I`m in love!

[dmarcus48]

I`ve posted before what a pia my wheels are to clean. Just for the record, Volvo Arrakis wheels, pretty but very hard to clean. Long story short, I picked up a karcher pressure washer and bingo the wheels were clean in about 10 seconds. I`m not sure that I would wash the car with it, no need really, but the wheels used to take longer to clean than the whole car! Like I said, I`m in love.



;) ;)

[C. Charles Hahn]

Glad to hear you like your new toy! Did you get a gas or electric based? I`ve been looking at getting an electric one myself.

[dmarcus48]

I got the electric one. I didn`t want to hassle with gas and oil. BJ`s had one with 1300 psi for $99.99, costco had another with 1500 psi that was adjustable for $148. That`s the one I got the 1500 psi one. I`ve used a gas one before and they definately have alot of power, but IMHO are harder to use. I used the one I got to clean my deck, the lawn furniture and serveral other things around the house and it worked great! I`m very happy with it. I suppose for heavy duty use the gas would be better, but I`m not using it heavy duty.



:bounce

[Craig1Jac]

Don`t use it on your tires. Mercedes warns owners in the book that presure washing the tires can break down the sidewall cords and this might produce a high speed blowout.

[TurboCat]

Wow! That`s good to know...!

[shaf]

It probably depends on how strong the pressure washer in question is. Some are powerful enough to strip the paint right off the side of a car and should probably be registered as a firearm. Others aren`t quite as dangerous...

[CHScholl]

"Don`t use it on your tires. Mercedes warns owners in the book that presure washing the tires can break down the sidewall cords and this might produce a high speed blowout."



I`m certainly not refuting the above stated advice. It`s certainly the safest approach if there is any doubt.



However, I`d like to emphasize that the actual impact any high pressure fluid has upon hitting a surface is influenced by how close the nozzle is held in relationship to the surface and the angle at which the nozzle is held in relationship to the surface.



In other words, pointed perpendicular to the surface ( 90degrees) and real close could possibly `inject` water into the surface. This is exactly how many mass immunizations are given today. However if the nozzle is held further away from the surface the velocity will diminish as the water impacts air ( this is how airless spray painting works ) and if the nozzle is held at an angle to the surface the water will have a far greater tendancy of glancing off the surface rather than penetrate into it.

[MBZ 500E]

How portable is the unit you bought? Can you post a pic?



Something like that could really come in handy to clean up the exterior of the house!

[dmarcus48]

here`s a link, it show the unit I bought:







Karcher Unit (http://www.karcher-usa.com/cpe/products/k395m.html)



My wife and I used it on our deck, just a trial to see what it would do, our gas grill, worked great, the sidewalk and the siding. Might be difficult to go up two stories, but they sell an extension hose!



:xyxthumbs



Oh and the pressure is adjustable, I though that that was a good feature.

[MBZ 500E]

Dave,



Thanks for posting that. I just realized that`s the same unit we used where I worked a couple years ago. We used it to clean up the test facility epoxy floor. It worked great for a couple of years and then finally died on us. The area was just too large and we had it running for an hour straight!:nono



Now to convince my wife that this is an important purchase!:D

[dmarcus48]

I was kinda surprised that my wife was so easy to convince! She even said "I know that the real purpose is for your car":nono

, but when we started using it, we found all kinds of stuff to clean.