Pressure Washers

I owned a bunch of electric Karcher and Husky washers, Denzil, and they all broke. So I finally caved in and bought the John Deere that has the Honda engine and the triple piston pump. Lowes has it on clearance right now for $605 (I paid 800 for mine ).

 

I have to agree with Superbee. I know quality p-washers can be pricey but I believe in buying things once. Like Superbee, I paid alot for my p-washer, but in ten years , its NEVER missed a day of work. Buy it once, buy it for life.

 

I guess the saving of funds begins!

 

Superbee, was your Karcher that broke a 2400 series? That's what I've got. Had probably six hours on it when it packed up. The (Honda) motor ran fine, everything seemed fine. But when I pulled the trigger on the gun...nothing happened.

So, rather than throwing the thing away, I went searching. Turns out, with some of the Karchers of a few years back, there's a known issue with them, and you can fix it at home. It's the "unloader valve" in the punp getting stuck. Here's the fix. I've done this to mine, and it worked like a champ:

Fixing your Karcher high pressure washer

 

Do you use this for washing car?

I have both Karcher 1750 (5 year old) and Northstar gas (3000Psi/2.5gpm with Honda GC190 engine and Comet pump, paid $429 + S/H).

But I wouldn't want to use the gas for just washing car, it can strip paint of my siding.
The Northstar is great but I have a feeling if you want longevity go with GX160 or GX190 Honda OHV engine.
Well, I changed the oil after only 2-3 hour during break in (about 3x now) and everytime I can see metal shaving in the oil. No wonder Honda GC is way less pricier than GX.

 

All of the Karcher's I've had were electric. Same with the Husky's. When I decided to buy my first gas PW, I spent a bunch of time researching them first, cause I didn't want to have to repeat the same mistakes with the gas PW. That's what led me to the Honda engine/triple piston pump combination. There's several different brands that use this engine/pump combination, it's just a matter of finding one at a decent price with a good warranty.