Product Image:
Product name: Bosch Fontus Mobile Pressure Washer
Price paid: £209
Score (out of 10): 8.5
Review: I’ve got a tap / hose round the side of my house, and clean my bike thoroughly after every ride as it lives indoors. Before our latest lockdown, I’ve been travelling further for my rides (20-70 miles in the car - bike on tow bar mount rack), and what I’ve been noticing is that the dirt dries in on my journey home and becomes more difficult to clean off. It also makes a mess of the back of the car, and the bike rack - so I find myself having to wash these down each ride too.
I used to use a 7L pump / spray bottle when I put my bike on a roof mounted rack so that the bike dirt didn’t run all over the car... but that was over 5 years ago, and self contained power washers are now a thing!
My wife always says I have everything and am very difficult to buy presents for, so with Christmas / birthday (28th Dec) in close proximity, I thought a mobile power washer would be something to put on my list!
I was waiting for Black Friday sales for the Mobi V17 to go down (my mate got one for £60 last year), and they were sitting at £99. On Black Friday, they went up to £150, and have remained there since. I looked at other options, and found the Bosch Fontus. A bit more expensive at £209 (Amazon), however it looked like an overall better machine - and comes with a 3 year warranty. A lot of the Mobi reviews say it’s unreliable, so a good warranty was something to take into consideration.
The Fontus uses Bosch’s standard 18V battery, so the same one that’s in my Drill and Strimmer. Now I have 4 of these batteries to share around!
It has an internal 15L water tank, and comes with the trigger and a brush contained in a cubby inside the body of the unit. The hose clips in the back, and it has a telescopic handle for dragging it about.
The unit itself isn’t particularly light at just under 10kg, but add 15L of water to that and it’s a lot heavier! It’s quite bulky, but feels like a quality built piece of kit.
The trigger connects to the unit via a 4m hose, and has a rotating nozzle which can select 4 different spray patterns. The main unit has a power selector dial on it, so you can pick from 3 different power settings (Low / Medium / High).
One of the nozzle patterns is like a shower spray firing about 20 jets at once. Not very powerful, even on High.
The next is a powerful wide spray - probably the best for bike cleaning.
Then it’s a much narrower powerful spray, and the last one is a straight single jet.
Bosch have in their literature than you can use the Fontus for cleaning your dog on the lower setting. On the lowest setting on the shower spray, it’s just a trickle. I don’t have a dog, but I’d wash my 5 year old daughters hands with the shower spray on level 3 without any hesitation!
There’s enough battery on a full charge to empty the tank 3 times at full power.
Let me be clear, full power is NOTHING like my Karcher K6, however it’s still got a decent punch to it. It won’t take the inground dirt of my slabs in the garden like the Karcher will... but it still has enough power to strip the colour off my wooden stained fence.
I used low power wide spray to do most of the bike, and put it up to medium level to do my tyres. Level 1 on that setting would be slightly less powerful than my water mains hose pressure, but with a wider more useful spray pattern.
I’ve only washed my bike at the house so far with the Fontus due to travel restrictions... but it made a great job of it. Getting the dirt off when it’s still wet makes the job much easier. I had a particularly dirty bike yesterday from a sloppy ride round the local forest trails.
A quick spray to get the worst of the dirt off, some muck-off soaking for a few mins, and a good rinse, and the bike is good as new. I haven’t used the brush attachment yet, but it might be useful when I end up with pine needles trapped in places.
I used about half the tank (it has a level window), so there’s easily enough water (and battery) to clean 2 bikes.
When I do finally get away from home, I’ll let the car journey back dry the bike off!
All positive so far... but a couple of negative points.
The size / shape of it make it a bit awkward to fill unless you’re using a hose. It’s way too big to fit in my sink! I’ve just been on Amazon and ordered a Hozelock adapter for my utility room mixer tap so that I can attach a small hose for filling without having to take it outside... and can put warm water in too!
The hose storage involves wrapping the hose up correctly to get it to fit in. Perhaps not something I’d fancy on the trail with freezing hands - but it could be sorted when home. Getting the brush off the nozzle may also prove a bit tricky with cold hands.
