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I have a gas Karcher. Bought it in 1999. I had borrowed an 1800 psi karcher (vertical shaft, "handtruck" style frame) to clean a new slab after a metal building was put up (60x60, 3600 sq/ft), needed to get the ground in red GA clay out of the slab before sealing it. The 1800 psi was killing me, if you backed away from the work enough to get a decent sized fan spray, it didn't clean, get close enough to clean and it seemed I was cleaning a square inch at a time. So I went out and bought a Karcher of my own. I bought a 2500 psi, 6.5 hp Briggs powered one. Horizontal shaft, pneumatic tires, nice unit. I used it alot cleaning the slab, and off and on since them, cleaning the concrete outside the building (its an aircraft hangar) and tractors, etc. I'm confortable with the 2500 psi, but more would be nice, less is a waste of money in my opinion. I haven't had a minutes problem until this year. I went to turn on the garden hose after I hooked it up and a brass plug blew out of the end. I called Karcher, they don't provide the pump parts themselves but refered me to R J Bowers-Karcher, Rockford, Ill. This company also operates as H-CPE Consumer Karcher Parts. The address for both is 2003 Harrison, Ave, Rockford, IL 01104. The phone is 800-383-6584. I'm not sure the name of the man I talked with, but his initials are BCP according to the invoice, and he was very talkitive and informative. He told me I had a unit with an "AR" pump, and said it was a very good unit, claimed to have the same model at home. Anyhow, he said the brass plug issue was the only problem with the unit and I could expect to replace it ocassionally (it corroded and fractured and broke and blew out, easy to replace) We talked for quite a while and what he told me is that the new consumer model Karcher units like you find at Menards/Lowes/HomeDepot/Sams etc. are now a cheaply built unit with few if any replaceable parts in the pump. He said the one I had was an excellent unit that could be easily rebuilt and he could get me every part for the pump if I needed. My pump is Italian made Aluminum/Brass, by the way. What he told me was that if I needed to replace it now, I would have to buy the bottom of the line Commerical unit that Karcher sells to equal what I have (I bought mine at Home Depot in '99). If you want the straight skinny, call this 800 number and ask to speak to the parts guy. We must have talked for 15 mins on his dime! Charles
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