Rating: - Good for patios
I bought a K3.97 washer which came with a T200 patio cleaning head. This really does work well and fast and stops the spash back you get with the spray gun. Don't leave the sprayer in an unheated shed as frost may cause damage in the winter. May be the cause of leaks people have complained about!
Rating: - Replacement parts for Karcher k4.99
Like Mr Andrew Nisbet, the karcher pressure which I bought for my husband suffered a split hose within two years. I was all set to find a replacement washer when I came across a Karcher gun and hose which fits most models. It costs just under £30, and although it does not excuse Karcher from producing what I consider to be a substandard hose, it solved the problem and will allow further use of an otherwise useless machine.
Rating: - Did not last long
I bought this washer just over two years ago and have used it for occasional domestic use ie house, car washing etc. While it worked, I had no complaints about the washer, it did what I expected, no more, no less.
It has now developed a leak on the water pump so that the water squirts out the pump rather than through the nozzle, making the machine useless. I made an e-mail complaint to Karcher but did not get the courtesy of a reply or even an acknowlegement. At worst, I had hoped for advice on whether a repair was feasible.
On the basis of my experience of poor reliability and customer service, I would not recommend this washer or any Karcher product.
Rating: - Let down by the paperwork
This machine may be good at blasting things with water, but let's be honest it isn't a cheap purchase, and therefore I shall be critical of the things which one would tolerate in a cheaper product.
The instruction booklet (calling it a booklet is being kind - it's printed on horrible paper!) is poorly laid out, and badly edited. As for the method of getting detergent into the water flow, I'm afraid a pipe dangling out of the side smacks of prototyping, not a finished product.
Finally the telephone help line is charged at 25p per minute - yet another example of an apparently reputable company making money out of assisting those customers who find problems with their products!
Rating: - EXCEEDED MY EXPECTATIONS!
I bought the Karcher K4.99M pressure washer to clean filthy coping stones round my swimming pool and to clean the algae infested patio slabs around it. The pressure washer completely exceeded my expectations by cleaning the area evenly, quickly and efficiently! The power is incredible for a 120bar machine (the Amazon listing states 130bar but this is wrong). I was contemplating buying a bigger more expensive washer, but I'm glad I didn't now because this was powerful enough. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!