Under pressure with Campbell Hausfeld
Written: Jun 29 '08 (Updated Jun 29 '08)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Light enough to carry, easy to use
Cons: Water hose tangles on itself, short electric cable, small soap reservoir
The Bottom Line: Kinking hoses drive me crazy with this but otherwise it's a good unit that's easy to use.
|
|
|
| ltrain's Full Review: Campbell Hausfeld Electric Pressure Washer PW15801... |
When I bought a house wrapped in vinyl siding a few years ago I knew I'd have to come up with a way to clean the siding each spring. Dirt, mold, and mildew are colors I'd never choose to decorate my home in so I insist they come off after a winter of piling on there. I wanted a unit with reasonable strength at a low cost that was easy to store. That's not asking for much, right?
When the Campbell Hausfeld was selected there were a few things that made it my top choice. First was the fact that it runs off of electricity. This means there is no gas or oil to worry with and it allows for a smaller unit. Also, the electric units are quiter than the gas units by a noticeable margin.
Second, the price was right on this model. At just over $100, I was able to add this one to my tool shed without washing out my budget for the summer. Most other models I looked at higher price tags and some were MUCH higher.
The upside
After a couple of years of use I've found that this model has some real nice features. One of my favorites has been the "quick change" connection to the water hose. Instead of threading the water hose onto it like your normally do to the faucet, this comes with an adapter so you can just push the hose on. I like this feature so much that I went to Home Depot and bought matching adapters for my faucets, sprinklers, and other nozzles so I can always just push my hose on.
Another favorite feature for me is the pressure it delivers. There are two nozzles provided, an adjustable one that is really meant for delicate jobs like washing cars and a non-adjustable that is designed for full throttle dirt pushing that I use to clean concrete and siding. The pressure isn't nearly as high as a gas powered model but at around 1500psi you'll have no trouble cleaning dirt off of your car, driveway, and house. The upside to the pressure limit is that you don't have to worry about cutting holes in your house siding by accident.
Wheels are installed on the unit so you can simply drag it around if you need to. It's so light that I just carry it but it's nice to know that someone who is weak could also move the washer around without trouble.
I didn't like:
The unit has a hose which is supposed to be about 10 feet long that runs to the spraying nozzle. Being a rubber hose, it has a tendency to twist and simply will not unravel and give me the full length. Functionally the hose is only around 3 feet long after all the twisting.
Electrical cable length is also an issue. It's around three feet long as well which means that even though the unit has a very safe plug, that plug must run into an extension cord which doesn't have fault type of plug. A great thought poorly executed in terms of safety.
When you want to use soap you are supposed to fill a small tub in the back of the unit with it. Compare the tub in size to a 20 oz soda bottle and you'll just about have it right. As the water flows all the soap is pulled out of this bottle in mere moments, it goes so fast that I've stopped even trying to use soap because I'm always out!
Overall:
Luckily for me I've found work arounds for all the downsides of the product. I enjoy the pressure washer and get plenty of work done with it. The pressure is good enough to keep me from needing to use soap so that limitation is probably saving me money that I would've thought I needed to spend otherwise.
I'm sure this was a good option for me based on my needs and budget and I'd recommend it to any "weekend warrior" type of user.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
ltrain
|
 in Kids & Family |
 - Top 1000 |
|
Location: Right place, right time!
Reviews written: 516
Trusted by: 131 members
About Me:
There's only football season and waiting for football season. I can't wait for football!
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.