Knackered!

Two things broke last week; the pressure washer and the pick-axe.   

I was levering a big stone out of the ground with the pick-axe and the handle broke.   It was a modern handle, yellow, I took it to be made of fibre glass but it had a hard central core.  It was slightly flexible and, I thought, unbreakable.  Nope.   The core was fine, but the surround had split all the way around.  I bought a new one in our local garden supplies shop.

The pressure washer was was working, and then it wasn't.  It was quietly humming to itself instead of squirting water.  Most likely the capacitor had failed.   It was easy enough to get inside the case, but I couldn't get the old capacitor out because the water-filled cooling jacket for the motor was in the way.  I really didn't want to unscrew the jacket, but in the end I had to.  I don't think the manufacturer wanted me to undo it either; the screws were very tight.  But I got it out and am waiting for a new one to arrive.  Joys of internet shopping.   We'll see if removing the water jacket was a bad idea, when the time comes to restart it.

P.S.  I got the capacitor, fitted it, plugged everything in, and the Kärcher started.  We haven't yet run it for any great length of time, so we don't know if there are any internal leaks that might cause the electrics to trip out.