Verdict

With its downward-firing rotating sprayers and bristles, the Karcher T5 T-Racer Surface Cleaner is a great pressure washer add-on, tackling your patios with less water and reduced spray over surrounding surfaces. It works best with a patio cleaner, and you may need a regular spray lance for tougher spots – but, otherwise, this is a top upgrade for any Karcher pressure washer.

Pros

• Easy to use
• Less messy in use than a pressure washer
• Bristles help to agitate dirt

Cons

• Requires detergent for best results

Pressure washers are great at handling tough cleaning jobs, but they don’t always offer a neat way of doing so. The Karcher T5 T-Racer Surface Cleaner is designed to work on hard surfaces such as patios and decking, making cleaning faster and easier.

A doddle to use, this well-priced tool will complete a laborious job swiftly. The T5 T-Racer Surface Cleaner can feel flimsy at times, and you’ll need to use a detergent to achieve the best clean – but if you do, then it makes a great addition to any Karcher pressure washer.

Karcher T5 T-Racer design and features – Simple to attach, simple to use

Similar to the majority of rival hard surface cleaners, the Karcher T5 T-Racer Surface Cleaner is a round, hollow brush, with an arm inside that spins as water is pushed through the pressure jets.

It’s easy to assemble: simply clip the two-part wand together, hooking this into the T-Racer, and pick your spray nozzle of choice. There are three in the box, each one designed for a different level of pressure and model of Karcher cleaner. Switching over the nozzle is a two-minute job, and one that you’ll never need to do again – unless you upgrade your pressure washer, of course.

On top, a dial lets you manually adjust pressure. This actually works by altering the height of the nozzles: higher up equals lower pressure; lower down is higher pressure. It’s best to use the higher settings for stone- or ceramic-tiled patios, and the lower setting for more delicate areas such as decking.

The T5 plugs into any compatible Karcher pressure washer (most are supported, bar the battery-operated model), but check the website to ensure compatibility. You’ll need to have your pressure washer set to the highest pressure setting to use this accessory.

With water flowing through the pressure washer, you just slide it around to clean, with a combination of the high-pressure nozzles and bristle brushes cleaning up dirt. There’s a hovercraft effect that makes it easy to slide the T5 around – but be careful not to swing it too fast, since it’s easy to wobble the head and spray water everywhere.

The connection between the wand and the T5 is also a little unstable. The system took some punishment, but I recommend moving slowly and methodically to clean. Even so, it’s easy to tackle large areas at pace – and, since the T5 T-Racer keeps water inside its head, the experience for you won’t be as wet as using a lance, and the water won’t spread everywhere, either. It helps that the entire unit weighs just 1.4kg.

The large, round head (280mm diameter) means the T5 won’t fit into smaller gaps, nor get into corners, as with Karcher’s triangular-headed T-Racers. Still, this isn’t too much of a problem, as you can use a spray lance to finish off an area.

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Karcher T5 T-Racer performance – Effortless cleaning in a jiffy

The main advantage of using the T5 T-Racer to clean is it’s straightforward to use and swift. I was able to tackle my entire patio in a fraction of the time it would have taken using a spray lance, even if I did have to resort to regular pressure-washing for corners and to spray off any loose dirt.

The T5’s brushes also make clearing stubborn dirt a breeze, agitating mess for easy removal. However, in such instances the T5 works best if you start by spraying the area you wish to clean with a compatible detergent.

Tackled in this way, results were sparkling; my mud-trampled floor came up shiny and new-looking. I had to use a lance to clear out plant growth in the grout lines – but, even so, I achieved arguably better results than I would have using the lance alone, and with less effort.

Should you buy the Karcher T5 T-Racer Surface Cleaner?

If you have areas of hard surface to clean, and want to do so with minimum fuss, then the Karcher T5 T-Racer Surface Cleaner is a great accessory for any Karcher pressure washer.

The more expensive T7 T-Racer has a triangular head that’s better for getting into corners and a spray nozzle for stubborn stains, but it’s far more expensive. In my opinion, the T5 T-Racers cleaning power, combined with some spray lance action for corners and tougher stains, delivers excellent results for the price, making this an accessory that pressure washer owners shouldn’t be without.

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