Excellent unit
AR AR118 Electric Pressure Washer
This is a nice little pressure washer. For my needs, it does everything I can expect in a $95 unit.
The biggest feature for me was the Low Low price and small size. It is very compact, stores nicely on a shelf without giving up any garage floor space. I love that the cords and tools all store as part of the unit, so it make this easy to take with you somewhere or lend to a neighbor without forgetting parts of it. The hose is a bit stiff as some notice, but if you are smarter than the hose it is not a problem. When you first uncoil it, just unwind it so it lays straight, and then coil it correctly when storing. Put the hose on the unit before you coil up the cord, and everything fits almost like in the picture. Its easy to set up and pack up. It has plenty of pressure for light usage tasks, but may not get all the stains out of the concrete. It is very quiet, and I love that the motor shuts down when you release the trigger.
I wish this unit came with better instructions. You basically get a diagram showing all the parts, and about three lines covering the power-on sequence. Here are some tips: Buy a brass replacement for the plastic hose adaptor. ($5.) And it is not hose to hose. It is threaded for pipe on one end and for a hose on the other. Take the plastic one to the hardware store as a sample, and make sure they notice it is not a hose/hose connector. You may also want a turbo-spinner head, and the mfr makes the only one that will work with this unit. But Amazon does not carry it, so look elsewhere and you will see prices from $8 to $20 for this piece.
I bought the recommended soap pacs, but they don't really work for this washer. They are designed for making a quart at a time, and the spray attachment is only 10-12 ounces. It empties out quickly. I was very unimpressed with the soaping abaility of this unit. I may just buy a pump-style garden sprayer and use that to apply cleaning solutions in the future rather than the pressure unit attachment. Of course, it may just be my inexperience at pressure washing that is the problem.
If you need a pressure washer for personal use, this is a great unit. Home, car, boat are all fine projects for this unit. Even pros might have some use for a small quiet unit. But it's low volume of water, poor application of soaps, and low pressure below 3000psi are probably too small for a business where time is money.
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Category Article pressure washer
I use the AR118 for washing the salt off and out from under my car during the winter. My town has only two high-pressure DIY car washes, so they charge an arm and a leg for a very hurried wash including the undercarriage. With the AR118 I can take my time in the driveway without sitting in line for an hour and with the satisfaction of having done a good job. I connect my unit to warm (NOT hot) water to dissolve grunge more effectively and to make washing more bearable when it's 35 degrees outside.
The main drawback so far is that the AR118 does not come with an angled wand, so it's not great for thorough car washing unless you buy the PW40811 angled lance for an extra $20. The straight wand makes it basically impossible to wash behind the lip of a fender where mud accumulates and rust tends to form, and makes washing the undercarriage difficult. I have not tried the new wand yet, but I'll update this review once I have. Given AR makes pumps and much larger equipment, they were pleasant to deal with despite the fact that I was calling to buy only a small $20 item.
The wands are fiberglass reinforced plastic and seem to be well-made, but I've got only about 5 hours of total run-time on this unit so far. The overall quality seems to be good, and the hose connections on the unit are metal. The standard straight lance has an adjustable deflector at the end so that you can tailor the spray from a high-pressure jet to a gentle mist. I'm very happy with the AR118 so far and expect it to have paid for itself the next time I uses it.
UPDATE 11/2012: Still works fine! I bought the under-body lance (available direct from AR North America for about $20). There is a lot of flex from the pressure with the angled spray, so I support it with my hand about halfway down. With the angled lance, blasting accumulated mud out of the wheel wells is a piece of cake. The pressure washer has paid for itself a few times over now.
I am very pleased with this purchase. So far I have cleaned my concrete drive and walk and two decks. This unit seems very well built and quiet. I like that it is light weight and has no messy tank - just connect your garden hose and go. It has a soap bottle that mixes cleaning agent into the stream - but I have not used it yet. Managing the cleaning agent this way means no tank and no messy clean up. The unit's pump only runs in clean water so there is no clogging and no clean up. A great little unit with the capablilty to handle any job around the home.
We bought this to remove algae that grows on the north side of our vinyl sided home. It did this very well and the siding looked so nice, we kept going and washed the entire house, including patios, deck, screen porch, etc. The house looks almost new. Excellent product with just the right amount of pressure for our needs, but not so much we had to worry about wood damage.
Easy to assemble and figure out how to run; it blasts nicely and idles without noise or leaking. 18' x 40' brick patio with side walls took better part of a day, but had not been cleaned in several years and did not want to destroy bricks; very little chipping, and soil and moss residue came off with no additives. Super easy to put away. Great for price and compact construction.
