Stihl RE 110 Review
Stihl RE 110 Review
A powerful and compact pressure washer
Verdict
Compact and easy to move around, the Stihl RE 110 is a pressure washer that's easy to store away neatly when not in use. Don't be fooled by its relatively small body, as this is also a supremely powerful washer, dealing with all of our tests with ease. You get most of what you need in the box, although you'll have to pay extra if you want the patio cleaning accessory. Overall, this powerful and compact cleaner is a well priced and tough cleaner for most outdoor jobs.
Pros
- Compact and easy to store
- Easy and comfortable to use
- Deals well with tough stains
Cons
- Relatively few accessories in the box
Key Specifications
- Review Price: £180
- Mains-powered
- 110bar (120bar max)
- 380-449 litres/hour
- 625 x 352 x 419mm
- Rotary, fan jet and cleaning agent spray set
If you’re after a powerful pressure washer that can store away neatly when not in use, the Stihl RE 110 could well be the model for you.
With enough power to tackle most jobs outside, the only thing that this model misses out on is a wider range of bundled accessories, but if you don’t need these, it’s a great buy.
Stihl RE110 – What you need to know
- Size, weight and manoeuvrability: Compact and small with wheels, this is a pressure washer that’s easy to store and easy to move around.
- Accessories: You get the basics in the box to tackle most jobs but you can buy a patio cleaner and additional accessories for other jobs.
- Cleaning performance: There’s enough power here to tackle all jobs outside, blasting dirt away with ease.
Stihl RE 110 Design and Features – Compact, neat and cleverly designed
If there’s one thing that can make pressure washers frustrating to use and store, it’s not having anywhere to keep them and their accessories. With its neat and compact body (625 x 352 x 419mm), the Stihl RE 110 gets around this.
It comes needing a few screws to put the telescopic handle in place, but that’s the limit of your building requirement. Fully assembled, the pressure washer is a lesson in how to make it easy to store everything.
There’s a neat flap in the side, which opens up to give access to the 5m power cable, which neatly wraps around the inside of the compartment. Inside here, there are also two sockets for holding the provided rotary and fan jet nozzles.
At the back of the pressure washer is a bottle holder to the cleaning agent spray set, plus the long 7m hose wraps around the handle. And, there are holders for the spray handle and extension tube. All in, this is a hugely compact pressure washer.
You don’t get some of the brush or patio cleaning accessories that you get with other pressure washers, although Stihl sells these accessories separately if you need them.
When you’re ready to go, you press the big orange button to extend the handle, then you can wheel the RE 110 where you want it to go. If you do need to lift, then the 17.6kg weight isn’t so hard to manage. Most importantly, the RE 110 has Stihl’s usual high-quality build and it feels tough and reliable
At the front of the pressure washer you’ll find the input for water and the output for the high-pressure hose. You then need to connect the spray handle and extension, and the accessories plug into this.
There’s a single dial on the front to turn the pressure washer on, after which you use the handle to start spraying. For safety, you have to unlock the handle using the switch first.
Stihl RE 110 Performance – Blasts even the toughest stains away with relative ease
Operating at 110bar, with a maximum pressure of 120bar, the Stihl RE 110 isn’t the most powerful pressure washer available, although it should prove good enough to deal with most cleaning jobs. It’s designed to push between 380 and 440-litres-per-hour.
There’s no pressure control on the main body, but the jet fan is adjustable by turning the top, which is marked with a ‘+’ and ‘-’. In practice, this is enough to move between a more gentle spray that you can use on furniture or a bike, up to a powerful jet for cleaning stains off of patios.
On its maximum power setting, you can feel the handle pushing up against you, and you need a bit of force to hold it steady. It’s a comfortable handle and grip, so it’s easy enough to get a comfortable position even for longer cleaning jobs.
To test out what the pressure washer is capable of, I tackled my patio, which had had a long winter’s worth of dirt and algae building up, plus the outlines of a rusty firepit to contend with. The combination of tools provided enough to deal with most things, with the rotary nozzle great for picking off bits of moss, some dried on paint and the tougher stains.
Switching to the jet fan, this gave a wider and sweeping clean to get the dirt off the patio, as well as pushing out dirt that had got underneath the door frame.
I found that some areas needed more than pure pressure power, and for this, I turned to the cleaning agent bottle. Stihl sells its own, although you can use any pressure-washer compatible cleaning agent instead. With this bottle, water is pushed through the nozzle, mixing in with the cleaning agent to give you a foamy finish that you can wash off later on.
So, how well did the cleaner do? First, there was a lot of dirt and algae growth on the front of the patio, which was washed off completely with the jet fan, leaving the original edge of the tiles in perfect condition.
Patio test: Dirty patio (left) vs Clean patio (right) – move slider to compare
On the patio, the areas of dirt and growth needed a combination of cleaning agent, jet fan and rotary nozzles to get everything off, but I was soon back to pristine tiles with little effort.
Patio test: Dirty patio (left) vs Clean patio (right) – move slider to compare
The rust mark was harder to shift, even using a combination of all three tools. As you can see from the images below, the power of the pressure washer alone was good enough to reduce the stain to a faint outline, but using different chemicals and a patio cleaning set would likely give better results.
Rust test: Dirty patio (left) vs Clean patio (right) – move slider to compare
Rated at a sound pressure level of 67dB, the Stihl RE 110 is definitely loud enough to be heard, but it’s not deafening and hard to work with, even for long periods.
Should I buy the Stihl RE 110?
You can get pressure washers with more power and accessories, for tackling larger and more varied surfaces, but expect to pay considerably more for the pleasure. For general home use, the Stihl RE 110 is a great pressure washer. Small and compact, with storage for all of the accessories, what you get in the box is enough for dealing with everything from dirty patios to cleaning up furniture, bikes and cars. Sold at a sold mid-range price, the build quality and cleaning quality is actually far better, making this a great round utility pressure washer for most jobs outside.