Hello, BT guys (and gals?). We’ve run into a problem with our power washer. It’s a Karcher 2400 (yeah, I know, not quite top-of-the-line), lightly used. When it stopped spraying the way it should, I looked around online and found this article about a sticking “unloader valve.” Rather than perform a fix, we ordered the new and improved version, and I put it in the other day. No joy to follow, though, water still comes out the wand at the same pressure it goes in from the hose.
Symptoms before it went completely lame were that sometimes it would do a high-pressure spray, and then go lame, then the pressure would come back.
Anyone have any ideas? and how to test for them? Thanks in advance!
forestgirl — you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can’t take the forest out of the girl 😉
Edited 1/3/2009 11:04 pm by forestgirl
Replies
Both my brother and I have had the same issue with our respective Karcher pressure washers. Greasing the unloader valve did the trick for ours.
I do have some recollection that there is a filter screen on the water inlet and that mine had accumulated a lot of sediment, though I might be confusing my pieces of equipment in my memory.
I just googled google images and it looks like there is an inlet filter screen. I don't think there is any need to replace it, just pull it and rinse it off to restore full volume of water flowing through it.
Good luck,
Karl
Thanks Karl and J. I found a troubleshooting video on Karcher-USA and it showed the inlet filter and mentioned a couple of other possibilities. Will clean the filter tomorrow and if that doesn't work (have already tried a couple different tips), I'll haul the darned thing to a place that has better water pressure than we do, see if that's the problem.
thanks!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Make sure there isn't something in the tip.
I know you said that water comes out - that doesn't mean that there still isnt some blockage. On some of the cheaper ones the unloader wont "load" without full flow.
Chased one in circles once, rebuild, no go, rebuild, no go...... ended up just being a tiny spec in the tip blocking, but not stopping flow.
.02
Remodeling Contractor just on the other side of the Glass City