I took it down to Home Depot where I bought it to see if they would so anything for me. Yes I know, two years old, but if you do not ask you will never get anything. They said no so I looked over their supply and finding nothing that jumped out at me, I went shopping around town. I eventually found a 2000 PSI unit on sale for $99 and bought it. It is about 25% more powerful than the old unit and required no assembly at all. I connected the hose and wand and away I went.
I put in about three hours and got the rear walkway and retaining wall done as well as the main patio and front concrete steps. There is still another three or four hours left on the front walk and driveway but that was enough for one day.
The weather was not great today so I took the day off. I love retirement! Tomorrow is another day.
I think the old machine is repairable so I will put it at the end of the driveway with a "FREE - REPAIRABLE" sign on it and see how long it takes it to disappear. Some enterprising DIYer might be able to fix it. I considered trying some Liquid Steel or two part epoxy on it myself but was too lazy and I would have had to go to the store for that anyway.
I gave up on the electric power washers my self. The just do not last. I bought a gas one about 6-7 years ago and it certainly does the trick. My neighbour last year said he needed a new power washer but didn't want to buy a gas one because he didn't want to bring it into the basement for the winter so it would not freeze. I mentioned to him that I store my in the garage over winter after I use my RV water hose blowout to get the water out of it. He ended up buying the gas one and borrows my water hose blowout.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it is our closeness to the ocean here or what but I have not had very good luck keeping small engines running. My throw away list includes one lawn mower, one chain saw and two whipper snippers. At least electric units are cheaper to buy..
DeleteYou do know that you get what you pay for don't you Croft? 99 bucks won't buy much of a Power Washer. I bought a Coleman unit from Canadian Tire a number of years ago for close to $200 and it's still going strong.
DeleteWish you still lived here Rod, I could have borrowed yours. ;)
DeleteJust like most things nowadays, they are disposable. Good luck with getting you pressure washing done.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly is nice being able to take the day off anytime.
ReplyDeleteAl commented by email:
ReplyDeleteHi Croft: I'm sure that you already do this (and out there in "god's country" you don't get many hard freezes) but I thought that I would share an experience I had with our gas pressure washer.
One spring I started up the unit and I had a leak from the brass connector fitting near the wand, water had frozen and put a crack in the fitting. The last thing that I now do before putting the washer away for the winter is to run some RV antifreeze through it (from the jugs left over for our RV). Is the damage caused by freezing?
No, not from freezing, the break was not in an area that gets wet, and like you say, it seldom gets that cold here.
DeleteI have a Husky elecric pressure washer, 2300 psi, which my neighbour gave me when he moved to smaller digs. Don't know how old it is, but every spring I cross my fingers when I need it. So far so good.
ReplyDelete