Can Pressure Washing Actually Be Fun?

We have been enjoying our Summer vacation.  We spent the first month with sport events and traveling.  Now we are ready to ease into the dog days of Summer.  But after a lot of running around, our backyard and cars are looking a bit dirty and dusty.

It’s obvious that we have a bit of cleanup to do first before we begin inviting our friends over for some Summer pool time.  Only, here’s the thing.  Summer is meant to be fun, no? Who wants to spend time cleaning and dusting?

To make cleanup a bit more fun, something our kids could get into, we went to our local Walmart and bought…a pressure washer, a Karcher K3 Follow Me pressure washer.  

Now, on the onset, that might not seem like a lot of fun.  But when you see instant cleaning results, without a lot of “elbow grease” needed, and you’re holding a powerful wand that blasts water out, it’s fun!

In fact, as we were washing stains off our driveway and even cleaning our cars’ hubcaps, we all had to take turns using the wand!

Here are some of the projects we took on…so far…

Pressure Washing the Car

When I saw the Karcher K3 could be used on a car, I was wary; I did not want to scratch our paint.  But we tried pressure washing the car and it worked out great – being able to spray water and cleanser at the same time.  

As we walked around the car, so did the K3 pressure washer, using it’s 4 wheel…this was so convenient.  It took us under 10 minutes to wash our car!  Hooray!  

Don’t Forget those Hubcaps!

This was our favorite part, pressure washing our hubcaps.  What had taken us 15 minutes of scrubbing in a nylon brush before, came out in seconds!

Getting Stains off our Driveway and Walkways

Unfortunately, my last Odyssey of the Mind team dropped drops of paint from their paintbrushes right onto our beautiful brickwork on our driveway.  We tried so hard to scrub it off, but to no avail.  Our pressure washing cleaned up nearly all of the stains…and the black gum marks they left behind too!

Cleaning Our Patio Furniture

I was very happy with the Karcher K3 pressure washer.  Using it on our plastic weave rattan furniture really spruced them up.  When we have used a garden house on our patio furniture before, it helped, but the stream didn’t penetrate under the weaving as well as it did with this pressure washing.

Finally Getting the Dirt Out of Our Tile!

Our  pressure washing with the Karcher K3 also did a good job at cleaning dirt-stained grout and bird poop, which had stained our poolside tile.  Many times my husband worked at cleaning the tile and grout with a hose, but the grout continued to stay dark.  He was amazed at how clean and how instantly the Karcher K3 pressure washer cleaned our grout.

Features:

• 1700 PSI 1.3 GPM Electric Pressure Washer
• Exclusive 4-wheel design (no other pressure washer has this)
• Patented Dirtblaster spray wand
• Comes with universal spray wand and two nozzle tips. Use the 15 degree tip for high performance and the 65 degree tip for low pressure detergent application (washing cars)
• N-COR pump is durable, non-corrosive and maintenance-free
• Comes with a 15 ft. high pressure hose and 35 ft. GFCI power cord
• Kärcher Quick Connect System to make it easy to connect your hose to the K3 pressure washer
• Removable detergent tank
• Onboard Storage for Accessories
• Child safety lock
• 2-Year Limited Warranty — Rapid Exchange Program 

Pros:

• Quiet – you can actually have a conversation with someone as it runs
• The motor stops when the trigger is released – you don’t have to turn it off to pause it
• Easy to maneuver and steer around patio and around car
• Stores parts and cord  conveniently
• Gentle enough to clean the car
• Quick connect fittings make changing the wands easy
• Works great on plastic wicker furniture

Cons:

• It doesn’t have enough power to get all of the paint stains off our driveway 🙁  (A gas powered pressure washer has more power, but they are noisier and I didn’t want gas sitting around)
• Cannot work with Karcher’s gutter attachment
• Electric power cord is 35 ft., but is still limiting.  A power extension cord makes this easier

The Karcher K3 Follw Me 1700 PSI pressure washer is available at Walmart and Walmart.com for $149.00, and is currently $20 off.  I purchased mine directly at my local store and was able to use it right away.  I liked the way Walmart set up the pressure washer area of their store.  I was able to easily find and buy pressure washer cleaner (for my car) and any accessories like hoses or attachments.

A Mom’s Perspective

Summer to me is a time to enjoy family and friends and the beautiful warm sunny days God has blessed us with.  It’s a time to frolic in the pool, savor barbecued cooked foods, and reminisce about vacations that went by too quickly.

My husband and I like to have friends often, but it it bugs us when we look around the backyard and see things that look dirty, stained, or overgrown.  Even though we live in Southern California, much of the year we don’t use our backyard and patio, so it’s always a chore to get it looking good.

We found pressure washing to be a lot more fun than we expected.  There’s no doubt, the person that holds the pressure washing wand has the most fun.  But it is so amazing to see instant results on things you hadn’t been able to clean before.

I LOVED how clean the Karcher K3 cleaned our tire wells and tile grout, they look fantastic. Next up…our BBQ grill.  I’ll bet we can get it looking near new again.

I am looking forward to using the Karcher K3 in the winter months as I lead my Odyssey of the Mind team.  We paint our sets in our street and often coat the street with straying paint stains.  I will use the Karcher K3 pressure washing to lessen the impact of the paint stains (and hopefully get rid of them altogether) so it doesn’t distract our neighbors.

My husband already has a list of projects in his mind to use our new “toy” on.  Hey, if he’s happy about cleaning, than I’m happy!