Don't get too excited, it's only a power washer thingy. Karcher or something. £87 down from £100 at B&Q yesterday.
Bought it mainly to clean off the bikes but way hey ! What a gadget. Bikes cleaned today after collecting lumps of Wales on them, cars cleaned, front path cleaned ( even had to clean a bit of the road outside our house after I discovered that "he" had used the most powerful setting on the pressure washer to draw penises on the road and an arrow pointing towards his mate's house )
Why have I never bought one before ?
Fab thing. Everyone should have one.
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My 20 year old Kraecher 210 is still going strong...
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Ah but, mine has a patio cleaner attachment. None of your poverty spec here.
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Don't forget to re-lubricte all the bike bearings now you have washed all the oil and grease out.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 3 Apr 16 at 18:53
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>> Don't forget to re-lubricte all the bike bearings now you have washed all the oil and grease out.
Aye fair point, I had wondered about that. I do though tend to lube everything regularly. I use GT 40 mostly. Doesn't last more than 30 miles but it shrugs of the crud.
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>> Don't forget to re-lubricte all the bike bearings now you have washed all the oil
>> and grease out.
>>
And keep car trim adhesive to hand for sticking it back on after blast-off.
Another useful attachment is the self-propelled flexible drain-rodder.
You can use on blocked gutter/downpipe bends too, to avoid getting the ladders out.
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I've had a Karcher for 11 years. I never drain any remaining water left in it before storing it outside in one of my 3 man caves.
The patio cleaner thingamajig I can thoroughly recommend. It makes short work of cleaning the patio, and uses much less water than just using the lance.
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ALDI have a £16 patio cleaner attachment that fits a karcher and other pressure washers, also a drain pipe cleaner at the same price
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I bought a Stihl pressure washer several years ago. Made the big mistake of telling a friend who had a demolition business. Before you could say ' sledge hammer' he had me working Sunday's pressure washing PO Sorting Offices all over northern England.
Earned plenty of beer tokens but they can be too useful in the wrong hands....
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>> I've had a Karcher for 11 years. I never drain any remaining water left in
>> it before storing it outside in one of my 3 man caves.
But you live in Cornwall. I've had a cheap Karcher that I think was destroyed by freezing, same with a cheap Aldi the boss bought. I always tried to drain them. The latest one, a Nilfisk, deems to be faring better but I think they are best kept away from frost.
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The drain clearer is a little miracle. On 25 metres of hose, it's extraordinary to watch it run up a drain and then suddenly a flood of water comes running towards you.
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>>But you live in Cornwall
True, but in a moorland position, so an overcoat colder than the Roseland Peninsular.
The Grant oil boiler lives outside too and, although it has frost protection, I turn it off at the fuse box and often forget to switch it back on again when freezing temps are forecast. Tis well insulated though (just as well!)
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Our Grant was a troublesome beast. Lives in the garage. We found a reliable plumber who knows them well and not given any trouble since he's been servicing it.
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My Grant Vortex kept losing its pressure overnight. I called in my regular man, who changed the PRV, which initially improved the situation but, it still lost some pressure overnight.
So I called in a Grant ex spurt, who spent hours here wivvit. Turns out it was a blocked hose leading to the PRV, probably a common fault - to those who know.
Reminded me of myself years ago in the car tuning game - eventually yoos get to a stage where you've seen most common faults many times, so your job becomes much easier. It's called experience I do believe :)
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>I've had a cheap Karcher that I think was destroyed by freezing,..
Wouldn't touch another Karcher.
I've had two of 'em and both have failed with the same fault just out of warranty. Inlet to the compressor starts leaking and water P's out of the casing. Uneconomical to repair because it has to be returned to an approved repair agent and costs almost the same as a new one. You can't even attempt a diy fix because you need special tools just to get the casing open.
Like you, I now have a Nilfisk that's lasted about four years so far without a problem.
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....don't get your hand in the way of the jet.
It doesn't hurt at all.........................
..........for all of 5 seconds :-(
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Yeah I guessed as much. I quite often wash the dog off with the normal garden hose on low pressure. He quite enjoys it or seems to. Son was all up for jet washing him yesterday but I forbade that. Who wants a bald dog, or indeed a dead one ?
Cleaned my hiking boots up nicely though. Turned them yellow as a downside but I suppose that could be seen as a safety feature.
Going to blast the shed later, all manner of fun to be had.
;-)
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>> all manner of fun to be had.
