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Portable pressure washer

bill-e

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Has anyone used or even considered the WORX HydroShot portable power washer for winter washing? Can draw from a bucket and the 450psi version empties a 5 gal bucket in about 5 minutes.

I'm interested in using something like this for washing winter road salt, chemicals and sand off my truck. I live is a snowy elevation of New Hampshire so I'm talking about real winter mess that's around for months. I thought I could rinse it off with one bucket and snow foam and rinse with another bucket. I'm not looking for perfect but would like to get the grit off every once in a while.

Thoughts?
 

Timeless

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I have one and used it once. No where as nice as a regular pressure washer and quite a bit heavier with the batteries. Might revisit it in the future.
 

bill-e

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I have one and used it once. No where as nice as a regular pressure washer and quite a bit heavier with the batteries. Might revisit it in the future.
Notwithstanding the ergonomics of the tool, did it do the job? which pressure version do you have? 350, 475 or 750psi?
 

bill-e

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Thanks, yea, I'm sure my electric one is better and more powerful but it doesn't draw water out of a bucket. I'm looking at it for winter use.
 

bill-e

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This is a review of the WORX Hydroshot Ultra WG649. 725psi

I was looking for a way to clean my black Ram 1500 during the winter without a hose and I thought I'd give this a try.

First, all the weight is in the motor which you set in your water source..a 5gal pail in my case, so the pressure wand is basically just a little heavier than the 2 Lithium batteries which attach to it. I found the Wand with the hose attached to be quite comfortable to hold with the only issue being, actually just as with my electric washer, my MATCC Foam Cannon III quick connection connects at the end of the wand making it awkward. WORX sells it's own foam cannon which connects close to the handle but I'm very happy with the way my MATCC Foam Cannon III works so I'll suffer through it.

UPDATE: I just found a Short Extension which should put the Foam Canon close to the pistol grip. I'll post a pic when it comes tomorrow.

OK, so now the test. Even though I could have used my electric washer I decided to use the WORX so I could test it out. I have a 2020 Ram 1500 in Diamond Black Crystal Pearl and it was almost white with winter road salt and dirt so I thought it would be a good test as this is the exact reason I bought the WORX.

My process was 1.Rinse off the loose stuff, 2. Use the Foam Cannon and foam the truck and let it sit a bit, 3. Use the two bucket wash method to wash the truck, 4. Rinse off the soap, 5.Final Rinse with Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic wax spray and 6. Dry the truck. So that's 3 Rinses and a Foam. The foam actually uses more water than the rinse I think even though it takes less time to apply.

So again, 3 complete rinses and a foam. Water use was 3 buckets. The 725psi Pressure out of the sprayer was very good, maybe perfect for washing a vehicle and as I'm typing this I realize that I didn't have the presence of mind to try the low pressure option.

I bought the washer on Amazon for $269 which was the cheapest I could find it. I found that it is perfect for my application and while I had to fill the pails, there was even an advantage to using the pails over an electric or gas washer. You know what a pain it is to uncoil your high pressure hose, not once but multiple times during a wash? With the WORX that task is easy because you just let the motor end of the hose spin in the bucket as your getting the coils and potential kinks out of the hose.

Also, moving the pail around to the other side of the truck is much easier than moving my electric washer because the electric washer also has a hose and a power cord that you have to drag along. With the WORX it is just the pail.

UPDATE 2022: I changed my process and products. I no longer bother with the foam cannon and I sue Carpro Reset for the soap and IGL Enhancer and the final drying aid/protectant.

In summary I'm am delighted with the way the WORX Hydroshot Ultra WG649 725psi washer performed. It washed my truck using three 5 gallon pails of water and still had battery power left after I was finished. Because it is not tethered to a power cord and hose the maneuvering around the truck was effortless as was keeping the pressure hose straight.

If this is you're only pressure washer you can use it year round. When it's warm you can attach the hose directly to the motor and forego the pails. It also comes with a 20' siphon hose that you can attach to the motor and drop the other end in a pool or pond for other cleaning chores. Like I said it works very well with the MATCC Foam Cannon III. WORX sells one also but it has a small opening for the bottle which does not work well for filling the jar.

Expensive, yes, but my only option for winter washing if I want to stay out of the commercial sand blasting car washes.
 
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bill-e

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To set the stage for you southern folks, this is what it looked like 7 days ago after 18" of snow. Luckily we had a stormy warm up for Christmas which washed away most of it. The truck was covered with road salt.

ram12-17-20.JPG

So no warm garage, outside water turned off so it won't freeze. With my white truck I would just go through the touchless car wash and after 5 years it still looked great but with this black one I'm going to try to stay away from them. This was my first winter 2 bucket wash and the first wash since I got it coated on Nov 14th. 33°F, 2 pails of water through the WORX Hydroshot portable pressure washer.
My first time using Carpro Reset which I bought from Autogeek and which foamed and cleaned the salt residue well. I didn't use the foam cannon, just the bucket. Truck came out nice. The sprayer still had 2 bars of battery left when I was finished. I also used a WORX portable blower to dry the truck followed by an Autofiber Dreadnaught towel to finish.. Very light and compact blower, easy even for an old man to hold one handed above the hood.


ram12-27-20sm.JPG
 
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bill-e

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I used this to wash my truck 4 times over Jan-March timeframe and it was a blessing to have the portable washer available over the winter. Each wash consisted of a wash bucket with Carpro Reset and two 5ga pails of clean water for the pressure washer. I did not wash the roof but did everything else. Instead of using the two bucket wash method I used my Grit Guard Insert with Washboard Combo Pack and it worked great. I usually have the combo pack in my rinse bucket but using it in the wash bucket really assures that the mitt is clean.

I foresee one or two more portable washes before dragging out my hose and electric washer for the warmer weather.

It was really a good investment.
 

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