Thread: Pressure Washer Recommendations - upto $300

The karcher one is rubbish does not produce enough foam, uses twice as much product

Just an update for those following along at home.

I ended up purchasing the Karcher K3 FC Deck, that retails for around $250 - I managed to get it at the local M10 around Easter time when they had a % off sale and it came to just over $200 so it was a good buy.

As with any new toy I took it for a spin as soon as I got home and pressure cleaned everything that wasn't alive . It took a little while to get used to compared to the old $99 Ebay no name model it replaced. With the old one it came with one wand and to change the intensity / spray patter it was a simple task of twisting the end - much like a garden hose. I quite liked this. The Karcher comes with two wands, one for heavy and the other for varied. Not a problem but I found I did have to swap them out depending on what I was doing. The full control gun thing seems a little odd, but mostly I have been cleaning the concrete path so just going with the heavy wand so it always stays on hard - perhaps I would get better at this if I spent more time with the other wand.

As one of my main tasks is to clean the concrete paths I was hoping to get the K3 pack with the "T150 surface cleaner for splash-free cleaning of larger surfaces" - this is one one Bunnings sells for the same $250. Obviously each retailer has a slightly custom pack made up for them to avoid competition. Anyway with the M10 sale I settled on the Deck pack that has a "Power Scrubber". The T150 is a large round upside down bowl with a rotating spray arm (a little like a sprinkler). It covers a larger area and contains the splash. The Power Scrubber is rectangular with two smaller outlets and the edges of the rectangular shroud trimmed with a broom like thing. Anyway I tried to Power Scrubber on the concrete path and was impressed with how it functioned. The smaller size and being rectangular seemed to work well on the path as it was possible to get up against the house and fence. It might not cover as big an area as the T150 but I was happy with it.

I pulled it out again today to do a little bit of a clean up which is why I thought I would post back here again. So far it has done what I have asked with minimal fuss. The build quality seems better than my old $99 Ebay no name unit. As for long term use time will tell, but given that it isn't given a huge work out I would be happy for it to last 10 years or so. Water use seems to be low (which is good) - I run off tank water anyway. I was pushing the water and dirt along the path as I went and I was surprised how little water was up ahead as I progressed.

The only disappointment is the on board tool storage doesn't accommodate all of what comes with the machine (or from what I can work out). The next models up seem to offer this as an option so I guess if its critical to you it would warrant an upgrade - its not a huge issue for me however for the sake of a couple of extra bits of plastic on the housing I wouldn't have thought it would be too difficult to provide.

So that's about it. Hopefully you will not hear from me in 6 months asking what is wrong with my Karcher pressure washer and my money has been invested wisely.