....a feeling that does 'wear off' (for most normal people, anyway ;-) )
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Oh I think I'll be in "Terminator" mode for a while yet. I've discovered that "shooting" weeds is quite good fun too...
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>> Son was all up for jet washing him yesterday.......
Seriously, don't even contemplate it.
There is a proximity at which the jet goes through skin and flesh like a knife, and it is difficult to judge the point (especially with a moving object).
I have the scars! (and it was a complete accident).
You need to be very careful how close you get to a number of different items. Car trim has already been mentioned, but close proximity to tyres and other rubber items ( 8-| ) (despite the temptation to get some real pressure on them to get them clean) is not a good idea.
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Don't worry, wouldn't even begin to think of trying it on anything with a pulse.
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>> Going to blast the shed later,
I wouldn't. It tends to raise the grain on wood and leave fibrous bits sticking out if you really blast it. I tried it on some garden furniture that had gone a bit mossy.
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Well try it on a small bit then!
Probably a good idea to impress on your son (I can see where he gets it from) that it isn't a toy.
Not quite in the chainsaw category of course. More like compressed air which people tend to think is harmless - not good for pranks.
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>> compressed air which people tend to think is harmless - not good for pranks.
Not good at all. A bloke in my father's staff was seriously hurt when a workmate stuck a compressed air line up his jaxie as a prank.
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He did what???
Now, I'm not sure of the circumstances of course but I am sure I wouldn't actually let anyone do that to me !
Was your father in some erm, unusual line of work?
;-)
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>> I wouldn't actually let anyone do that to me !
The geezer had his back turned of course, and the workmate acted on foolish impulse. No harm was intended, but harm was done.
>> Was your father in some erm, unusual line of work?
Not very unusual, but had responsibility for all sorts of carpenters, engineers and mechanics. He was a naval weapons man as I'm sure I have said before. A civilian though, never wore uniform although he had some equivalent rank, commander or captain.
I can remember stacks of 16" shells in underground stores, with their copper driving bands (to squeeze into the rifling inside the gun barrels)... they were already obsolete, to my 10-year-old disappointment, and were being taken out to sea in batches and dumped in deep places. Big guns were already being replaced by missiles of various sorts.
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>> Big guns were already being replaced by missiles of various sorts.
Those big guns were fascinating to a nipper though. The shell was rammed up the breech to the place where the rifling started, followed by bags of so-called gun cotton, the amount calculated for the required range, which needed a detonator to set it off.
I was present when small at a test-firing of some detonators. They made a terrific bang, and I foolishly closed my mouth at the wrong moment failing to follow the instruction to keep it open (to equalize pressure on both sides of the eardrum). I don't think my hearing has ever fully recovered. The old man meant no harm, knowing I was interested in that sort of thing, but my mother wasn't best pleased when I went home with my ears still singing.
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>> >> Big guns were already being replaced by missiles of various sorts.
>>
>> Those big guns were fascinating to a nipper though.
Indeed - some fascinating facts:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armament_of_the_Iowa-class_battleship
They fired projectiles weighing from 1,900 to 2,700 pounds (860 to 1,220 kg) at a muzzle velocity of 2,690 ft/s (820 m/s)(1834.1 mph) to a maximum range of 42,345 yards (38,720 m) (24.06 mi) using an armor-piercing shell.
EDIT: although I realise AC's dad's shells might not have ended up on that ship
Last edited by: Focusless on Tue 5 Apr 16 at 15:00
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I believe some Japanese WW2 battleships had 21" guns. I don't know whether they were ever used in anger, and the Americans somehow dealt with the Japanese super-battleships without sustaining too much damage.
There's some very good colour footage of the battle of Midway, mostly fought with smaller guns and aircraft though as I remember it. Great spectacle, the whole atmosphere filled with strings of explosive projectiles going in all directions.
Not sure one would have wanted to be there however.
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>> and the Americans somehow dealt with the Japanese super-battleships without sustaining
>> too much damage.
Good description in the Wiki article linked to above describing how the Iowa's fire control systems were superior to those of the Japanese.
The Mk 13 FC Radar supplied present target range, and it showed the fall of shot around the target so the Gunnery Officer could correct the system's aim with range and deflection spots put into the Rangekeeper. It could also automatically track the target by controlling the director's bearing power drive. Because of radar, Fire Control systems are able to track and fire at targets at a greater range and with increased accuracy during the day, night, or inclement weather. This was demonstrated in November 1942 when the battleship USS Washington engaged the Imperial Japanese Navy battlecruiser Kirishima at a range of 18,500 yards (16,900 m) at night. The engagement left Kirishima in flames, and she was ultimately scuttled by her crew. This capability gave the United States Navy a major advantage in World War II, as the Japanese did not develop radar or automated fire control to the level of the US Navy and were at a significant disadvantage.
