john banks

I find you still need to resort to the sponge on silver - and that was with the Champion effort that won the Autoexpress group test. However I do live at the top of a hill so the water pressure may be a little low - won't get flooded though

carl

Ah, silver. That may be my problem then

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

I've been toying with the idea of buying a jet washer for a while, but the idea of £100 and up for one put me off. The main reason for wanting one was the low water pressure from the garden hose .

While doing the shopping in Tescos (New Malden, Surrey) I came across a Power Devil Pressure Washer for £39.99. Very cheap I thought, but I'd give it a go.

In the box was the pressure washer, the lance, an extension, a detergent holder and a soft brush.

Gave it a go this afternoon, and I was most impressed. Only took me 20 minutes to wash the car, compared with the usual 40-60 minutes it takes me.

All you need to do is put it together, plug it in, and attach a hose to it.

Andy

PS - No connection with Tesco's, just passing on a bargain I found!!

Danny Fisher

I agree with Andy, they are VERY useful. But be careful of stop chips, and these can make the paint chip bigger. I normally only use it for the wheels.

Dan

ptholt

guess i went a little mad then buying a shut down garages karcher steam cleaner for just doing my wheels

carl

I guess I must have done it wrong then. I borrowed a pressure washer with a view to buying one, and it didn't seem to be any more effective than a hose. I had assumed I could blast the dirt away, but I still had to have a go with a bucket and sponge, so I only used it for rinsing.

davyboy

Carl, you would need to give it a quick rinse, then spray some detergent over your car, then blast that off. Should do the trick.

carl

How do you 'spray some detergent'? Do you need the thing that attaches a detergent bottle to the pressure washer?

davyboy

Carl, no just a bottle of detergent with a sprayer (diffuser??) on the end.

john banks

Even with a detergent sprayer and good detergent, I still need to resort to a sponge now and again - not for the dead beasties, more for the areas of general dirt which you can run your finger through and make a mark on. And that's keeping the car waxed as well. Odd.

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

I found yesterday, I got a good result when, I hosed the car down first.

Then use the detergent thingy that came with it. (And it only used half the detergent I usually use in a bucket!)

Use the soft brush attachement that came with it next, then hose it all down again.

I thought about how much I spent on jet washs and small valets on the car, as I was too lazy to wash the car myself.

For under £40, I think I will save at least that by the end of the year!

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Forgot to mention that the Tango Tart Mobile is also silver! And that the result was better than a jet wash. (I didn't get those dirt streaks normally left behind on the bottom half of the car!)

MartinM

Be VERY VERY careful with a pressure washer - if you have a stone chip on any of the painted plastic bits (front, rear spoilers, wing, scoop(?) etc) and you get just the wrong angle on the spray or it hits an edge at a weak point, it can take the paint of in huge patches - like several square inches at once....and I've seen it done. Ouch.

....in fact I wouldn't allow a pressue washer ANYWHERE near my car (wheels and under bonnet included)

Chris L

Having watched Mr Underwood (the Wax Wizard) clean my car a couple of weeks ago - he makes extensive use of a pressure washer for the initial stages of cleaning the car. What Mark tends to do is apply some of his general purpose cleaner to the outside of the car and then wash this off with a pressure hose. The big advantage of this is you are not wiping dirt and grit off the car using a sponge, which obviously scratches your paintwork. Mark also uses a similar trick to clean the engine bay and the results are equally spectacular.

Like all things, as long as you are careful (i.e. don't have the nossle too close to the car I doubt you will have a problem (I'm not sure what they put in the cleaning tablets that you can use either).

Chris

MartinM

Oh well....if its good enough for the WoW, then I must be wrong....again

Chris L - how does WoW put the cleaner on? Pump action spray? Don't tell me he puts it on with a sponge

Maybe I'm talking about being careful with a pressure washer (ie motor-driven) at 150 psi or so. Is a pressure hose different - how many psi do they do???

carl

I think you're an order of magnitude out....

The Karcher sub-£100 pressure washers do 100 bar, i.e. 1500 psi approx.

ChrisB

I've got one of the bigger Karchers and sometimes use it for cleaning the car, although I haven't used it on the Scooby yet.

I tend to use it to spray a load of detergent on the car, then hand wash it with a sponge / bucket combo, then rinse it off on a low pressure.

Oh, and worth using an RCD circuit breaker with a pressure washer.

ChrisB.

Chris L

Martin

Mark uses a normal spray bottle to apply his general purpose cleaner. The cleaner appears to be largely made of orange and lemon (judging by the smell) and will dissolve dirt / grease / brake dust on contact - amazing stuff really.

Speak to Mark for more details

Cheers
Chris

Boost II

iTrader: (1)

I got a cheapish Pressure washer and I personally don't like it to clean the car. Despite spraying on WW's shampoo with the bottle attachment, a sponge is still needed to wipe off general grime. Then the sponge seems to absorb most of the water off the car with out having a bucket to dip it in. I don't have a brush attachment so that is obviously one factor. I also find that the power lead, hose pipe and lance piping is just too much to keep under control and tends to forms one big intertwined knot which inevitably gets jammed under one of the wheels whilst I'm trying to drag it all around the car. Also the lance piping is not overly flexible and can easily knock and scrape the sides of the doors and wings possibly causing scratches. There doesn't seem to be an advantage over the spray gun on the end of my hosepipe and a bucket of soapy water.
That said it is great for blasting specific stubborn stains, just doesn't seem effective for the thinly smeared stuff. Wicked results on the patio though, also for blasting salty crud from under the chassis in winter time.