This was sent to me by a friend on the Porschephiles list. I thought you all
might enjoy reading it as much as I did.
Regards,
Bruce Brandt
bbrandt@tcmail.frco.com
Austin, TX
Tom Pultz (falcon@wolfenet.com) asked
>Dear P'fans,
>Now that we (actually my son) has an '89 944 Turbo sitting in my garage
>we'd like to try and maintain it's ultra clean condition. Since he will
>be driving it on a semi regular basis here in the Pacific NW, there is no
>way to keep from getting the underside dirty in the winter rainy season,
>which lasts from Jan 1-Dec 31 :-)
>If anyone has purchased a pressure washer and they use it to clean the
>underside of their cars, I'd like to hear about it. There are a lot of
>different brands and the costs vary considerably from a few hundred to
>several thousand. I'm leaning to the several hundred variety with
>something around 700 or so psi. I'd also like a recommendation on the max
>pressure that is needed, or advised. I don't want to blast off the paint
>too! I would like to use it around the house for other things, but I
>don't think we need any 1500 psi for that.
>TIA,
>Tom Pultz
>Bellevue, WA
>with son's '89 944 Turbo that Dad gets to drive now and then until he
>finds one for himself
Golly. Such perfect timing. I bought one a week ago after eyeing one
particular model at the Auto Parts Club and Home Base for probably 2 years.
The Tustin vintage race program had a 10% discount coupon from Home Base so I
made it pay off (it made the Tustin race weekend a freebie, too).
I got the Karcher (Actually Ka"rcher, properly spelled Kaercher if you can't
do umlauts) Special. It's a small hand-carried 1250 psi unit, made in
Germany. Home Base price is $239. There is one Kaercher unit that is smaller
and cheaper still, but I elected to get this one. There are more expensive
ones too, but for a lot more money you only get a little more pressure. The
others have features such as a small gasoline engine to drive the things,
which I don't need. 1200 psi is plenty.
The operating principle is very simple. You attach a garden hose (using one
of those wonky German Gardena quick-connect fittings), plug it in, and go.
The idea is to move the dirt from the object to be cleaned, onto yourself.
You then take a shower to flush all the collected dirt down the drain.
Simple, no? (At least, this is how I do it).
Not sure if you need all of 1250 psi to do car undersides, but I just washed
the grunge out of my 356 engine bay, and cleaned the underside of engine and
trans, using full pressure. Looks great. With this much pressure, you just
have to keep the pressure wand some safe distance from the work. I sprayed
Gunk Engine-Brite on everything (covering carbs and distributor of course),
let it sit, rinsed it off with the pressure washer. Works great. Underside of
engine is sparkling. Also tried pressure washer in wheel wells, that seems to
work too but you have to be careful about taking stuff off. I noticed the
washer could lift paint off the torsion bar cover.
The washer draws quite a bit of current. One extension cord I had is probably
defective, it works for lower draw items but big stuff like table saws and
this pressure washer sometimes don't start at all, just hum. It finally
tripped a breaker so I took the hint and found another cord. After that it
started and ran fine, every time.
Next, the driveway and patio. I had some areas with impacted roofing tar.
Getting the pressure wand up close just peeled them away. It removed years of
Stuff (unidentified, maybe algae) on patio concrete under plants and things.
Then I did the barbecue grill.
Then I did the neighbor's dog. The hair will probably grow back.
Today I'm going to do the dishes, even though it isn't the end of the month
yet. P.J. O'Rourke in his book, "Bachelor Home Companion," suggests this
handy time-saving housekeeping tip: wash your dishes and floor in one easy
operation. Stack dishes in center of kitchen floor, hose off, rinse out.
(After all, dishwashers are the pansy way to do dishes...) But as attractive
as O'Rourke's system may be, it lacks a certain sense of, well, masculinity.
And it doesn't require any expensive equipment. Use of a pressure washer
changes all that. It adds an element of danger (see "neighbor's dog" above),
noise, and gadgetry that would otherwise be lacking. And there's the Freudian
symbolism of this long rifle-like pressure wand, blasting away...
Pete
(crossposting this to all 5 lists, as it applies to all cars).
==================================
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