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>> 16" shells in underground stores, with their copper driving bands (to squeeze into the rifling inside the gun barrels)...
Those shells weighed about a ton each. Try to imagine the pressure inside the breech of one of the guns when fired. No wonder they needed slides and long hydraulic shock absorbers to cope with the recoil.
Anyone standing close to the muzzle would be killed by the shock and blast wave. They are noble things in their way. They demand respect, otherwise God help you.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Tue 5 Apr 16 at 14:40
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>> >> compressed air which people tend to think is harmless - not good for pranks.
>> Not good at all. A bloke in my father's staff was seriously hurt when a
>> workmate stuck a compressed air line up his jaxie as a prank.
I'm told a treatment for piles involves a pipe being shoved up there. It contains an airline, 'scope, light and wave-guide for a microwave.
Only hurts if they leave the door of the microwave open.
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Not to go into too much detail, but no doubt several of us will have experienced a medical diagnostic procedure involving a camera and the personal fundament. That involves the introduction of a certain amount of air. Not using an industrial airline though.
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....what he said.
You really need a good quality orbital sander you know. ;-)
(...don't try that on the dog, either..........)
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Goodness me, so many things out of bounds!! :-) What do the nay-sayers use your pressure washers for then? There is fun to be had with them, really there is...
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I have one of these:
www.demon-pressure-washers.co.uk/pressure-washers/storm-pressure-washers/
Didn't pay that for it though, mate owns the company and did me a deal.
It's quite therapeutic smashing hell out of things with pressurised water.
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"it's only a power washer thingy. Karcher or something."
A couple of attachments have been mentioned ....... does anyone know if there's such a thing as an accessory for clearing gutters? After winter, we've got a couple spots at the end of the gutter runs where grass and other weeds are thriving.
There's one particular piece of gutter that's a bit tricky to access because it's over the conservatory. I could get quite close from a bedroom window, but my wife would take a dim view if it dripped water all over the place.
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Not sure if it's what you mean/need but Cliff Pope mentions something like that up thread.
Edit - 09.21 this morning
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Mon 4 Apr 16 at 19:03
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>> There's one particular piece of gutter that's a bit tricky to access because it's over
>> the conservatory. I could get quite close from a bedroom window, but my wife would
>> take a dim view if it dripped water all over the place.
Be very careful how you use a pressure washer in and around gutters and roofs, its very easy to get water where you don't want it, and where it causes a lot of grief.
I wont tell you how i know.
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I assume you have reached the lazy stage of using water pressure just to move things for the sheer hell of it. Like that one chuckie stone on the slabbing that you could pick up but better to blast it 20 metres down the slabs?
Or put your bike on the stand, make sure the trip computer is on, and then , starting slowly with low pressure, turn the wheel and up the pressure until the wheel is going full pelt and see how fast it can go?
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I'm still a novice Bobby. I've only had it since Saturday and didn't get it out of its box until yesterday afternoon so many things to discover.
"He" has now "drawn" a penis on the patio with it which I had to pretend to be cross about.
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>> "He" has now "drawn" a penis on the patio with it which I had to pretend to be cross about.
"He" will be putting pictures of Frankie Goes To Hollywood on his bedroom wall next.
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>> I'm still a novice Bobby. I've only had it since Saturday and didn't get it
>> out of its box until yesterday afternoon so many things to discover.
>>
...you'll soon get bored of it and go on to something more exciting interesting.
This would be a good next item (especially with a son, dog and door mirrors around):
tinyurl.com/zc3ezgc (link is 'safe')
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That is quite disturbingly exciting. Not sure Cheshire is really ready for it though.
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....given the following comment, I wonder what you could do with a pressure-washer attached to a drone.........
Nothing to see here; Move along please...
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"Be very careful how you use a pressure washer in and around gutters and roofs"
Thanks to all for the comments re gutter-cleaning. My old mate and his wife arrived last night for a few days so I'll look into things after they've headed home.
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My 15+ year old Karcher died a while ago and I do miss it. I should get it repaired, but when they are only £75 new it's probably not worth it financially?
