high pressure jet cleaner

[mint]

Has anyone any advice on what make, where to buy and what price, please?

We have some largish areas of patio and exterior steps which, especially since the recent rains, are looking very neglected.

I am thinking of jetting them down and then applying some sort of anti-fungal solution to bring them up to good-looking again.

 

[NickP]

Why don't you hire one? to be quite truthful unless you use them a lot they are an expensive investment, the cheap ones just don't do the job properly.

[mint]

What a good suggestion, NickP.  Will look into that; thanks a lot.

[Théière]

Now just to be a contrarian,  My large pressure washer pumps 560 ltrs/hour , small machines pump less at 360 ltrs/hour but all the advertising pushes the pressure figure.  You need quite a large flow to wash away dirt etc otherwise the small high pressure jet will make very small lines of clean and it can take all day.

The infamous Brico depot had a cheapy in and at €49 ish I bought one to save bringing the big one from the UK.  It has a "turbo lance" which is a rotating nozzle and it actually isn't bad and has just done it's 3rd season for which it is used on the BBQ and the pool terrace.

The range has moved on and they now have the blue coloured ones and this is a good machine with plenty of flow and I doubt you could hire one for the same price.    http://www.bricodepot.fr/dissay/nettoyeur-haute-pression-maxi-120-bar-/prod30632/

The only thing I would want is the pressure hose to be on the windable drum on the handle as some models are, the high pressure hose is the bit that gets in the way at storage/transport time.  Don't allow the pressure washer to freeze over winter, it breaks the high pressure pump.

 

 

[mint]

Teapot, I tried your link but it couldn't find the page where my local Brico depot is.  Might have closed I guess. 

Lots of shops, etc being closed and boarded up.  I hadn't realised as I have had several months of being very restricted as to where I could go and how long I could spend shopping.

I will keep on "researching" and hope other people will come and give me more advice and different viewpoints. 

 

[Théière]

Hi Sweets,  On the page link at the top right is a drop down box with all the branches and I know there is a branch in the Perigord and La Rochelle way (Marans, possibly, it's been a while since I was down that way).

[idun]

 When we wanted a high pressure cleaner we ended up with a Karcher which was on promo. I like it. Does all sorts of cleaning, including the grill off our hotte, it was quite big, used to be great fun chasing it round the garden as I cleaned it........... it used to bounce along the grass. The latest grill on our hotte is a lot smaller, so goes in the dish washer.

[dave21478]

DO NOT BUY THE BRICODEPOT ONES!

I cant speak for the Energer one linked to above, but they have other blue/grey ones, brand name Erbaur or Ebreur or something....turns out these are exclusive to Bricodepot and I believe may be to replace the Energer brand.

Anyway....total con. I was looking for a powerful one to replace my feeble wee thing I bought from Argos for about £50 years back, and the specs of the €300 Erbeur seemed good - flow rate and max pressure were significantly higher than the Karcher equivalents at the same price point.

Got it home and it is barely more powerful than my old one. Turns out that despite the shelf ticket and the box stating its high specification, a tiny wee line at the back of the owners manual reveals that these figures are the theoretical maximum the pump can produce in test conditions and it is down-rated for use in the machine to figures that are significantly BELOW the specs of the Karcher equivalent at the same price point.

Also, due to poor quality machining of the components the valve in the trigger constantly lets a small trickle of water to flow past, so the machine keeps cycling on and off while idle, to the point where an internal overload trips and it shuts down for 5 minutes.

Basically its complete shyte.

I would have been straight back to the shop with it, but while using it for the second time it suddenly lost power due to a bit of metal swarf finding its way to the jet nozzle...I took it to bits to clean it, but got a full scale Rage on and flung it in the bin. I had a change of heart and went back 5 minutes later to retrieve it and return to the shop but the wierdo who lives at the end of the village had already rummaged it out of the bin. Expensive lesson learned.

[YCCMB]

[quote user="Théière"]Hi Sweets,  On the page link at the top right is a drop down box with all the branches and I know there is a branch in the Perigord and La Rochelle way (Marans, possibly, it's been a while since I was down that way).[/quote]

The one I know of is on the main road from Saintes to Rochefort, around the Les Essards/St Savinien turnoffs. It used to be a brocante.

[Chancer]

I'm still using the Kew Hobby that I bought in 1987 to clean my muddy 4*4 as I did off road racing then.

All brass and stainless construction and they certainly dont make them like they used to, mind you it cost me over £300 back then [:-))]

Its only 70 bar but has a good flow and it way outperforms any of the modern brand name ones that I have borrowed that claim double the pressure, most of them had tiny pencil jets that left scribble marks like Théière described, mine still cleans with the adjustable nozzle set quite wide and the others take 3 or 4 times as long to do an inferior job, I replaced a couple of O rings last week on the lance, not bad for 25 years of use, on the other hand the lower part of the case has been systematically destroyed and now it sits in a wooden box!!

The only thing I will add is that a modern Karcher that is nowhere near as good as mine is transformed by using their Turbo lance (I think thats what its called) is a rotating  nozzle that allows the tiny pathetic jet to rotate very fast and clean a much bigger area, it makes it a match for my Kew but uses a fraction of the water hence allowing a smaller cheaper pump.

That alone would make me consider a Karcher.

[mint]

Thanks for all the input, everyone.

And, Dave, I know I shouldn't laugh at someone else's mishap but your description was so funny that I couldn't help myself.

In view of the comments, I think I might ask to see how a friend's Karcher works before parting with the hard-earned.

[woolybanana]

Sweets, if you are gonna be doing terraces and the like be very careful as the water jet can dislodge slabs and the cement in the cracks which whilst already weakened could have lasted like that indefinitely.

Also, with your new slim figure, the lance may be so powerful as to push ypou backwards or even knock you over!!!!!!

You get my email?

[mint]

yeah but where are the damn commas brackets etc on the AZERTY clavier it was a PM and I have given the benefit of my wisdom but will add a bit more when I am back on the other ordi

[Chancer]

If its a laptop keyboard without the seperate number pad then the inverted commas and brackets etc are ctrl and alt functions of the numbers at the top.

I am suprised that you havnt adapted quickly, the only problem I have now is when I am not wearing reading glasses which I dont really need to do with my bionic left eye but the symbols are very indistinct.

[Théière]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

Thanks for all the input, everyone.

And, Dave, I know I shouldn't laugh at someone else's mishap but your description was so funny that I couldn't help myself.

In view of the comments, I think I might ask to see how a friend's Karcher works before parting with the hard-earned.

[/quote]

There are times when I wish I were Dave's neighbour, just pour a glas of something and sit in the garden whilst the show starts! [:D]

Rivals to the Karcher are the Lavore models which are Italian, they are rebadged depnding on the reseller, which includes Lidl and it's a good spec machine.  The ones that Dave spoke of are Erbauer which is the B&Q chain with Screwfix, Brico Depot etc.  I have over the years had a few of their tools but wouldn't give them house room any more. The only surviving tool is the electric plane as it's not used much but the 24v cordless drill caught fire!  The fan on the bigger breaker blows the dust into the eyes of the user, so I had to fashion a wind deflector.

 

[Pommier]

We bought a Karcher pressure washer when we were selling the last house and wanted to clean the patio. It was quite cheap (about 60€ as far as I remember) and came with a circular brush attachment which was called a patio attachment (or something similar). It worked very well and didn't leave clean lines, but gave an evenly clean finish.