Pressure washers

[Guest]

I am looking to buy a pressure washer having seen how much work they save at the end of a wet winter out on the hard. I intend to use it for cleaning the hull, decks as well as blasting the algae off the woodwork. How much power do I need to do the job?

 

[Guest]

100 bar at the sharp end is enough.

 

[Guest]

They\'ll all do the job

even the cheap ones at £50ish in B&Q. Just make sure you empty them completely at the end of the job, as I know of at least three that were left with water in the cylinder which then froze and split the cylinder. All too likely in the frosts of late April in England!!!!

 

[Guest]

The more you pay for a washer normally the greater the VOLUME OF WATER it will pump.They all seem to operate at a pressure of 100bar. In practise this means the cheaper on might clean say 5 square millimetres per second whilst one costing say £150 might clean say 25 sq. mm per second. I AM ONLY USEING THOSE FIGURES TO ILLUSTRATE MY POINT and do not know the actual figures involved. Hope this is of some use.

 

[Guest]

Go to B&Q and get a Kew washer if you pay about £100 you can get a reasonable one which will also spray waxes as well

 

[Guest]

Use caution

Be carefull, when you first get one, I hired one from HSS, it was brilliant on the car and Patio, so i thought, lets try it on the boat, without a thought i steamed in, and before i knew it, I had removed a couple of chunks of Gellcoat. It was OK once i had turned the pressure down.

 

[Guest]

I find mine does a great job on the non slip areas but isn't so effective on smooth surfaces.

 

[Guest]

Re: Watch out for teak decking

Its brings up your teak deks like new - but removes a hell of a lot of wood from the grain. - Given the cost of teak decks, stick to a soft brush - accross the grain.

 

[Guest]

I have a £99 Karcher job and it does the job well. There are more powerful jobs on the market and the petrol / diesel powered jobs generally greatest power and useful for where no power !

Go for it !

 

[Guest]

Re: Use caution

As a surveyor, my first thought is to question the gel-coat and its strength of bond to the hull. You should be able to exert water pressure to a considerable figure before removing gel. An ultrasonic scan should reveal any more voids, which it sounds as though you may have had .....

 

[Guest]

Re: Use caution

I was reading somewhere today that using a pressure washer on teak can remove the soft grain in the wood and leave it with ugly ridges.

 

[Guest]

What a lot of people do not realize is that the top end machines, with a goodly flow, will take off antifoul quite effectively, or particularly, the soft or self-eroding types. Saves scraping and w&d.

Don't use the pressure on woodwork as it raises the grain badly, and will cause plugs to pop out of teak decks, so I am informed.

 

[tommydortez]

i recently cleaned 3 yachts for sailing club members and a steal hulled fishing boat with a power washer called the EPW3100-2. i did a search for the cheapest petrol washers and the manufacturer was only down the road as im in Tenby (Pembrokeshire)

To be fair it was hellish powerful, did the job in no time at all

 

[tommydortez]

i wouldnt bother with all this b n q nonsense, those machines will last about 5 minutes! get a decent petrol washer, i got a cheap one (as petrol washers go) on ebay for £350... nocks out 3000psi and cleaned half our fleet in the boat yard with it this season! and before anyone bangs on about cheap Chinese... its korean!

 

[pvb]

...as well as blasting the algae off the woodwork. How much power do I need to do the job?

Don't ever use it on wood. Instead, use a simple chemical treatment to keep the wood clean. Boracol is best, or Patio Magic if you're cost-conscious. It's non-harming and works.

For the rest of the boat, even a tiny pressure washer will cope with grime in non-slip decks, etc.

 

[Rigger Mortice]

Another ancient thread is resurrected.

 

[pvb]

Another ancient thread is resurrected.

Thereby keeping the forum alive.

 

[snooks]

or Patio Magic if you're cost-conscious. It's non-harming and works.

Non-harming to you, may be, but not to the ickle fishes that swim in the water you flush the stuff away into.

From Brintons website:
"Fish: do not allow any run-off into fish-tanks or ponds, or contact with any aquatic life."

http://www.brintonproducts.co.uk/framedset.htm?domestic.php~mainFrame

And yes I know the thread is 13 years old, but just in case anyone was tempted to splash a bit of patio magic around....

 

[Jamesuk]

I bought some Bosch (cheaper end) power washers, they had a deal going on clearance, £45. Works very well. As another poster mentioned clean it of water or in my experience just chuck it in the above freezing garage and you will be fine.

I have the one which you can put a foaming solution into the mixer and the whole boat/car looks like it has just been to a foam party after just a couple of minutes and it stays looking like it for about 10 minutes too.

 

[pvb]

Non-harming to you, may be, but not to the ickle fishes that swim in the water you flush the stuff away into.

But you don't "flush the stuff away". The correct way to apply it is in dry weather, when rain isn't expected for several days. Simply apply a flood coat and let it dry. It's absorbed into the wood.