Karcher Professional?

[Mick Annick]

I used to be a Karcher service engineer back in the 1990s.
I wouldn't buy anything made after that.
The domestic yellow machines are overpriced rubbish.
The grey commercial machines are over complicated, overpriced and very expensive for parts.

As an example, you can get one that you can change the pressure on using an app on your phone. What daft genius thought that it was a good idea to put delicate electronics on a washer mixed with water and vibration. Probably the same one that put the pressure gauge on the wash lance that will get broken in 5 minutes!

Kranzle are a decent machine plus there are some great machines coming out of Italy. Simple machines using standard generic pumps, motors and ancillaries you can buy anywhere.

In 1998 I spent £250,000 on two Karcher machines, they were fine.

 

[Bullet2012]

In 1998 I spent £250,000 on two Karcher machines, they were fine.

typical, always buying the cheapest

 

[Turbo]

At 1 time Karchers were the best there was. Innovative, well thought out and clever design with bulletproof German engineering.

Then in the late 1990s they started getting silly adding features nobody needed, making the machines fragile and less reliable.
Meanwhile other countries like Italy started making their own decent simple reliable pressure washers. Up to this they were mainly supplying pumps and ancillaries.
But they started making their own cold washers and steam washers. They took a big chunk of the market from the big names like Karcher.

To compete Karcher started making cheaper quality machines. They also shot their main dealers in the back by offering an agency to every Tom, Dick or Harry that asked.
Soon every hardware shop, garden centre and store were Karcher 'agents' selling sub par products with no service backup.

The proper dealers then got loads of folk arriving with these washers broken and not happy when they were quoted the half price of the washer for something simple like a hose. Often they needed new plastic pumps within a few months.
It got to be that we would not take in any item not sold by us for warranty work.
During a Karcher dealer event my boss was told that the domestic machines were designed to last just over a year to get outside the warranty period!

Gradually we stopped selling new Karchers and switched to Interpump based Italian washers.
We didn't sell any domestic spec machines, stuck to semi pro and pro machines. But you could buy a really good industrial Interpump washer for little more than a top spec domestic Karcher.

 

[Mick Annick]

typical, always buying the cheapest

To be fair, for the money I got two conveyor fed automatic car washes that did the body and underside, though we still had to buy some mobile pressure washers as the customer (a sizeable manufacturer that shall remain nameless) decided that the engine bay also had to be washed manually. I can’t remember the numbers now, it was a long time ago, but we were processing over 50 cars an hour including vacuuming the interior - we had a massive industrial dust extraction unit with hoses hanging from above, four guys, two each side vacuuming the front and and rear.

The place also had one of the largest paint shops at the time, 18 spraybooths, all with side access, cars went through on rails. There was another four booths for just for painting removed bumpers. All this just to refurbish ex company and fleet cars for the used market.

 

[carbon]

It got to be that we would not take in any item not sold by us for warranty work.

I don't get paid by the machine manufacturer to do warranty work all I get is the parts supplied if deemed to have failed due to a manufacturing fault. So I won't do warranty work on machines I haven't sold either.

 

[skotl]

Seems like nobody loves them but I’ve got a karcher extension hose that doesn’t fit my generic petrol washer.
If anyone wants it it’s yours for the price of postage. If any interest I’ll run out to the shed and take pics of the actual connectors to make sure I’m right!

Probably only fair that the OP (@Jackimus) has first dibs.