Kärcher Hochdruckreiniger K 5 Premium Full Control Plus (Druck: 20-145 bar, Fördermenge: 500 l/h, Schlauchtrommel, 3-in-1 Strahlrohr, Plus Power Pistole)

Absolutely solid, love it.*****UPDATE*******this has broken within 2 weeks of the warranty running out. currently dealing with karcher who are dragging their heels like they did with my window vac when it broke. will see if it gets resolved

Well, Brunhilde has not got total control but can feel the risk is growing! Spoiler alert, despite marketing's baleful influence this is a good piece of kit. The K5 is equipped with a 'full control' handle, presumably because marketing thought it would be a good idea but its function, which is to reduce the power of the device, is one that is very very rarely required. In return for this 'feature' you have to carry and replace batteries in the handle which make it heavier. The handle communicates to the body by wi-fi of some sort which is crazy; the washer is not a remote control device. It also means that you have to pair the handle with the body to use the 'feature'. A simple dial on the body would be much more useful and far less likely to lead to maintenance issues in the future. In many years of washer use, I have never wished for a less powerful washer and see negligible advantage to being able to control the power at all. Are there very limited circumstances, perhaps when it is used indoors(?) that it might be useful? Usually it is quite sufficient to move the lance further away from the item to be cleaned so that it is less aggressive and cleans a wider area. It also completes the job faster. That said, it is clear that some of the engineers have been able to subvert all this marketing nonsense. If you never pair the head to the body and take the batteries out for use in some other device that really deserves them, an 'emergency' feature kicks in and you can get the full power you actually need! I was doubtful abouit the the 3 way nozzle it comes with the K5 but the multiple functions are actually useful occasionally (but it is heavier than a simpler model). I am also beginning to suspect that the dirt-blaster lasts longer than the older simpler dirt-blaster heads. One of the 3 functions of the lance is a dirt-blaster (rotating jet through a nozzle) that is very effective, more powerfully removing dirt over a wider area than the one on the K4 model I have replaced. The other settings are less useful but they are easily acessed by rotating the lance and can be useful when 'brushing' the dirt that you have detatched away. The K5 is much quieter than the K4 and the dirtblaster in the lance creates less splash back than the simpler earlier dirt blaster lance. It has now cleaned about 250m2 of concrete block paving over about 20 hours of use (some of that time was needed to move things around). This K5 replaces a K4 Model that finally packed up after 6 years of hard useage. The only downside of the lance is that it is much more complicated and expensive and since these lances are consumables - you can't expect a ball bearing rotating in a 190 bar stream of water to last for ever - you will have to replace a more expensive lance head. However, it may well be worth it. Only time will tell if this dirt blaster lasts longer than those on earlier models but with it still going strong after a total of about 250m2 of cleaning over a year of use things look good.