do a basic version of the K2 which doesnt have the same casing. Its smaller in size but same output etc. Its £60 at B&Q at the moment. I bought that and then spent £18 on a 15m karcher specific hose on ebay. The one that goes to the lance, not the hosepipe. When i use a jetwash its much handier for me to have a really long hose than a handle to carry the karcher about. I set it up and can now walk around without having to bother with the unit.

I’ve got an Aldi one that does fine. As good as my old Karcher which was 14 years old before it died

Thanks picked up that other thread now and lots of info there. still no clearer and seems a total gamble but i’ll take a punt on something!

cheers

I picked up a Karcher K2 from Halfords the eve before the first lockdown, still running fine now for patio and cars, do the cars every 3-4 months x 2.

Only issue is the K2 isnt compatible with some 3rd party things like short triggers or foam spray guns. Its the baby of the Karcher range so not as powerful as other models, but hasnt stopped it working fine for me.

Key thing is to get the patio attachment which makes it so much quicker and cleaner to do

Key thing is to get the patio attachment which makes it so much quicker and cleaner to do

If you mean the round head thing, found that next to useless. Have to use a narrow lance and blast the lichen etc off cm by cm, which for a 20m2 patio, is very tedious….

Footfalls, Wet and forget after cleaning, makes it much easier next time.

Nilfisk all the way Karcher are cheap and nasty internals.

No issues with Karcher here. Got mine from Karcher outlet a few years ago.

Works great and if you’re cleaning a patio use a t-racer attachment. Cleans really well and no splashbacks.

If patio is really grubby suggest using something similar to patio magic before and brush in the the Karcher will easily remove it all.

Footfalls, Wet and forget after cleaning, makes it much easier next time.

One year I did coat the whole thing in Polyurethane sealant, after cleaning it (Stoner’s recommendation), however, made bugger all difference the next year.

I think the problem is concrete paviers, they have a rough, porous surface, so make it very easier for dirt, lichen etc to get attached….

Before

Cleaning patio by Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

Several hours later..

Cleaning patio by Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

Toolstation have the Karcher K2 and attachment for £100

Karcher Bundle

@footflaps that’s a clean patio!

https://avastore.co.uk/product-category/pressure-washers/

Pricey but seem a lot better built than karcher washers

Key thing is to get the patio attachment which makes it so much quicker and cleaner to do

If you mean the round head thing, found that next to useless. Have to use a narrow lance and blast the lichen etc off cm by cm, which for a 20m2 patio, is very tedious….

I’d be interested to hear more about this. There’s an attachment for my Nilfisk and was wondering whether it was a worthwhile purchase. I don’t have a patio but I bought the washer to de-green the concrete backyard and it takes bloody ages (and I dislike looking like Swamp Thing when I’ve finished).

Bought this one at the weekend. It was £120 but seems to have gone up now. It did a decent job on our path. Longevity yet to be tested.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb2200prw-150bar-electric-high-pressure-washer-2-2kw-230v/165kh

There’s an attachment for my Nilfisk and was wondering whether it was a worthwhile purchase

All depends.

Basically it spreads the water jet over a line, so the intensity is reduced.

I can barely get our paviers clean using the finest needle lance, so the Tracer head thing or whatever it was called just ended up in the wheelie bin.

Your patio might clean a lot easier, it which case I can see the attraction.

The circular attachment is what I use to clean our patio and paths. Really stubborn stuff might need a quick blast with the lance but otherwise the patio head thing saves hours! Obviously the type of stone has an impact – smooth stone really easy, rougher stuff takes more effort because of the friction.

You might want to spray the patio with some sodium hypochlorite first. The posh word for bleach, it’ll kill the growth without dissolving the stone and it’ll make the job a whole lot easier and quicker.

Another Nilfisk recommendation here.

This is worth a look. I bought my dad one from here and it’s been great. Think I paid an extra fiver to extend the warranty.

https://www.nilfiskoutlet.co.uk/products/subcat.asp?mID=Pressure-Washers&sID=Compact

The patio cleaners bundled with pressure washers are usually cheap plastic tat. If you buy a separate one for £40 or so they do a great job

@footflaps.

When the blocks have dried out, don’t forget to brush Kiln Dried Sand all over.

You need to fill the gaps between the block to keep them ‘locked’ together. You will hsve washed all the sand out by pressure washing.

Karcher K2 for £88 via a 20% code at Martin Lewis.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/karcher/#54785

I use Nilfisk with a round patio cleaner. The first patio head quickly broke as it picked up some stones and smashed itself, Nilfisk couriered a larger version to me as a replacement. Over the years it’s got less powerful, so I took a closer look last week and realised it was leaking and needed a handful of new o-rings out of the selection box I have. It now goes really fast and is many times quicker than the Lance, and it doesn’t spray crap everywhere.

I would never try and clean more than a small area without a patio head

+1 Nilfisk from the outlet. Just got a refurb’d Titan 120 for £62, barely more than it’d have cost to buy the accessories. I don’t think it’s really possible for anythng else to compete. They even included a free patio cleaner, apparently when they have orphaned accessories with no packaging they just get rid of them by sending them out with customer orders.

(had a C110 before, also a refurb- it’s gone wobbly after about 3 years of living outside in Scotland, it still basically works and I could replace the pressure sensor but it’s just not worth it, when the “new” one is so cheap and comes with all the toys)

The emerging consensus is my experience too;

Wet & Forget > wait a few weeks > Nilfisk with patio head.

Halfords have the Karcher K2 on offer for about £100 is this decent or should we spend more?

I bought one (just for occasional car and decking washing), only used it a few times but seems fine to me. I could see the point it getting something pricier if I were using it a lot or wanted something with more pressure but it’s fine for my needs.

Only issue is the K2 isnt compatible with some 3rd party things

There’s an ocean of 3rd party adaptowidgets available for karcher washers.

bikes

Gotta love the sound of rusty bearings that have had the grease blasted out of them… Personally I never found the jetwash any use for bikes. Too much exposed mechanics.

Another Nilfisk (Core 140) owner, I found the round patio cleaner to be fine, it give a more consistent wash (no streaks) than just the lance and doesn’t have you blasting shit everywhere. I’ve used a better patio cleaner (more jet inside the hood) on a petrol powered pressure washer, but for home use the Nilfisk one works fine.
I use ‘Patio fresh’ to kill the algae and mould first, as it’s 100% pet friendly

I also got a 3rd party short trigger gun and snow foam attachment to encourage me to wash the car more too.. it’s kinda worked

If you’re going to use the patio attachement you need one with a fair amount of puff, and more than the basic Karchers or they just aren’t strong enough. Also, wait till it’s been raining so you don’t have to fill the pores in the terrace stones up with water, and then before you start soak the lot with prewash.

I’ll go against the grain and recommend the Bosch 135 from B &Q. had it for a good few years but only gets pulled out twice a year to do the driveway.
In fact its a job for next week, so you watch….it wont work.