Briggs & Stratton Amplifi Hose Powering and Storage Price: $69.99 Shipping Options:: $5 Standard Shipping Estimates: Ships in 3-5 business days (Wednesday, Aug 13 to Monday, Aug 18) + transit Condition: New
I was seriously considering buying this machine about two weeks ago when I saw it at my local Lowes home center. I thought this was a great idea, as I picked it up to see how heavy it was. (Believe me, it was not a light weight and would probably be much heavier with some water remaining in the hose) As a matter of fact, this machine was heavier than the electric power washer that I own and at the cost of $100, nearly as expensive as was my electric on sale. By the way, you WILL need to pick this thing up and lug it around, as the hose is only 15 feet long.
When I got home, I decided to do some research on line, as I have a lot of respect for the Briggs and Stratton company. I went to Lowes on-line and checked the customer reviews for this product. At the time there were only 9 reviews available. 5 people were relatively happy with the product to various degrees and 4 people were very unhappy and I believe all of the 4 returned the product. One man bought the machine for his wife who asked him to return it, as she found her electric power washer to be lighter in weight and did a better job than the B&S machine. Go read the Lowes reviews for yourself.
Not many good reviews in Loew’s (review link in previous post.) Only 1 review in Amazon and it’s awful click here to read it.
However most people reviewed and bought it in 2011 & 2012 when they paid $200 for it.
I already have a gas power washer for washing all sorts of stuff, so I only need something to clean the cars safely (the power washer is too strong). This on the other hand, just adds volume and some (mild) force. According to a Loew’s review it’s supposed to work even better with “firehose-type” metal nozzle moving more water. In another Loew’s review (2013) a lady reports her husband uses it for car washing and he loves it. At $69 if it works to clean the cars, I’ll be happy.
I won’t be needing to move it except maybe to drag it occasionally for a few feet and for that I will use the rear wheels and enclosed tool.
I use my power washer all the time to wash my car and it’s NOT too strong. My washer has a variable nozzle head, so you can dial in the pressure desired. When you are washing the wheels you want more pressure and conversely, the upper body of the car does not need high pressure. I also use high pressure for the wheel wells and some of the under part of the car.
I’m going to offer an educated guess to your question. I believe that it will work if hooked it up to a rain barrel but you would probably be operating with lower pressure, as street pressure out of your faucet is about 40 PSI or more.
I made the mistake of buying 2 of these last dec when they were on woot. One lasted 2 uses, the other kicked its big heavy bucket in June. Even when they were working I was not impressed with them. Lackluster pressure, the pressure pump seems to have its own random schedule for when it would run and it usually did not coincide with when you needed the pressure the most. Terrible way to store the hose, took lot of patience and time to place the hose into the bucket with out kinking issues(it does not have a reel) it is just a bucket with a lid. Woot took the first one back without issue. The second one failed outside of the very short warranty. Briggs and Stratton told me to pound sand when I called them about the poor experience I had with 2 of these poorly designed and executed products.
It will not work with a rain barrel, the pump requires the pressure of the water hose it is hooked up to to turn it on. Just because you turn on the switch does not mean the pump will run. Very different from a normal pressure washer where I have successfully hooked up to a barrel of water and washed until I ran out of water.
the Owner’s Manual also says: “NOTICE Connect ONLY to water source capable of supplying
a minimum of 6 gpm at 30 psi.” If there isn’t enough water coming out of your spigot, the unit will not work.
I’ve given up on Briggs and Stratton engineering ever since they tried to replace a simple gas-line tube from the gas tank (of a mower) to the carburator by molding in 1/2 the tube into the carb itself and screwing on a plastic plate with the other half of the tube molded in. After two uses, the plastic side warped from the heat, the gas leaked out and you can imagine the rest.
Perhaps the dumbest bit of engineering to save 10 cents since the O-rings on the Challenger Space Shuttle.
I have one of these. It works great for your intended purpose. First, it’s not a “pressure” washer. What it does is deliver a very large volume of water under pressure, but the pressure is not that the equivalent of a pressure washer. Next, if you are serviced by a private well…fuggetaboutit!.. unless you have a super well like mine,otherwise you risk the possibility of running it dry as it really does amp up the water volume under a fair amount of pressure. Third, it requires a certain amount of water pressure at the spigot/hose bib to activate/trip the machine’s internal pump. Lastly, it is fairly big. You store your hose inside the unit. The resin/plastic top pops off and you coil the hose inside. However, hose length is limited to 75/100 feet (I forget which length). It also has wheels and a detachable handle. The wheels are “built-in” and slightly elevated on one side of the unit. The handle permits you to tilt the unit slightly back, thus engaging the wheels for movement. Sometimes I feel like a NYC fire-boat in lower NY harbor when I use it.
At 5 GPM you would drain a 50 gallon barrel in 10 minutes. Most likely you would be cavitating and damaging the unit well before that as the net positive suction head decreases as the barrel level decreases. I would not think this would be a wise use for this unit.
Update - after reading more postings
Well someone already answered this as apparently the unit has a suction pressure switch to operate. Good engineering on the part of B&S and probably avoided mucho customer service calls from the geniuses who found a better application for this device.
Very few residential hose bibs will supply 6 gpm - a gallon every 10 seconds. A gallon jug and a timer will show what you have. My front bib is hooked to the city water supply pipe, where it enters the house, and it provides 6 gpm. The side and rear bibs are not even close, the piping is smaller. I also have a gas PW which wants 6 gpm and to use it around back, I run more hose off the front bib. Don’t buy any sort of PW unless you can meet the water requirements, it won’t work right and it won’t last long.
![[Preview 1]](http://d3gqasl9vmjfd8.cloudfront.net/89afb2d8-baea-4d2e-9331-d7e86a106a53.jpg){kind=link}
![[Preview 2]](http://d3gqasl9vmjfd8.cloudfront.net/06951b82-f6bb-428a-a295-a14e56fa018b.jpg){kind=link}
![[Preview 3]](http://d3gqasl9vmjfd8.cloudfront.net/c6569806-f8e2-4966-99fb-49bef0c1abc9.jpg){kind=link}
