If you’re shopping around for a new jet washer, whether it’s for cleaning your driveway or your car, you can’t go wrong with Karcher. They’re the world’s #1 best-selling pressure washer brand for a reason. Surely, with so many people trusting Karcher for their yearly spring cleaning, they must be outstanding, right? Well, I’ve tested quite a few pressure washers in my time, including a few from Karcher, and the latter often surprised me for the better.
However, this time around, I wanted to check out something way smaller than Karcher’s usual range of full-sized pressure washers. The Karcher K Silent isn’t just one of the brand’s tiniest pressure washers, but it also promises to be quiet, as its name might suggest, but without compromising power. I guess it technically is more of a high-power ‘jet washer’ rather than a do-everything sort of ‘pressure washer’ that I’ve tried out in the past, though.
Compact, Highly Portable Pressure Washing
Either way, in person, upon unboxing it, the Karcher K Silent really is amazingly small, especially given the amount of power that lies behind that jet wash, and the spray pressure that it puts out (a bit more on that later). Without any accessories, the pressure washer itself is only a tad over 5 kg, making the Karcher K Silent superbly portable, and easy to move around, in addition to being equally as easy to stow away somewhere when you’re not using it.
That alone ought to be worth it for some, especially if you don’t have a lot of room in your garage or tool shed for keeping a full-sized pressure washer. Yet, despite its pretty diminutive form factor, the new Karcher K Silent isn’t lacking in practicality and excellent use of space. There’s a very nice carry handle at the top for hauling it around, and I like how effortless it is to roll up and store the power cables on the side of the pressure washer unit, too.
Aside from that, the rear of the pressure washer would be where you’ll find all those handy storage slots for your numerous accessories. Even though the Karcher K Silent is a tiny package overall, there is ample room back here to store a long hose, your jet washer gun, and even space a couple of extra nozzles. Altogether, once you have all your accessories, hoses, and spray lances stowed away, it finally sizes down to be exceptionally portable.
It’s compact enough that you could easily chuck this into your boot, or find room for it inside your kitchen cubby. Better still, unlike most jet/pressure washers, which are already super bulky, really big, and heavy, making them annoyingly cumbersome to store, they also typically leak quite a lot of water as you’re moving them around. The Karcher K Silent, on the other hand, doesn’t leak water, and it blends into the background wherever you store it.
Great Value For Money And Bang For Buck
On that note, I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention just how much stuff you get in the box, more so once you consider the Karcher K Silent’s massively attractive price tag. Normally, it’ll cost you £229.99, but as of writing, there’s currently a 13% discount that brings the price down to an even more tantalising £199.99. With this, you get a neat little foam jet, and no less than three different nozzles. First up, there’s the Vario Power spray lance.
This spray lance has precise adjustments for your spray pressure. Then, you have the eco!Booster, which appears to be ideal for cleaning more delicate surfaces, in addition to being fairly efficient with saving water and energy. Lastly, there’s the Dirt Blaster spray lance, with its rotating spot jet that makes easy work out of stubborn bits of dirt. Additionally, there’s the trigger gun, alongside a very generous 6-metre-long high-pressure hose, too.
Still A Bit Noisy, But More Than Silent Enough
Then, there’s the noise, or lack thereof, at least if the ‘silent’ in ‘Karcher K Silent’ is anything to go by. It’s certainly a brave choice of wording for that name, because, in practice, it’s not exactly silent, per se. Now, is it quieter than most normal jet washers? Yes, it’s indeed rather quiet versus a plethora of other similar jet washers that I’ve used before, including full-sized and compact options, so it’s not technically wrong to say that it’s somewhat quiet.
But is it silent enough to make this inaudible to your next-door neighbours, and even people inside your house? No, not really. It does feature Karcher’s unique tech that makes the Karcher K Silent, on paper, emit about 50% less noise than other compact jet washers in this class. And, to be fair, after a bit of testing, it definitely makes noticeably less noise than other jet washers that I’ve tried, which is nevertheless a much-welcomed upgrade.
That’s mainly considering how disruptively loud pressure washers are to listen to, which I’m sure you’ve gotten used to by now if you’ve used one. Spend half an hour or maybe an hour pressure washing your car, or worse, if you have to clean your driveway or pavement, which could easily take several hours, at least it helps spare your ears (and no doubt a few of your closest neighbours and your housemates) that unpleasant, high-pitch, whining racket.
Loads Of Power Inside A Diminutive Package
On the flip side, what I am hugely impressed by is the Karcher K Silent’s power output. Going back to that foam jet nozzle from earlier, in trying to wash my car, I added some pre-cleanse into the little bottle, and the nozzle was able to foam it right up in no time at all, just like a car wash snow foam gun. Of course, it’s not a proper snow foam, but all it takes is a quick spray here and there, and it managed to cover my entire car pretty well in an instant.
Next up, there’s the eco!Booster nozzle, which sprays out water in a wide, flat, and highly powerful jet spray. Personally, I prefer this nozzle over the rest here for washing my car, but I’d suggest being careful with where you’re pointing it, and not spraying too close. As with any jet washer, this strong jet could damage your car’s paintwork if you go too hard, but when you apply an abundance of caution in mind, it’s an invaluable bit of kit.
Then, we have their Dirt Blaster nozzle, which is incredibly potent, and you absolutely don’t want to use this on your car. Instead, it’s probably best used for washing your driveway, concrete pavement, and even stonework, and other surfaces that could take a beating, if you have particularly stubborn grime and mud that you need to clean off. It also has this cool rotating spot jet that sprays in a circle, which should make cleaning a tad easier.
The middle ground between those two spray lances, pressure-wise, would be the Vario Power nozzle, which has a ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ function that rapidly switches between a very soft, gentle spray, which is otherwise perfect for washing your car, as well as a harder jet of water. Ergonomically, I do quite like the included trigger gun, too, with its short, stubby, comfy shaft, accompanied by a tactile button and quick attachment for your high pressure pipe.
The Best Pocket-Sized Pressure Washer Yet?
As a whole, the Karcher K Silent is an impressive piece of hardware, and of the three other pressure washers that I’ve tested recently, including those from Karcher, this one, the Karcher K Silent, would likely be my preference to use most of the time. In particular, since I’m mostly using these jet/pressure washers to wash a car anyway, it’s not like you need a lot of power and pressure, in the first place. If anything, too much power can be damaging.
Sure, if you want to use your jet washer for cleaning a bunch of other things, and maybe even for commercial or industrial use, you’d be better off with a full-sized pressure washer, instead. In spite of that, if what you’re after is maximum convenience, ease, quietness (relatively speaking), packing loads of features, and you just need it for cleaning your car, the Karcher K Silent is the most car-friendly jet washer I’ve come across so far, by a long shot.
