When the guys come to clean & service my air con units, they use a small electric power washer. They submerge one end of the intake hose into a big bucket full of water and away they go. Last time they let me borrow it while they took a break and I sprayed down the balcony walls and railing supports, and it did a great job.

Tesco Lotus had a Black & Decker “high pressure washer” (PW1200C) on sale a few months ago and on impulse I bought it.

After the recent storm, a bunch of dirt got blown onto my balcony so I decided to finally give it a try. I live in a condo with no hose bib either inside the condo or on the balcony. This B&D washer clearly was designed for a hose bib, but then again, I think the air con guys’ one was, too. So, I assembled the washer, attached a garden hose to the unit and rigged a pail so that the hose would stay submerged, turned the power dial and pulled the wand trigger. The motor kicked it, but no water sprayed.

Turns out there is no suction at the water inlet on the washer where the hose attaches. Is my unit so different from the air con guys that I can’t use it with a bucket? i.e. Does my B&D washer depend on the water pressure from the condo water system to work? Or, is my power washer not working correctly?

Do the instructions say it's suitable to draw from a bucket?

You may score if you first fire it up with a pressurised water supply to prime it up then try the bucket.

But yes, your unit is probably different to that used by the aircon guys whose unit was designed to suck up (theirs likely has a foot valve for starters).

Thanks. Wish I had kept the receipt and/or had tried this earlier.

The instructions are quite minimalist, although in about a half-dozen languages. Doesn't say you have to use a pressurized hose bib, but doesn't say you don't have to, either.

One of these days, I'll wander through the garage area and around the periphery of the building to see if I can find a hose bib with an electrical source nearby to check this further.

In 2007 I paid serious baht for a Karcher pressure washer at Home Works on a "sale" in Bangkok. It worked fine for many years. In 2015 I went to the authorized service center in Korat for a repair and they said KTW the importer could sell them a new motor. For way less than a new motor I bought a brand new Hitachi 150 bar high pressure washer at a local Buriram hardware store. The owner of that store let me know in English, that Hitachi spare parts after the warranty period were significantly less costly than he must charge for spare parts for Zinsano or Bosch Pressure washers. He told me he no longer sells on Karcher and Black & Decker pressure washers due to issues with after the warranty repairs and the limits of the actual warranty coverage. The Hitachi Tools repair spokes models did offer to show me how to use the wand and how to adjust the pressure.

I am sure no matter where you live you have a bathroom ??

you simply buy a T with tap on, there about 100 baht, and the under your wash hand basin or toilet screw it in, then use a hose to your machine. of course if you do not wish to spend the money then unscrew say toilet and use hose and after use reconnect toilet water pipe..

or like this

I have a number of them laying around metal, just plain metal ones, if I remember they were about 60 baht each from a Village hardware shop.

Maybe without any input water pressure the pump is not getting primed and can't get suction going. With the pump turned off maybe try filling up the water hose with water first which will also get some water to the pump, then quickly submerge the filled-up water hose into the bucket, and then turn on the sprayer.

I know you've all been on the edge of your seats wondering how I fared with my pressure washer. (What's that, you say? Really?)

Last week I saw a neighbor using a pressure washer very similar to mine (different brand, but looked like a clone) to clean his balcony and he was hooked up to the building water supply -- he used the butt sprayer hose in the bathroom with an adapter to attach the garden hose. He had problems, though, as the narrower gauge (5/8" ?) hose didn't supply enough water to keep the motor engaged, and had to get another bigger gauge (3/4" ?) hose. He was also stripping paint off the walls and railing if he wasn't careful with the distance/angle of attack

So, I finally got around to attaching to the water supply today (also using the butt sprayer hose.) My unit worked just fine on the narrower gauge hose, and there was an adjustment on the spray wand that let me use a diffuse pattern which, while strong enough to remove baked-on gecko crap, didn't strip the paint. Not sure if his unit didn't have a spray adjustment or maybe extra water flow from a larger gauge hose made a difference?

Anyway, my pressure washer works just fine, just without the bucket which I originally intended I need to get about another 1.5 meter of hose to be able to reach the far end of the balcony close up.

Maybe without any input water pressure the pump is not getting primed and can't get suction going. With the pump turned off maybe try filling up the water hose with water first which will also get some water to the pump, then quickly submerge the filled-up water hose into the bucket, and then turn on the sprayer.

I just had to test my above statement. I pulled out my Zinsano pressure washer yesterday, put some water in a 20 liter jug, ran a 1/2 inch hose from the jug to the input of the washer, turned the washer on---no output. Tried several times.

Then I took the hose out of the jug, poured water into it until it filled up which means the pump & hose would be primed, and then "quickly" put the hose back into the jug to minimize losing water from the hose/losing prime. Turned the pump on and it worked...sprayed water, sucked the jug dry.

Summary: pressure washer input line just needed to be primed to get the suction going.

Summary: pressure washer input line just needed to be primed to get the suction going.

Exactly - See Post #2

Is it fairly easy to fill a length of 1/2" water hose while one end is attached to the pump? To be able to clean my balcony without relocating the bucket a couple times, I'd need about 2m of garden hose so I envision standing on something to extend the hose vertically 2m and then dribbling water down the hose until it's full, and then "quickly" plunging it into my bucket? Am I warm?

Since there is no suction at the washer's inlet, would water also flow into the pump to prime it? I've been assuming it was the water pressure from the building water supply forcing it's way into the washer that made the difference.

On Saturday I asked the Zinsano demonstration representatives about big jugs and suction of the Zinsano high pressure washers on display in Buriram. They were not qualified in my opinion to make technical decisions or perform major repairs to a pressure cleaner. These women put effort the hand car wash.