Muc-Off Pressure Washer review

Muc-Off looks set to take over all cleaning and maintenance duties for your bike and it has furthered this by developing its very own bike-specific pressure washer. Gentle enough to clean without damaging delicate parts but with enough oomph to get the job done properly, it cleans up in this year’s Editor’s Choice awards.

Muc-Off’s boss Alex Trimnell has been working on the new Muc-Off Pressure Washer for years. With a lower operating pressure, it’s designed to let you wash your bike with less risk of damage to it than with a normal pressure washer and more quickly than with a bucket and sponge.

Cleaning a bike is usually the last thing on my mind when I get back from a ride, so dirt usually gets to dry in place, making the clean-up that much more difficult when I do get around to it. So the Muc-Off Pressure Washer helps get the job done that much more quickly and easily.

The modular system is easy to put together, with the hoses and parts of the lance clicking into place. There are locking buttons to ensure that nothing blows off as you are using the Muc-off Pressure Washer. The hose to the lance can be inserted either way around too, so that there’s less faff about getting it set up.

Unlike some pressure washers, you need mains power and a tap to supply the Muc-Off Pressure Washer. That lets it support the 6.5 litre/minute flow rate and 100 bar pressure provided. Although this limits where you can use the washer, it does mean that you get a strong, steady jet.

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The Muc-Off Pressure Washer comes with three lances: the bike one is less powerful than that designed for motorcycles, while there’s also an adjustable higher pressure lance head that’s good for cleaning tyres, for example.

The pressure is low enough that you don’t have to worry about washing out the grease from your bearings or stripping the bike’s paint job. But that does mean that the Muc-Off Pressure Washer is not fierce enough for other jobs, like cleaning garden furniture.

Although the basic Muc-Off Pressure Washer comes in at £80, it’s probably worth paying for the £120 full kit that we’ve tested. For your extra cash, you get a waterproof roll-top carrier bag, Muc-Off’s Snow Foam Lance and a litre each of bike cleaner and cleaner concentrate, with the latter diluting four-fold before use. With the bike cleaner costing £10, the concentrate £20 and the Snow Foam Lance £15, the bag’s a useful freebie.

The pressure washer is effective at getting surface dirt and mud off your bike. You can then use the Snow Foam Lance to coat it evenly with bike cleaner. The foam means that the cleaner sticks to the bike better, you can make sure that the bike is evenly covered and it’s easy to see any bits you’ve missed.

You then leave the cleaner in place for up to five minutes, before washing off with the washer. The foam is also a lot more fun to apply than washing with a bucket and sponge, although you can quickly run through bike cleaner. The concentration is variable via a dial on the foam lance, however, and its judicious use means that you should be able to eek out your bottle of cleaner to 10-plus cleans.

>>> Buy now: Muc-Off Pressure Washer from Muc-Off for £79.99

This gets rid of most stuck-on dirt, leaving your bike and drivetrain clean. The one place where you may have to do a bit more is on the underside of the down tube, which tends to get you-know-what stuck on it if you ride rural roads or off road.