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When mine started playing up (rapid on/off cycling) I stripped it down and found that the spring loaded plunger that switches off the machine when you release the trigger was partially siezed. A clean up and smear of silicone grease and it was good as new.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 5 Apr 16 at 12:41
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My Karcher has been in the shed buried under a load of junk for at least the last 10 years. It was drained the last time it was put away, but it may well have decomposted for all I know. As you can probably tell, I don't use it much. One of those jet nozzles that fits on the end of a hosepipe does for what I want these days.
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Tangentially ( who him you say, that's not like him at all ) why does the panel think my petrol strimmer was such a member of bar staff to start ? Ok it hadn't been used this year yet but it's normally cooperative.
It's not an incredibly complex thing, single cylinder 2 stroke so what can the matter be? Checked and cleaned the plug, cleaned the air filter, made sure all the pipes and wires were where they should be but it simply refused to kick over. Kept going away and leaving it in case it was flooded but it stubbornly wouldn't start.
Just when I thought I was going to experience my first cardiac arrest it suddenly decided to start ( off choke interestingly or not ) and has been running fine since. Because of course, it ran for about 5 minutes until the strimmer cable broke. Momentary nerves on the build up to restart but it kicked over like a Japanese hatchback.
Must have pulled that cord a hundred times prior to that first start mind.
All I can think of is that the petrol actually in the pipes was "old" and that with all my faffing about and swearing at it the fresh stuff I'd put in its tank finally got through.
Any petrol strimmer engineers out there with expert advice?
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>> All I can think of is that the petrol actually in the pipes was "old"
>> and that with all my faffing about and swearing at it the fresh stuff I'd
>> put in its tank finally got through.
I think that's probably it. Our lawn mower is the same - if it hasn't run for a while and I use the normal choke position I end up taking the plug out and drying it. Now I just use full throttle until it kicks and then add the tiniest bit of choke and usually off it goes.
Last week we did the first cut. I already had a knackered arm from rodding a drain so I cheated and gave it a blast of easy start. It did.
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My Honda lawnmower started first time last weekend, with last year's petrol still in the tank. Nae botha.
I expect my 60-odd-quid-off-Amazon-Chinese-leafblower will be less compliant come Jojoba (copyright Big Yin, the month before November).
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>> My Honda lawnmower started first time last weekend,
My £100 Argos job didn't, but we got there in the end :)
Had 3 cuts already - house on the market, trying to keep it looking tidy...
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Ours is a Honda Izzy. I think it needs looking at. Not much it can be really, maybe it needs a carb clean.
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Our B&S 375-powered thingy gets a service every seven years or so - it's had two - whether it needs it or not. Actually, only when I can't start it. Had one last year; fired first time on Sunday.
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Service? What's wrong with kicking it and swearing at it? It really is different down there isn't it?
;-)
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Not Scottish. Wasn't taught swearing at school.
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It was extra-curricular for us too, but one could attend master classes in it given by the winos in the Grassmarket area of Edinburgh. An area of the city that is now ironically uber trendy but which then was somewhat bohemian.
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Aye. Used to be a nice town with plenteous cobbles... I really was there and really did like it, for a month or three...
Peas and vinegar, sixpence I seem to remember and very nice too. Of course sixpence were sixpence in them days lad...
Terrific austere Georgian architecture if I remember right.
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The cobbles are good for a rattle check and when wet for ABS ESC, TC, EBD, and any other electronic keep it shiny side up device functional checks.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 5 Apr 16 at 20:20
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>>the Grassmarket area of Edinburgh. An area of the city that is now ironically uber trendy
Well it's old, innit?
I spent a month in Edinburgh in the freezing January of 1979, and again for a fortnight in 1982. Quite a few evenings were passed in the Grassmarket drinking holes. Very handy for the lodgings in Ramsay Garden, down about a million steps via Johnston Terrace.
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I loved Edinburgh in all its guises.
Actually at the time if I got tired of it or ran out of cash I could take refuge with my parents near Dunfermline. Another piece of luck in an undeserving life.
I've got this photo up, taken outside Buckingham Palace when the old man got his modest gong. I've got the gong too. He's in full Moss Bros morning dress with top hat, mother looks a bit guarded, I look like a dissolute spiv, sister looks a bit disapproving.
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>> Should've bought one back then Manatee.
I'd love it, although I think the month of the tattoo would be time to go on holiday if I lived there.
The scaffolding you can see in the right of the picture in the wikipedia article is the seating in the castle yard.
I was billeted at Ramsay Lodge, the nearest bit to the castle yard.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsay_Garden
In the picture, on the right, you can see the mullioned lounge (as it was then) windows from which some of us gazed across to the Firth of Forth looking for the Argentines who had just invaded the nearby Falkland Islands!
