Karcher Hot Water

I have the opportunity to buy a HDS 3555 Karcher Be cold/hot/steam gas driben,belt drive.

It is new and from a distributor. At $4948 is this a good price. It is on sale and retails normally for $7895.

20hp
Honda
E-start
9 gal. tank
1450 rpms5 year coil warrenty3-5.5 gpm
86 degree-285 degree F
50 FT. HOSE
870-3500 PSI

iF YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS i WOULD APPRECIATE THEM.

Thanks,
Scott

Karcher

We work on a lot of Karcher machines and I have a split opinion. When they work they are some of the best machines I have ever seen. They are well thought out (in most cases) and designed with the end user in mind.

On the other hand parts can be hard to get. If you local Dist. has good access to parts it could be a good buy.

Best of Luck

Russell

ron p

Dont you need to by just karcher stuff for karcher? They have all there own stuff, like hoses,tip's,wands,ect...? There stuff is not interchangable with other units,right?
You cant shop around. At least thats the exsperiance ive had with them.
It would not be my choice of wash unit.

That particular unit is made for Karcher by Ramteq and it uses many Karcher parts. There is a possibility that the relationship is not what it once was, hence the 'Close Out' pricing.

The definition of a camel is a horse designed by a committee. In other words you are as liable to get the best of both manufacturer's as you are the worst in the one machine.

Traditionally the European manufacturers have reduced flow to get increased temperature ratings. So beware of that. Also, most of their fittings and controls are proprietary and therefore have reduced availability and increased cost versus more commonly available suppliers.

Karcher is the largest pressure washer manufacturer in the world but that does not mean they are the best, just the biggest. In North America there are larger manufacturers that provide better product, IMHO. The Europeans have never been known for 12V burner systems so beware.

Hope this helps? Cheers.

I am currently using that same machine. The problems we had were with the hot water side. First, the wiring is European style, meaning that they use fewer strands for the same wire gage. The wiring to our fuse was five strands, three of which were broken, and the resulting resistance caused the solder in the fuses to melt. Fixed that, then the pulley for the diesel fuel pump and fan kept coming off. The shaft would not go completely through the collet, so we tried turning the pulley around and cranking down on the collet. It worked for a couple of months, then the collet broke, and we finally replaced the pulley with another that had machined screws to clamp it to the shaft. THEN, the wiring to the transformer melted down, had to be replaced (twice) before Karcher finally told our distributor to replace the wires with much larger gage wires. So far, so good. Now, bottom line- would I buy that Karcher at that price? In a New York minute! BUT, our next machine will most likely be a Landa. Should you decide to skip buying this machine, contact me, and I will. If you do buy it, feel free to contact me with any questions, as much as I have worked on this machine, I think I can help you...

Have not used a Karcher Hot Water machine. But the oldest machine (and my first machine) we still use is a Karcher Cold Water machine.
I will never buy another Ramteq..at least not from Fort Worth, TX.
(2 years old...140 hours is all we have been able to put on it and it is broken down yet again!!)

The Karcher has outlasted many other machines...but as far as Hot Water, I know the europeans can NOT wire a car for (as far as MG's, Jaguars and Fiat's go) dependability, so the wiring on equipment may also be an issue.

Great thread about Karcher

Does anyone have any good experience with Karchers inverted heaters and know if they saved on fuel costs? Looks like they would be extremely fuel efficient.