If your pressure washer completely stopped working, read this!
I had bought this pressure washer just over 2 years ago for one job lasting about 4 hours total. At the time, I put the unit away and forgot about it for 2 years until I needed it this summer. When I took it out and fired it up, the pump ran for about 5 seconds then "died." I tried for days to get it to work with no luck. I was one week over the 2 year warranty, so I was pretty ticked off I was stuck with this hunk of junk.
Then talking with a guy at work he mentioned you're supposed to use a pump protector lubricant after each time you use the pressure washer. I read up on this a bit, and the leftover water in the unit can cause the pumps internal gaskets to seize up. This might be due to the minerals in the water, I don't really know. I was considering buying a different unit, then thought I'd take a shot at using the pump protector liquid on my "dead" pressure washer.
At Wall Mart I bought "Powerfit 3oz Power Washer Pump Protector" in the tools isle. This $5 liquid brought my pump and pressure washer right back to life!! You actually screw the plastic threads on the bottle into the threaded garden hose inlet on the pressure washer. Then just squeeze the bottle a bit. I didn't realize if I was doing it right because I couldn't tell if the liquid was actually going in. About 10 minutes later I connected the hose and the unit worked.
Hope this helps some people!
Update 5-21-18 - Another easy fix for dead unit :)
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This week I had an issue with the pump not starting, that the power wash pump protector liquid trick didn't fix. I tried different outlets thinking it was an electrical issue. It turned out to be an electrical issue within the GFCI plug of the power washer unit (likely from me leaving it outside in the rain a few days last year.) With the unit unplugged, take a phillips screwdriver and take the cover off of the unit's GFCI plug. With the cover popped off, if you see lots of moisture that's been trapped in the plug, that will prevent it from running.
I bought a replacement plug at my local hardware store. You can find the same replacement plug I used successfully to fix my pressure washer by typing this into the Amazon search bar: "Leviton 16693 15-Amp, 120-Volt, Grounded, Compact Automatic Reset Right Angle GFCI"
It's about a 5 minute job.. Just reconnect the wires to the new GFCI plug (Black wire to gold connector, white to silver) and turn the screws to secure the wires in place. Screw down the "U" shaped stress clamps that come with the new plug, they hold the wire in tightly. Then attach the new cover, and you're good to go.
Update 7-20-20 - Maintenance on quick connect spray nozzles
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5 years later my Sun Joe washer is still going strong. After your pressure washer has been around a few seasons, it's possible that the very fine holes in the quick connect spray nozzles will get some corrosion. Any little corrosion can affect the amount of water that can pass through, and I found will often prevent the pump from running and shut the pump off. If your pump turns on and runs with no spray nozzle attached to the wand, but does not work with the nozzle attached that's a clear sign you need to do some maintenance on your nozzles to reopen the holes in the nozzle.
What I did was take a bowl and fill it with Vinegar. I just used vinegar because I had it in the house, there may be other good methods to get rid of the corrosion. I soaked all the nozzles in the bowl for about 3 hours. Then I took a sewing needle and poked around the hole to clear out any corrosion. Soaked them for a couple more hours, and then rinsed them off under some hot water. Then I dried them off and sprayed each nozzle with little olive oil cooking spray to help prevent any more corrosion before storing them. There are lots of corrosion inhibitors on the market I just used something I had around. This method worked well as it opened 3 plugged nozzles for me.
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