Wednesday 27 July 2016

To purchase pressure washer or not?

A few people have been buying pressure washers recently, and I'm wondering if they're worth getting.
The main jobs would be for washing the cars (Mine takes ages as it's a people carrier, so anything that helps would be good), cleaning the drive, paths, etc (They get a bit grubby as I do my car fixes on the drive, so they end up with coolant stains, oil patches, etc) so not a huge number of tasks but I'd want it to work well for these jobs.

Therefore looking at the type of pressure washer is important. Recently I've seen deals for them such as the Bosch AQT 33-11 which keeps going on offer down to around £50 which is a good value price. However as most deals, the devil is in the detail and looking closely you need to check a few specifications on them.
Here's what I've found out:
Power output - The energy consumed by the washer, in rough terms the higher the wattage the more power it will draw and vaguely the more powerful the motor will be.
Flow rate - Probably the key, this is the amount of liquid it will transfer within a specific time. This is normally in litres per hour, so the higher the value the higher pressure/volume of liquid is being pushed.
Mains fed/Tank fed - To allow you to run it from a water butt or tank, a handy option if you've got additional water storage and don't want to use the mains-fed water.

So based on that, you can start to make a choice on washers. The cheapo Bosch AQT 33-11 is predictably not that great. From the few that I've seen doing the rounds I've put the following together:

Bosch AQT 33-11 approx £50, 110bar, 1300watt, 330l/hr.
Nilfisk C120 approx £100, 120bar, 1400watt, 440l/hr.
Bosch AQT 35-10 approx £99, 120bar, 1500watt, 350l/hr.
Karcher K2 classic approx £120, 110bar, 1400watt, 360l/hr.
Karcher K4 approx £150, 140bar, 1800watt, 420l/hr.

So pricing varies by £100 and there isn't a huge difference in the pressure or water rates, although the £50 Bosch shows it really is underpowered compared to the rest.

So all in all, I'm still unsure about buying one at the moment as prices vary a lot and there isn't a huge difference for the money from what I can tell.

Oh and when you can get your car washed for £5 to a decent standard, that gives me 20 washes and 0 effort relating to the £100 pressure washer!

Tell me what you think, especially if you have one and like/hate it.

Scratch removal courtesy of TurtleWax and www.halfords.com/motoring

I was lucky enough to be sent a few car products from the kind people at http://www.halfords.com/motoring so here is the first video from the set that I'll be doing.

This full range is available from #halfords #motoring so let me know which one you'd like to see tested out next:




Disclaimer: I received these products in exchange for an honest unbiased opinion.

Friday 22 July 2016

Fencing and outdoor stuff

Well over the past few weeks myself and my dad have been working on the fence at the back of the house. It's been a while in coming, over 2 years ago we bought this house from the developers and there wasn't a dividing fence between us and one of our neighbours (Just a few posts and rails to show the marker) and so this summer I decided it really was about time to get a bit of privacy and security to the house.
I'd kind of planned on how much it was going to cost us, pricing up timber, screws, etc, and it wasn't a cheap amount, the area was quite large to cover and especially as I wanted to 'cover' more of the other areas.

It's probably easier to show a before photo to explain what I was doing:


Along the left was the original fence post and rails put in do divide between us and the neighbours. Then along the back was this half wall half fence (Those neighbours path was at the brick height, so when walking along they were clearly visible) which the gaps inbetween the panels.
This was another thing I wanted to tackle, I wanted to block out the gaps, so decided to 'back' panel these fences and completely cover using my own fencing material the gaps.
So the job involved putting new posts in along the left (Quite easy, long fence posts, some postcrete that you just pour in dry into the hole and fill with water) and then create and attach the rails. Getting the height and position of the rails took a little work, then each of the wooden panels needed cutting and fitting to the right height.
The rear 'back' panel covers weren't too bad, just cut to the right height and then pushing them so they sit snugly.

Here's an in-progress shot:
As you can see the back panels are all in and covering nicely with my own fencing. The left posts and initial rails were in place (the two supports were just whilst the postcrete set fully).

We've now put in most of the panels on the left fence and just have the final parts of the posts and rails to continue down the side of the house.
After all of that, we then need to paint them as we want a slightly darker wood stain colouring on them, so plenty of tubs and paint brushes will be needed soon!

All in all, a lot of work, but I'm pleased with the effort and again much more satisfied doing the job ourselves than getting somebody else in to do it. It is true, DIY becomes a bit of a hobby and something I look forward to doing now.