Cheaper for a reason

So, my pressure washer packed it in this past weekend.

My son was rinsing off the truck, and all of a sudden the pitch of the pump changed.  He released the trigger, and the pump didn't shut off like it normally does.

I killed the power, and discovered that the washer was spraying water out of the pump housing.

After we finished rinsing the car with the regular nozzle, I tore apart the pressure washer in search of the problem.

The photo is the pump assembly. In the foreground is the fitting where the soap tank attaches. If you look closely, you can see a seam in the plastic.

That seam is the problem.

The seam has failed, so the pump no longer works. This is apparently a common problem with this type of pressure washer. There is no fix that I'm aware of. (A replacement pump costs as much as a whole new unit.)

In hindsight, I'm not surprised. This unit was cheap, less than $150 CAD. Even though it has a good brand name attached to it, it's at the bottom end of the pricing scale for pressure washers.

What did surprise me was the time to failure; I've owned this unit for about two years. I expected even a cheap unit to last longer than that, considering the care I was putting into it.

I learned three things from this experience:

1. Buy a pressure washer with an all metal pump. They cost more, but last longer.
2. It's cheaper for a reason.
3. Cheap crap is crap and no amount of maintenance or TLC will change that. I made sure to purge the water every fall, and I stored the unit in the basement so there was no chance of freezing. That didn't stop it from failing.

OK, I kinda already knew the second one. But I've learned that a pressure washer is really worth two or three times what I paid for mine, and rather than throw good money after bad, I have to decide if I really need one.