Pressure Washer Misadventure

[cabinetman]

Had to fire up my pressure washer to blast the last outside wall of our house before painting. I've learned to pull the trigger and get water running out before pull starting. Well, water was squirting out, and it cranked on the second pull. About 10 seconds later, water would not spray out. So, I shut off the engine, and tried to get the tip off to clean it out. Well, there was so much pressure built up that I couldn't get the tip off, or unscrew the hose from either end. If there is a pressure relief for the water, I couldn't find it. I wound up using an adjustable monkey wrench to unscrew the hose from the pump after bracing the end. I had visions of it flying off and removing my face.

Once the hose came off, the tip popped right off almost clearing my 6' fence. Couldn't find the wire thingy reamer that came with the washer, so I tried to clean the orifice with a needle, and it broke off in the hole. So, plan B was to use another tip.

When I finished for the day, I decided to change the oil, and believe it or not, could not find an oil drain plug. I checked out every millimeter of the engine case and underneath where the pump is and no drain plug. Owners manual had no pictures or info on how to drain the oil. It's a Honda engine, and I doubted they would have forgotten to include one.

So, off to the computer to search out info for a drain plug. After landing on a maintenance PDF site, come to find out there isn't a drain plug. To drain, the engine has to be tipped on its side and the old oil comes out the filler hole. Who wudda thunk.
.

[Tom Slick]

yup, newer hondas, especially vertical shafts, have no drain. just tip 'em over and dump them out.
If you play guitar, old guitar strings work great for poking stuff out of small holes. cut them down to 6" or so and use the ball end so you can find them when you set them down.

[Ed62]

I have a Toro mower (5 years old), and they recommend tipping the mower on it's side to drain oil. It also has an alternative way to drain it. I think it's a plug, but I never looked for it.

Ed

[DaveS]

Wait, now, what?

We're supposed to change the oil?

[cabinetman]

yup, newer hondas, especially vertical shafts, have no drain. just tip 'em over and dump them out.
If you play guitar, old guitar strings work great for poking stuff out of small holes. cut them down to 6" or so and use the ball end so you can find them when you set them down.

Out of all the gas engined stuff I've had, this is the first without an oil drain plug. You would think a manufacturer as prominent and upscale as Honda wouldn't require such manhandling as tipping the machine on its side. Usually, the oil drain is located in an obscure location not accessible even to funnels, allowing oil to drip on axles, wheels, and frame below. I think I prefer that.
.

[Tom Slick]

I agree. I can remember older honda mowers that had a drain channel and hole designed into the deck. You'd pull the plug, the oil would drain onto the channel in the deck and through the hole.
My guess is it is easier/cheaper to engineer the tip-over method and equipment manuf. don't have to design drain plug access into the machine. you could also use a suction gun, that is even easier than pulling the drain plug.

[cork58]

You just took a few years off! I have a Dewalt DP3750 with the Honda for power. I can just picture myself turning that over! Just checked and thank goodness I have a drain plug. That thing is really heavy. Only used it for about an hour so far so haven't had a need to change oil yet.

[WLee]

So, off to the computer to search out info for a drain plug. After landing on a maintenance PDF site, come to find out there isn't a drain plug. To drain, the engine has to be tipped on its side and the old oil comes out the filler hole. Who wudda thunk.

I can explain that one.

They had too many cases of people removing the drain plug, draining the oil, then pouring in the new oil, and THEN finally putting the drain plug back (if they ever did the last step at all -- and yup, they did it in that order).

Then they'd fire up the unit and guess what? End result was that the units were getting returned for "warranty" repair, and customer SWEARS that they put oil in after draining it.

So Honda came up with the "ideal" solution -- they changed it so people CAN'T forget to put the drain plug back on.

It is definitely NOT elegant, but seriously, it DOES work. (And it wasn't done simply to save the "cost" of the extra plug, eliminating the plug actually cost them significant money on production line changes, etc.)

(I'm just glad they didn't apply the same logic to their cars... at least not yet.)

[SARGE..g-47]

I have one of the older Honda engines on mine with the drain plug horizonal to the deck. I couldn't believe that when I saw it and it is a PITA to get to. But.. the Honda engine itself is a great piece of work with that exception.

[cabinetman]

I can explain that one.
So Honda came up with the "ideal" solution -- they changed it so people CAN'T forget to put the drain plug back on.

That's an interesting theory. It does make sense, but refilling the crankcase is still the question. If plain old negligence is the culprit why would they allow an engine to start with no oil. My generator has a "low oil shutdown". I've never allowed it to get to that state of being, but I'm guessing that if the oil is low, the engine shuts down. Right?
.

[WLee]

That's an interesting theory. It does make sense, but refilling the crankcase is still the question. If plain old negligence...

The culprit wasn't seen as negligence, but rather stupidity.

For "those people" it wasn't a matter of simply refilling -- they DID "refill" the crankcase -- but just didn't understand that the plug needed to be put back in first (and what they actually thought of all the clean oil coming right out again is anyone's guess).

Yes, apparently there ARE quite a few people who are as stupid as that.

BTW, it's not a "theory" that I hatched, rather this is what I was told by a Briggs engineer years ago when I first encountered the phenom (Honda doesn't have a "patent" on the absence of a drain plug, so B&S and other mfr's also use this method on some low-end engines for consumer products).

If plain old negligence is the culprit why would they allow an engine to start with no oil. My generator has a "low oil shutdown". I've never allowed it to get to that state of being, but I'm guessing that if the oil is low, the engine shuts down. Right?

Technology "Solutions" like the sensor-based shutdown are great in theory, but they have three main problems:

1) They are expensive (cheap for cars, but expensive for low end consumer goods where price is a major factor).

2) They are unreliable in long term occasional use applications, which leads to...

3) Consumers HATE and/or do not understand them; all they know is "the piece of junk won't start anymore." (Keep in mind the low-level "IQ" consumers we're talking about here, these are people who have virtually zero mechanical ability, they don't read instructions or manuals, and if they do read them, still don't understand them. The tales than can be told border on "snopes" level material, but many of them are 100% true; I've seen the affidavits as part of lawsuits against manufacturers.)

And you gotta remember there is no such thing as a "foolproof" system -- they just make bigger & better fools.

(Personally, I think Honda came pretty close to "foolproof" with this -- yes the downside is that some people will NOT change the oil w/o a drain plug; but it typically takes years for that to damage the engines -- especially on occasional use products; by which time the customer just buys another one).