(drilling sounds)
- Hey, guys, welcome back
to my small engine repair channel.
Today I'm going to show you what to check for
if the wand on your pressure washer is leaking water.
So this pressure washer wand is leaking right here
where the other piece attaches to the wand.
So first of all, guys,
it's a problem that's very easy to fix
but first of all, what I wanna do
is turn the water on to show you where the leak is.
And after that, what I will do
is also start the machine up
to show you how it even leaks more
once the machine is running.
All right, so I'm gonna get the water on here.
So now if you have a leak over here,
it will only leak once you push the trigger.
(pressure washer hissing)
Now, there's not much pressure coming out of the wand
because I've got only the hose on.
The machine's not running.
But you can already see the water leaking here.
(pressure washer hissing)
Now I'll just start the machine to show you.
(motor roaring)
So it's easier to see there
once the machine's running.
There's way more pressure so it's just leaking more.
Now, the first thing you can check
is to make sure that this here is tight.
And that's the easiest thing to check right away.
So I'm gonna tighten it up.
Now all you have to do is hand tighten this back together.
You don't need to tighten it up with pliers
but sometimes you will need the pliers if you need
to undo this.
So now I've tightened it up.
(pressure washer hissing)
And it's still dripping.
Okay, what I've done here
is unscrewed the wand from the hose from here.
I brought it in the shop
just so it's easier to show you exactly what to do here.
So if you've tightened up the connection here
and you still have a leak,
what you need to do is totally unscrew this
so that the wand separates itself.
And what the culprit is is a small O-ring
that goes right here
and usually it will be broken or missing.
And in this case here,
the small O-ring is broken.
So with a small pick like this,
I'm going to retrieve it.
So just get in there.
There we go.
And you can see here the O-ring is broken,
so that's what's causing the leak.
I see this all the time on pressure washer wands.
Now, this is not just any O-ring
that you buy in a hardware store.
It's a specific size.
So it's 1/4 inch.
That's the size of it.
I know it looks a bit bigger
but that's what it's called.
And you can buy these from Stan's, part number 417-189.
It comes in a bag of 10 or 20.
But if you do a lot of small engine repair,
you might wanna buy a bag
because you will need these all the time.
And all you have to do is insert it over this part.
You don't need any tools to install this small O-ring.
And it goes right into a groove.
It's that simple, guys.
Then you just reattach the front part of the wand.
And that will make a complete seal now
between the two parts and you will not have any leaks.
Now, if you have a pressure washer
that needs a slightly bigger O-ring,
like a 3/8 O-ring,
this is the part number from Stan's, 417-445.
This is a much bigger O-ring by the way.
However, the O-rings you will be using 90%
of the time are the 1/4 inch ones
and again, it's this part number here
that I just showed you.
So now I'm going to go back outside,
re-hookup the wand to the pressure washer.
I'm gonna turn on the machine
and spray with it
and you'll see that where the two parts meet here
on the wand, there will be no leaks.
Before I hook up the wand back to the pressure washer,
I wanna show you a few other areas
on the machine where there small O-rings like this
that could potentially leak in the future.
So where the pressure washer hose hooks up
to the wand, you'll have a connector like this
and again, there are two small O-rings there as well.
So if you happen to have a leak right here
where this connects, just do the same
and replace the O-rings here as well.
And also where the other end of the hose connects
on the pump here, it's got the same fitting
as what I just showed you now.
So this part is the same as this one
and there are a few O-rings in there as well.
So if you get a leak here,
check the O-rings here as well.
Again, first, make sure that this is tight enough
so that you don't have a leak to start with.
Now, when you connect it at the wand here,
all you have to do is hand tighten this connection.
Don't make it too tight
because it can be difficult to remove.
So what I'm going to do now
is start up the pressure washer,
and I'm going to spray with the wand
and you will see that there is no leak here anymore.
(pressure washer roaring)
So it was that simple, guys?
Sometimes I get people, they bring a pressure washer
in the shop, they say the wand's leaking
and they think that I have to replace the entire wand
when in actuality, it's just a matter
of replacing the small O-rings.
Now, if your pressure washer leaks right where
your garden hose goes in, just undo the hose here,
(water leaking)
and what you wanna do is make sure you have a screen
with a rubber lining around it.
So all it is a screen
with a built-in rubber washer like this.
You can buy these at the hardware store
for next to nothing and you get a whole whack of them.
And this has a dual purpose.
It basically seals the water
between the garden hose and the pressure washer pump.
And the screen here also protects your pump
from getting dirt inside that could potentially damage it.
So again, keep these on hand, guys
just like these small O-rings here
because they will come in very handy,
whether you're a homeowner or a repair shop.
So thanks again for watching, guys
and I really hope that this video
has helped you to fix your pressure washer leaks.
If it has, please like the video and share it
and you guys have a great day.
(drilling sounds)