Sunday and the self destructing jet wash

I've got two Karcher units at the moment.

Think one of them is the B102M - seems to do pretty similar tasks to what you've described - i use it, abuse it, then put it away till the Boss tells me "you'd better clean them again". Can't remember how i've ended up with two - think one of them is a chums and he's forgotten to pick it up.

All the no-name units i've had had died after a few uses, the Karcher seems quite clever - switches the pump off when no water flowing, only lets detergent through when you've got a "slow" attachment on.

HTH

Si

Following fun in the mud - last week ...

The usual method of leaving the vehicle outside for the cleaning faeries doesn't appear to be working any more.

Flashback 12 months or so ... bought a cheap no-name jet/power wash thingie @ woollies. Silly thing burnt out after just 2 cleaning sessions.

Back to the present ... blagged an alto unit from that notorious auction site. This one barely made it through the first clean before self terminating.

Is there an afordable unit that manages to work as desired? managing its own heat output would be good. The unit /will/ be abused, then ignored for weeks on end. I don't want to micro-manage the duty-cycle of cleaning equipment - just want one that works.

Clues?

Following fun in the mud - last week ...

The usual method of leaving the vehicle outside for the cleaning faeries doesn't appear to be working any more.

Flashback 12 months or so ... bought a cheap no-name jet/power wash thingie @ woollies. Silly thing burnt out after just 2 cleaning sessions.

Back to the present ... blagged an alto unit from that notorious auction site. This one barely made it through the first clean before self terminating.

Is there an afordable unit that manages to work as desired? managing its own heat output would be good. The unit /will/ be abused, then ignored for weeks on end. I don't want to micro-manage the duty-cycle of cleaning equipment - just want one that works.

Clues?

my £20 cheapo one from focus has lasted 2 years so far!

Perhaps my tap water is thinner or something? ;)

Think you've just proved the adage 'you gets what you pays for' Might be worth investing in the local 'Scrotes R Us', pay some lad(s) Or ladettes, to do it for you, will keep them out of trouble too, maybe?

On or around Mon, 19 May 2008 09:10:40 +0100, "William Tasso" enlightened us thusly:

don' bother with a hot one, more to go wrong. I've got a big kranzle which I got second-hand from the people who sell new ones, they'd part-exed it.

I used to have a strategy of putting a garden sprinkler underneith to soften everything off before power-washing. Similarly I'd use a fine spray on top for 15 minutes or so. Probably quite eco-unfriendly, but made the final power-wash a lot quicker.

My neighbours are very happy that I rarely go froading these days :-)

I've just finished getting about 95% of the mud off the bottom of the pinz using one of those blunt cross-head screwdrivers specially engineered not to fit any screws, plus my fingers, and finally the blast gun attached to my compressor. The mud was all dry so was happy to come off and the blast gun worked quite well, prodding the big chunks of mud with the probe without any air tends to make them crack up and drop off, with the occasional blast of air to keep the probe clean, then using the air blast to clean out the nooks and crannies.

The advantage of all this is that I now have a driveway covered in dry mud that's easy to remove with just a broom. Eye protection is essential when using the blast gun! It's a lot less messy than water, and means you can get under the truck on a car crawler with the air gun and clean off the bolt heads and joints using the air, instead of getting wet and grubby you just get covered in a light coating of dust. I doubt it would work well on wet mud though.

Now I'll take the pressure washer to it to hose off the small amount of remaining muck, which won't leave much mess on the driveway.

I've air-blasted so many previously un-cleaned nooks and crannies that I'll probably go down with some disease that's been dormant in the swiss mud for so long mankind has evolved away any defence against it so if a sudden plague sweeps the country, sorry about that chaps.

You've probably lightened it so much as to make it unhandlable!

That explains it... swiss man flu is what I have. I'll have to roll my tissues to combat this one.

I don't fancy scooping up the filling and licking it off..

It's developed a landy-style slow oil leak, strange how on the landy, oil leaks just get ignored and I top up the oils without concern, but on the pinz any oil leak gets taken seriously! I think it's because it's not British, therefore oil leaks are a sign of something wrong rather than just in-built rust-proofing. The landy's got three oil leaks, I don't know where from as I've never looked, the pinz has one and I've been over it with a fine-toothed comb.

Following fun in the mud - last week ...

The usual method of leaving the vehicle outside for the cleaning faeries doesn't appear to be working any more.

Flashback 12 months or so ... bought a cheap no-name jet/power wash thingie @ woollies. Silly thing burnt out after just 2 cleaning sessions.

Back to the present ... blagged an alto unit from that notorious auction site. This one barely made it through the first clean before self terminating.

Is there an afordable unit that manages to work as desired? managing its own heat output would be good. The unit /will/ be abused, then ignored for weeks on end. I don't want to micro-manage the duty-cycle of cleaning equipment - just want one that works.

Clues?

You want to borrow my missus for a day (honest, you do!). You'd be under that Landie hunting down those leaks faster than a goafer down a hole ~ and you'd willingly stay there until they were fixed :-)

Maybe get a bivvy bag and camp under the truck on the pretext of trying to catch the leaks at night being as they're mostly nocturnal!

Eweeee!

I think I'm going to gag...... no .. no ... I'm definately going to gag!

Lee D

I have a K299[*], detergent bottle sits behind the handle. It always struck me that a stand alone detergent bottle would just ask for being kicked over and/or make moving the machine a PITA.

I reckon mine is about 3 or 4 years old but it's probably only been used 2 or 3 times. The rain does a good enough job most of the time, though it doesn't shift the algae.

[*] I think, just been to check the model but I can't actually find it ATM. SWMBO'd has "tidied" the room it was last seen in... K299 on the karcher website doesn't match what I have but I guess "fashion" has insisted a redesign of the plastic covers.

Thanks chaps.

Looks like Karcher gets the popular vote in the reliability stakes.

Kranzle looks interesting and appeals to the latent engineer lurking within.

Like the pre-soak plan - got me thinking.

Again ... many thanks.

Now you're just being silly. Everyone knows oil leaks are closely related (via the butterfly effect) to far more pressing issues and lack of circular tuits.