I love this pressure washer!! I'm a 55 yr.old woman who doesn't like to wait for her husband to "get around to it!" This pressure washer is so easy for me to use and it kicks butt! I used a separate little sprayer to apply detergent/bleach mixture (the little bottle that comes with it isn't for big jobs, but it works). Everytime my husband would use his "BIG" pressure washer, he'd strip the paint of the house, fence, etc. I don't like having to paint if I don't have to, so I'd rather do it myself (pressure wash). This little thing will strip paint, but you can control it. If there are any other women out there who want things cleaned up without waiting for or hiring a man to do it, this will be one of the best purchases you'll make! I'm a happy, happy girl :)
Make no mistake about it....you can definitely hurt yourself (or someone else) with this pressure washer. It's capable of tearing up my pressure treated wood deck, so it'll cut through skin too. The comment from another reviewer that you can't hurt yourself with this machine makes me wonder if they adjusted the nozzle correctly....it's definitely not worth the risk to try.
The AR118 may not be in the same league as a $1500 commercial grade gas powered washer, but it's very capable for average residential use, and is an excellent bang for the buck. It's small, lightweight, inexpensive, and very portable. It does an excellent job on vinyl siding, patio furniture, concrete, paint and stain removal from decks, and is great at pre-rinsing major dirt off the car, though you'll still need to wash with soap and a sponge to remove the road film. The adjustable spray nozzle adjusts easily from a light mist to hard cutting beam of water. The attachments go together quickly and easily, and it seems surprisingly well made for the price. I've run it for hours at a time without a whimper from it. For such a low cost unit, I've got a lot of confidence in the build quality of this pump and motor. On a more critical note, the hose is a little stiff, and some water does leak from the hose attachment. The storage compartments for the nozzle attachments are handy, but the cord storage area is far too small for the entire cord that's included....you can only wrap about 1/3 of the cord around it before it's full.
I was a little concerned that a pressure washer in this price range might be nothing more than a glorified high cost squirt gun, but this one is a really useful tool at a great price. Overall I don't know how much more I could expect from an electric power washer in this price range.
Compact, well built,very long electrical cord, pressure is high enough to wash cars and things around the house. The hose could be of a better quality although it is acceptable. The water connection to the garden hose is not plastic but steel just like the connection for the high pressure hose. You are getting a good pressure washer for a very reasonnable price.
Love this product! Very well made, easy to assemble and use. I am a senior and had no problem using this item. Worked well on sidewalk and bricks, stucco siding and fence (fan out the stream when using on wood or it splinters the wood!) Living in Florida, we get a lot of mildew, it worked like a charm! I highly recommend this product!
This is a nice little pressure washer. For my needs, it does everything I can expect in a $95 unit.
The biggest feature for me was the Low Low price and small size. It is very compact, stores nicely on a shelf without giving up any garage floor space. I love that the cords and tools all store as part of the unit, so it make this easy to take with you somewhere or lend to a neighbor without forgetting parts of it. The hose is a bit stiff as some notice, but if you are smarter than the hose it is not a problem. When you first uncoil it, just unwind it so it lays straight, and then coil it correctly when storing. Put the hose on the unit before you coil up the cord, and everything fits almost like in the picture. Its easy to set up and pack up. It has plenty of pressure for light usage tasks, but may not get all the stains out of the concrete. It is very quiet, and I love that the motor shuts down when you release the trigger.
I wish this unit came with better instructions. You basically get a diagram showing all the parts, and about three lines covering the power-on sequence. Here are some tips: Buy a brass replacement for the plastic hose adaptor. ($5.) And it is not hose to hose. It is threaded for pipe on one end and for a hose on the other. Take the plastic one to the hardware store as a sample, and make sure they notice it is not a hose/hose connector. You may also want a turbo-spinner head, and the mfr makes the only one that will work with this unit. But Amazon does not carry it, so look elsewhere and you will see prices from $8 to $20 for this piece.
I bought the recommended soap pacs, but they don't really work for this washer. They are designed for making a quart at a time, and the spray attachment is only 10-12 ounces. It empties out quickly. I was very unimpressed with the soaping abaility of this unit. I may just buy a pump-style garden sprayer and use that to apply cleaning solutions in the future rather than the pressure unit attachment. Of course, it may just be my inexperience at pressure washing that is the problem.
If you need a pressure washer for personal use, this is a great unit. Home, car, boat are all fine projects for this unit. Even pros might have some use for a small quiet unit. But it's low volume of water, poor application of soaps, and low pressure below 3000psi are probably too small for a business where time is money.