Flooded: Karcher 520M pressure washer, any hope?

[Susanne]

The problem is that one water hose wasn't secured where it enters the machine, and came off, pouring water all over the machine/engine/pump.

Switched the water off immediately, but the machine stopped working.

I've now let it dry out for 4 days in the very hot sunshine we've had, and another 2 days in my sunny kitchen, and it's still not working.
It's not the fuse, I've checked this in another appliance.

I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with this kind of thing, can it be repaired, or is it a goner?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Burnerman]

I'm a little surprised at this because pressure washers have encapsulated motors and switches to guard against this very problem. If you are prepared to have a go at taking it apart you could see if power is getting firstly to the switch and then out of it by using a multimeter - further than this is rarely economically viable.

 

[Susanne]

Yes, I would also generally expect that it would be built to handle a bit of water.

I called Karcher today, the callcentre girl spoke to an engineer who suggested that maybe one of the valves had got stuck, and so I need to run water through the pressure washer (while it's switched off) for 15 mins, to see if that helps.

Can't do that today, as it's raining out, and I don't want it to get the washer wet again, he he.

I also got the contact details for a local Karcher repair shop, and will call them to try to get some advice (haven't been able to get through to them yet), but I suspect they'll just tell me to send it in for repair.

Anyway, I'll try the running water for 15 mins, to see what will happen.

Thanks,
Susanne

 

[Susanne]

To close this thread for future readers of this post:

The Karcher engineer thought that maybe a valve had got stuck, and recommended that I flush the system, which worked, the machine is now working.

To clear the valves, do the following:

Turn the water supply off.
Remove the pressure nozzle hose parts from the machine, but leave it connected to the water supply.
Turn the water on again, full blast, so that the water exits the machine though the pipe in the side of the machine. where the pressure nozzle normally is attached.
Leave the water to run for 15 mins, this clears the valves.

Maybe you can run it for shorter, I haven't had the chance to experiment - I ran the water for 15 mins, and it's been working as normal since then.