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Most industries have secrets… these are secrets about industry practices which are never in the consumers best interests. This is why the ‘insider reveals all’ book format sells so many books. Unfortunately for the unwary consumer the pressure washer industry is no different. So what secret could this industry possibly be concealing?

Let me answer this as directly as I possibly can… it’s the secret of the cheap pressure washer, known in the industry as the ‘throw away unit’.

The throw away unit is simply the manufacture of a pressure washer whose design and construction has no intended value for the consumer… period.

A well designed and constructed pressure washer has virtually unlimited applications for the homeowner and business owner alike, it truly is a versatile engineering marvel.

The question You are probably asking now is ” then why would manufacturers make throw away units?”

The answer is simple really…EASY MONEY! Many manufacturers understand that the average consumer has literally no clue about what goes into the manufacture of a reliable pressure washing system and this is something they can readily take advantage of.

As the former owner of a tool rental center for 15 years I can personally attest to the general lack of knowledge possessed by Joe consumer when it comes to pressure washers.

A throw away unit is designed to achieve one thing and one thing only… an extremely low price point! The marketing equation is:

lowest price = easiest sales

The consumer really isn’t at fault here, after all how is he/she to know?

The pressure washer industry as a whole would have to be categorized as a fragmented industry. There are many excellent manufacturers in the marketplace today but there are just as many, who in my opinion, rate far less than so-so due to lack of marketing integrity or manufacturing competence and in some cases even both. Those with the willingness to foist patently inferior products on an unsuspecting public is a general disgrace to a fine and mostly ethical industry.

Seeing this general lack of consumer awareness day after day for 15 years is what motivated me to develop my website The-Power-Washer-Advisor. The primary mission of this site is to bridge the knowledge gap and to do my little part in helping dry up the market for these throw away pressure washers.

Want to see some throw away pressure washers?… Just go to eBay and type in the words pressure washer in the search box. What you’ll see is a ton of “new” pressure washers mostly at rediculously low prices. Real bargains right? Not really… eBay happens to be the largest showcase of throw away pressure washers to ever be assembled in one place.

It’s really quite easy for a manufacturer to strip quality out of a pressure washer to achieve a price point, especially when the consumer has no idea of what to look for.

Lets analyze this for a moment. Lets reverse engineer the distribution chain to elicit a cost basis for a manufacturer. Pressure washer manufacturer X sells it’s pressure washers to it’s distributor at a 24% profit (some sell higher, I don’t think many would dare sell any lower.) Now the average distributor is going to make about 30% if he is into “value pricing”. So if the distributors cost is $500 he will probably sell for $649 OK so far but what did this really cost the manufacturer to produce?

$500 at a profit of 24% means this manufacturer obtained all the components, provided labor to assemble and test the final product plus covered his overhead at a total cost of $403…and with his $97 profit he provides a solid warranty and excellent service support…quite a mean feat if you stop and think about it.

Checking eBay today I found these prices $ 129.99,$ 70.00 and $33.99 using our previous example this would equate to a manufacturers cost basis of ( come to think of it…who the heck knows?) At prices like these do you really think they could afford to have any credible warranty program or service support to speak of? You would surely have to be a few pixels short of a full screen if you thought they did. As a matter of fact they may even be out of business in the three to four months it will take this pressure washer to break down.

The worst part of this is that not only can a throw away unit be frustratingly unreliable but it can be dangerous as well, especially when talking about electric pressure washers. Electricity and water don’t mix too well in a poorly designed or constructed pressure washer.

And can you really trust the retailers?. Let’s take the big box stores for an example. On this website I have an article I wrote titled “The Truth about Honda Pressure Washers” this article recounts the story of one womans frustrating true experience with a pressure washer that she thought was built by a reliable manufacturer and purchased from a store who she thought was a “trusted” retailer (a well known home improvement superstore.)

Speaking of those giant home improvement superstores, lets talk for a minute about how these home improvement super stores sometime operate. Here’s the scenario… You’re a salesman representing your pressure washer product line and you’ve finally got an appointment with a buyer from a well known home improvement superstore… you make your best presentation as the buyer looks on… obviously bored. You finish your presentation and Mr. buyer looks you square in the eyes and flatly states “You know Joe it’s really not a matter of if we can sell your product line it’s more a matter of if you can supply our huge volume of orders” (right about now your mind is racing with thoughts of what the huge sales commissions will do for your family and their future well being, hell…maybe now you could even afford that Porsche you’ve always coveted.) You’re snapped out of your reverie when Mr buyer goes on to say ” Joe, we’ll need you and your company to sharpen your pencils and produce this model at this price point and this model at this price point etc.etc. This is almost unfair…what an incredible bully tactic. It’s really easy to imagine how some manufacturers could stoop to stripping quality out of their product when faced with this huge sales opportunity. Now you may perceive the final selling price as really good. But is a quality stripped machine really a good value for you? Did you know that a manufacturer can lower his price $50.00 by simply omitting the critical “low oil alert feature” from Honda powered pressure washers? Hmmm.. would you have known to ask?.

The good news is that a quality pressure washer manufacturer will not bow to these pressures, he’ll simply take a pass on this business…probably won’t even try to get an appointment to make that sales pitch in the first place.

So what is the moral to this story?…Get educated! You’re best defense is knowledge about what is quality and what is not. In this industry you generally pay for what you get so it pays you to really know and understand what you’re getting. I sincerely apologize if you’re heart was set on that $89 pressure washer and I went and spoiled it for you…oh well.

As a final note. Be extremely wary of any pressure washer selling for less than $500 you want to know that the manufacture is making enough money to support their product and not leave you holding the bag when you need them the most.

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Source by Randall Madon