"Ramsay Lodge was the last of the University Halls to be sold off by the Town and Gown Association. When it was purchased in 1945 by the Commercial Bank of Scotland, it was a condition of sale that the murals be retained. The Bank went on to use the Lodge as a residential hostel and training centre."
I'm guessing that the Lodge might also been converted to apartments now, although the bank subsidiary that used it then still exists, sort of. I meant to look last time I was in Edinburgh and forgot.
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I can remember my parents getting quite excited about the prospect of buying a largish double upper flat very very near there when I was young. They didn't in the end and instead remained in their house with a garden out of the centre. I can just about remember being taken to see their prospective purchase and being intrigued by the internal spiral staircase.
But that area of town was very much part of my old stomping ground and I can confirm that during the festival it might not be the most peaceful place to live.
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Useful tools,power washers, I spent four hours yesterday pressure washing the patio which is a mixture of paving slabs and brick......very therapeutic but resulted in an aching back from moving the dozens of pots containing SWMBO's plant and tree collections.
I also did not realise the power of the sun and ended up with sunburned arms and brow.
The patio is now gleaming clean, amazing how much muck removed....next job is to clean the block paving drive and paths at the front which is probably a full days work ....I cannot stand the sight of a streaky finish where the job has not been done properly.
I also use the washer for garden furniture and house paintwork cleaning .
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Patio and brick drive with my ALDI pressure washer are on my list along with the car service for Bank Holiday weekend.
Lifestyles of the rich and famous, eh?
Last edited by: Alanović on Fri 22 Apr 16 at 11:06
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Block-paved drives, eh chaps? Mind the loafers and argyle jumpers, and take care not to blast the muck all over the S-type and mock-Georgian portico.
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Yeah. But I never installed it, Your Majesty. Seeing as it was already there and I'm not inclined to cough up thousands of pounds just to impress fashion victims, it's staying. It'll last the next 20 years I'll be living there, so it'll do.
S-Types? Mock-Georgian? Are you confusing me with an erstwhile Police Hociffer of this parish?
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I suspect if we'd followed Grenville Whassname home from the Caravannist competition (just follow the sound of crunching Wedgwood) we'd have seen him stow his Cutthroat Buccaneer Marauder on a neatly block-paved drive.
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Go on then, Will. What is the acceptable middle class driveway type? I get the impression that your home and mine are of a similar vintage/style so what should I be doing to win the approval of those who must be seen to have the right "look" to everything they possess?
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Nice, crunchy gravel please. Worked well in front of our previous house - although this one still has the tarmac it had when we bought it.
Parents' evening yesterday at B. Minor's school. To get there I had to cross the road to avoid walking through the effluent from the pressure washer on one neighbour's drive.
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>> Nice, crunchy gravel please.
Had a feeling you would say that. Gets all over the road in the suburbs and ends up destroying everyone's windscreens.
Function over form, please. I'm not a used car dealer needing "posh" backdrops for my sheds.
Your lad's boarding school sounds jolly close if you can walk there.
Last edited by: Alanović on Fri 22 Apr 16 at 12:24
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Blockwork is the go-to solution for developers. Presumably the lowest cost means of achieving required load bearing capacity and suitable appearance. Nice crunchy gravel walks all over place and is further mucked up by loads.
And my caravan only sits on the drive long enough to clean and re-provision before going back to paid for storage.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Fri 22 Apr 16 at 12:12
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Neighb (previous) adder block drive laid, which looks rather nice compared to my DIY ruff concrete job.
They couldn't get out of their house when it iced up quite badly - unlike my nice ruff concrete driveway.
www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.2736095,-5.0422539,3a,49.3y,126.73h,80.8t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1smH3xSO7iZz2-Oi9ITmS6Jw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Chippings here now AND it's a level driveway, unlike the lane outside which never gets gritted.
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>>The patio is now gleaming clean, amazing how much muck removed
where did the muck go though??
Nothing more annoying when you powerwash the patio , it looks great, and then the next day when it is all dried up you see all the tide marks of dirt!
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The main drain for the street runs partly under our patio and the drain cover is hidden in one corner disguised under a birdbath , mucky water goes down the drain......swept there by yours truly with a yard broom.
There is of course a residue of dirt left which is simply swept up when dry and it then gets a sweep once a week or so.
Lets face it though....its part of a garden..it will get dirty again so there is a limit to what you can do to keep it clean
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Boy's toy cupboard addition - Dog
