MUC-OFF MOBILE PRESSURE WASHER REVIEW

Review by Robert Johnston

Cleaning your mountain bike following a ride can be difficult, with few trails finishing at a location with a bike wash facility. For riders looking for a portable solution to carry in their vehicles when they go riding, or for those who don’t have an outside water source at their accommodation, Muc-Off designed the mobile pressure washer. This self-contained unit promises to be the ultimate mobile bike washing setup, but one small flaw has prevented it from being perfect in our eyes.

ABOUT THE MUC-OFF MOBILE PRESSURE WASHER

As its name suggests, the Muc-Off Mobile Pressure Washer is a portable solution for all your bike washing needs.

The unit features a 40V lithium battery, which is claimed to offer either 15 or 24 minutes of use (depending on the power mode you choose) and charge fully in 3-4 hours. If you need more juice, extra batteries are available to purchase separately for £80 each.

The unit is powered by a 500W motor, which produces 45 Bar (652 psi) of pressure in standard mode and 35 Bar (507 psi) in Eco mode. The kit comes with four interchangeable lances: one for bikes; one for motorcycles and an adjustable option. The fourth is called the ‘snow foam lance’, which lives up to its name by covering your steed in a blanket of Muc-Off Nano Cleaner in the blink of an eye.

A portable bike wash wouldn’t be much use without a decent water reservoir, so Muc-Off has given the Mobile Pressure Washer a 20-litre tank. Sadly, this tank is not sealed, which is our biggest gripe with this portable bike washer. It’s worth noting that, while Muc-Off claims a 15-minute battery life in ‘standard’ mode, the same mode has a rated flow of 3.3 L/min, meaning you may run out of water before you run out of battery.

However, if you have access to water, you can top the tank up directly from the source – the integrated filter should remove debris or contaminants.

Pricing kicks off at £250 for the ‘starter bundle’, which includes the Muc-Off Mobile Pressure Washer, four lances and a litre of Nano Cleaner; and tops out with the £425 ‘ultimate bundle’ which gets you an extra battery and water tank, a litre of Nano Cleaner concentrate and a 65l dry-bag holdall. It seems as though the Mobile Pressure Washer is currently not available on the US market.

THE DIRT

I thought the Muc-Off Mobile Pressure Washer was going to be extremely useful for me. When it arrived my first impressions were very positive: it all looked and felt well made. Filling it up for its first test, I popped it into the rear of my car and set off to drive to the trails. Upon hitting the brakes for a set of traffic lights, suddenly a vast quantity of water shot forward and soaked the inside of the car. As it turns out, the lid isn’t designed to seal the water within the Muc-Off Mobile Pressure Washer.

This is a huge omission in my eyes, which had me perplexed. How hard could it have been to add a sealed lid and some form of latch to keep it closed? Not very, is the answer.
The unsealed lid of the Muc-Off pressure washer then means you have to carry a 20L container of water if you wish to fill it in an area without a good water source. That takes up a lot of space in your typical vehicle in the UK. One small benefit is that you are then able to store the accessories within the washer, but this is far from the most efficient use of space.

Aside from the water transportation quirk, Muc-Off has put together a very solid product in their Mobile Pressure Washer. The power is stellar, providing plentiful grunt to shift all but the most stuckfast mud. This is somewhat of a surprise given its relatively quiet operation. Add the Muc-Off snow foam and a brush into the mix, and you can get a bike as clean as you would at home without a problem. The hose is very long – almost unnecessarily so – but it’s better too long than too short.

The Muc-Off Mobile Pressure Washer regularly provided enough battery to clean the bike for three rides. Something we’d love to see improved is the ability to view the state of charge without removing the battery from inside the washer, to give a little peace of mind. Similarly, it would be great to have the ability to bypass the battery with a plug, so when it does die, you can still use it if you’re near a socket.

At £250, the Muc-Off Mobile Pressure Washer is certainly not cheap, but it feels suitably well put together and durable. It makes light work of getting your bike clean after a ride, so long as you’re able to transport or source the water to do the work.

HOW DOES IT COMPARE? | Vs The Bosch Fontus

 There are pros and cons to both the Muc-Off Mobile Pressure Washer and Bosch Fontus. The Muc-Off is undoubtedly the more powerful washer, with over double the rated output pressure. This means it can blast away far more stubborn dirt than the Bosch washer, though it could be argued that it’s more likely to cause damage to bearings. Where the Bosch Fontus clawed itself back into the running is with the integrated brush head, which lets you simultaneously brush and wash. And of course, the Bosch washer is able to securely transport the water within the unit.

Ultimately, both of these units do a good job, they just go about it in a different way.

The Wolf’s Last Word

The Muc-Off Mobile Pressure Washer is a great bit of kit that was let down by a simple design flaw. It’s a great product for those who have the space to transport the water separately, or regularly ride where water sources are available, albeit fairly expensive.

Price: £250 / €275 (Starter Bundle)
Website: Muc-off.com

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