OT Are electric power washers a waste of money? *LINK*

Re: OT Are electric power washers a waste of money

Virgil Johnson

Can't speak for the Sun Johnny model but I have 79 buck HF electric power washer and it has been a good purchase. Used for cleaning the deck,brick,car,truck and so on. I have never been a fan of blasting car paint with pressure washer so its main use for spraying down the vehicles is to wash the frames to get the salt off.

Re: OT Are electric power washers a waste of money

David Weaver

i'm on my second and a half.

Years ago, I had a cheap yellow version from the internet. It would get hot and slow down, which let you know that you should stop. One day, I pushed it to keep going (in a bad mood) and it froze/seized and never worked again.

The amount of time in use to get to that point was probably about 2 hours.

Fast forward, last year, I got a one of the ryobi small power washers (1612 or something like that), but refurbished. The hose and gun lasted about...

...2 hours.. maybe 4. I considered throwing it out, but kept the main part of the power washer as it's only twice as big as a lunch box.

another refurbished version came across ebay and it was cheap so I bought it - when it arrived, the hose was cracked, and when I returned it, the seller claimed that I switched the hose. That was a turn off - ebay gave me a "courtesy refund", but I was hoping they'd stick it to the fraud seller.

As a last ditch - I bought a replacement gun and hose off of amazon. The cheapest one that I could find was rated for more than double the pressure of my unit. When it arrived, it was an eye opener - the quality of the hose and the gun ($50) is so far beyond what ryobi puts on a $130 washer that it's silly.

Time will tell how it holds up.

I think if you're going to use one of these a lot, you might want to go to a real lawn or outdoor store and find something that they'll back. Anything less, and I'd bet half of the unit is good enough to hold up and the other half is probably not.

Green Works electric

Mike L

I have a Green Works electric pressure washer, and I love it. No gas or oil no carb to gum up just plug it in and it works. Unplug it put it away and don't worry about it. I will say make sure you have a good extension cord not the cheap ones but a good 12 gauge one. Not sure of the Sun Joe brand.

Re: OT Are electric power washers a waste of money

JL

I have a small electric power washer. Good for cleaning deck, metal roof and actually worked in getting the carpenter bee poop off of my painted siding.

Re: OT Are electric power washers a waste of money

John McGaw

I've been using one for 10+ years now, a Campbell Hausfeld, and have no complaints. It does what I bought it for, cleaning the walks and deck and porches. The soap injection function on the unit was crap and failed immediately but I find that pre-spraying with the proper solution before cleaning and letting it soak for a while works better anyway so that is not a great loss on such a cheap solution. I went with the electric because my experience with gas-powered equipment that spends long times between uses has been horrible.

Re: OT Are electric power washers a waste of money

Brad Chenoweth

Dick,

I have that same model, purchased online. I've had it for about 3 years and it's been a very good tool, I use it around the house, and my son borrows it frequently to clean his horse trailer and camper. As an aside, I dropped it off the tailgate of my truck and broke one of the plastic "fenders" on the wheels. When I contacted Sun Joe about a new part, they said they didn't sell that part, but since the unit was under warranty, they would send me a new unit and a return label for the old one. I explained that it was my fault, but they still insisted on replacing it. Tough to beat that kind of customer service!

14.5 Amps

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Dick,

You want to make sure that your outlet circuit won't trip with that kind of draw. A 20amp circuit will be fine but a 15 may give you some trouble.

I have two pw's, one gas (Honda power w/ CAT pump) that I use for refinishing my decks, the other is a HD Husky electric that is handy for cleaning stuff and busting the salt and fender bergs off the cars in the winter. The gas unit at 3200 psi is a lot faster on the decks, but will damage the wood if not careful.

Re: OT Are electric power washers a waste of money

Jerry Nicholson

I have a Sunjo that I bought primarily to clean my deck. I find it works well but I have to use a nozzle with a fairly narrow spray width. It came with several nozzles and the power plug has a built in GFCI. My grandson had it for a few months to clean car engines and chassis. He used the detergent injector and said it works well. I told him not to get his hand in the spray ---- so he got his hand in the spray. Said it hurt a lot but didn't seem to do any serious damage.

I wouldn't consider using it on a car finish. My wife wants me to clean windows with it but I told her no way. It would blast water into any little crack or opening and right into the wall.

Just low pressure spray the soap

Mike L

use it to apply the soap or cleaner. Then use a spray nozzle on the hose to wash it off.

Re: Just low pressure spray the soap

Dick Coers

Appreciate the idea. I bought a suds gun for soaping up there car. We bought a black car and I go to extremes to keep it scratch free. The suds gun works on the garden house.

Thanks for the help!

Dick Coers

I’ll order one in a day or so, thanks for all the help!

I must say....

Barry Irby

I am impressed with all the positive feed back you got.

My only vaguely similar experience was with a little Bissle carpet Cleaner. Looked like a great little thing to have to spot clean carpet and floor mats. Paid about a hundred bucks and used it once. Carefully emptied it, dried it and put it away in a conditioned space. 6 Months later...nothing. Failed, locked up. That was the end of that.

Glad to hear others had much better experiences with machines that use water and pressure.

Also, I knew a guy who bought the most powerful one he could get and was using it , bare foot, to clean a deck. I think he is still missing a toe.

Sun Joe

Wiley Horne

I bought a Sun Joe electric lawn mower from Amazon a couple years ago, maybe it’s 3 years by now. Anyway, nothing kills it. And I’ve tried. Mowed down chest-high tules, hitting assorted brick bats along the way. You can lug the motor down, but it comes right back. It’s been an amazing indestructible motor with a blade strapped to it.

Wiley

Um

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Last time I checked, Barry, they don't grow back

I wanted to report back on my purchase

Dick Coers

I did buy the SunJoe pressure washer I linked to in the original post. I've now washed my entire house with the 30 degree tip and couldn't be happier. It's run for hours at a time and no hiccups. I'm painting the last wall tomorrow and not looking forward to that side. Most of the morning will be spent on an extension ladder.

Re: I wanted to report back on my purchase

John K Jordan

Good to know.

And if you don't know, according to my dealer the two biggest killers of pressure washer pumps are running for extended time with the wand idle, and letting water in the pump freeze over the winter. The first would not apply to an electric powered pressure washers.