Blew up a pressure washer engine in my first month of business and learned the hard way

I was working a driveway job in Phoenix last July, right when the heat hits 110. I had this cheap machine I bought off Facebook for $400, and I thought I was being smart by running it nonstop to finish fast. About 45 minutes in, the engine started smoking and then just died. Turns out I had no idea about letting the pump cool down between jobs. I lost the whole afternoon waiting for a tow and had to cancel two other clients that week. Cost me like $600 in lost work and a rental fee. Now I keep a spare pump in my truck and set a timer for every 30 minutes of continuous use. Has anyone else cooked a machine by pushing it too hard in summer?

3 comments

3 Comments

victorhernandez5d ago

My buddy runs a landscaping crew and did the exact same thing with a pressure washer last August. He was out in the California heat trying to finish a big commercial lot and the engine seized up after an hour straight. He was stuck with a dead machine and had to beg a neighbor to borrow theirs just to get through the day. Now he rotates between two cheap washers so he can swap them out every 25 minutes. It's wild how fast those things cook when you push them hard in summer.

sam_cooper4d ago

Yeah, have you ever tried swapping the oil to a synthetic blend before summer kicks in? That can buy you a solid extra 15 minutes of run time before things start to cook. Also, dropping the throttle down just a hair, even if it means the water pressure drops a bit, keeps the engine from overheating as fast. Another trick is to rig up a cheap box fan pointing at the engine while you work, it sounds dumb but it moves enough heat away to keep it running steady. Tell your buddy to check the air filter too, dust from commercial lots clogs them up fast and that alone will fry an engine in no time.

lisab324d ago

Oh man, that's brutal. Smart hack though, swapping them out.