High pressure cleaners

[craig_the_german]

I had a small (I think the cheapest) Karcher for about the last 10 years. Seemed to go for ever...however in the last 6 months or so it has been repressurising itself once you release the trigger...as already mentioned in this thread. Spoke to the guys from Karcher who said that it was caused by a crack in the pump housing and that all pressure washers with a plastic pump will do it eventually. Finally it seized last weekend and is now in the trailer ready to go to the tip

I figure I spent about $100 on it 10 years ago and has given 10 years of trouble free use.....I'll just fork out another $100 for the next 10 years

[Transporter]

Look also at the Gerni, it's made by Nilfisk and may be a better buy. I checked Karcher 3.xx series and the pressure from it was not much greater than from the garden hose jet nozzle.

[CarbonVW]

Reviving this thread!

I just used my old mans Karcher fo the first time to wash my car this week. Dam, the thing made the whole cleaner process so much faster and produced the best results thus far for cleaning my car.

I suggest people who are serious about cleaning their cars invest in a high pressure washer!

[NickZ]

I recently bought a Gurni 125.2. Is there anything I should avoid doing with it on the car that could damage the paint? The one that is obvious to me is to maintain some distance when using and if it has variable control to not use it at the highest setting, but any other advice is appreciated.

[Corey_R]

Are there any battery powered or 12v powered high pressure cleaners?

[Transporter]

Not exactly but there is a plastic canister with pump, hose and jet which you run from your car 12V battery. Alternatively you can use the 12V/240V inverter (1500W ).

[Idle]

I recently bought a Gurni 125.2. Is there anything I should avoid doing with it on the car that could damage the paint? The one that is obvious to me is to maintain some distance when using and if it has variable control to not use it at the highest setting, but any other advice is appreciated.

Be careful and keep the pressure well down when using a jet on painted plastic parts (bumpers etc.) — paint mostly doesn't adhere as well as it does to metal. (Don't ask me how I know...)

Same applies to radiators — the fins are very easy to bend and quite hard to straighten.

@Corey: I doubt there are any 12V battery-powered jet cleaners — the current drain would be too much for them to run for more than a short period.

There might be 32V units for country home lighting systems, perhaps, but 12V seems unlikely.

[Corey_R]

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately my car wash bay has no power available... not even within extension cord range. I'd have to roll out a generator or something

[Jarred]

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately my car wash bay has no power available... not even within extension cord range. I'd have to roll out a generator or something

Do you have water restrictions in sydney still?

WE used to in melb, which meant a trip to the car was late at night, to use thier hose, and a couple bottles of water from home to fill up ya bucket and give it a wash.

Now that our restrictions have eased (yay for rain) we can use HP washers at home.

Dad's got a gerni that I use (no idea what model) and it's heaps better than the small older karcher was. From what I remember it was close to the region of 300 bucks, but worth it for those who love washing thier cars. You can rise off the entire car, and there is hardly any water on the ground, mostly just mist over spray, incredible!

[Corey_R]

To be honest, I've lived in "recycled water" areas since 2001, so I've got little idea about any of the water restrictions (apart from the common sense stuff to water saving) because we've never had the restriction. However, it means that I've had to adapt to rinsing my car with recycled water though...

Using a HP cleaner could mean that more of the process uses clean water... but then I run into the no electricity problem! hehe doh!