The weight when full is pretty heavy! Thankfully the wheels are good if you need to drag it about.
It’s also pretty bulky, so takes up a reasonable amount of boot space.
No way of attaching this to an external water supply. Any water must be poured into the unit through the filler cap.
Overall, it seems like a great piece of kit. The negatives are all minor things that shouldn’t really have any impact on my use... but time will tell.
Product name: Bosch Fontus Mobile Pressure Washer
Price paid: £209
Score (out of 10): 8.5
Review: I’ve got a tap / hose round the side of my house, and clean my bike thoroughly after every ride as it lives indoors. Before our latest lockdown, I’ve been travelling further for my rides (20-70 miles in the car - bike on tow bar mount rack), and what I’ve been noticing is that the dirt dries in on my journey home and becomes more difficult to clean off. It also makes a mess of the back of the car, and the bike rack - so I find myself having to wash these down each ride too.
I used to use a 7L pump / spray bottle when I put my bike on a roof mounted rack so that the bike dirt didn’t run all over the car... but that was over 5 years ago, and self contained power washers are now a thing!
My wife always says I have everything and am very difficult to buy presents for, so with Christmas / birthday (28th Dec) in close proximity, I thought a mobile power washer would be something to put on my list!
I was waiting for Black Friday sales for the Mobi V17 to go down (my mate got one for £60 last year), and they were sitting at £99. On Black Friday, they went up to £150, and have remained there since. I looked at other options, and found the Bosch Fontus. A bit more expensive at £209 (Amazon), however it looked like an overall better machine - and comes with a 3 year warranty. A lot of the Mobi reviews say it’s unreliable, so a good warranty was something to take into consideration.
The Fontus uses Bosch’s standard 18V battery, so the same one that’s in my Drill and Strimmer. Now I have 4 of these batteries to share around!
It has an internal 15L water tank, and comes with the trigger and a brush contained in a cubby inside the body of the unit. The hose clips in the back, and it has a telescopic handle for dragging it about.
The unit itself isn’t particularly light at just under 10kg, but add 15L of water to that and it’s a lot heavier! It’s quite bulky, but feels like a quality built piece of kit.
The trigger connects to the unit via a 4m hose, and has a rotating nozzle which can select 4 different spray patterns. The main unit has a power selector dial on it, so you can pick from 3 different power settings (Low / Medium / High).
One of the nozzle patterns is like a shower spray firing about 20 jets at once. Not very powerful, even on High.
The next is a powerful wide spray - probably the best for bike cleaning.
Then it’s a much narrower powerful spray, and the last one is a straight single jet.
Bosch have in their literature than you can use the Fontus for cleaning your dog on the lower setting. On the lowest setting on the shower spray, it’s just a trickle. I don’t have a dog, but I’d wash my 5 year old daughters hands with the shower spray on level 3 without any hesitation!
There’s enough battery on a full charge to empty the tank 3 times at full power.
Let me be clear, full power is NOTHING like my Karcher K6, however it’s still got a decent punch to it. It won’t take the inground dirt of my slabs in the garden like the Karcher will... but it still has enough power to strip the colour off my wooden stained fence.
I used low power wide spray to do most of the bike, and put it up to medium level to do my tyres. Level 1 on that setting would be slightly less powerful than my water mains hose pressure, but with a wider more useful spray pattern.
I’ve only washed my bike at the house so far with the Fontus due to travel restrictions... but it made a great job of it. Getting the dirt off when it’s still wet makes the job much easier. I had a particularly dirty bike yesterday from a sloppy ride round the local forest trails.
A quick spray to get the worst of the dirt off, some muck-off soaking for a few mins, and a good rinse, and the bike is good as new. I haven’t used the brush attachment yet, but it might be useful when I end up with pine needles trapped in places.
I used about half the tank (it has a level window), so there’s easily enough water (and battery) to clean 2 bikes.
When I do finally get away from home, I’ll let the car journey back dry the bike off!
All positive so far... but a couple of negative points.
The size / shape of it make it a bit awkward to fill unless you’re using a hose. It’s way too big to fit in my sink! I’ve just been on Amazon and ordered a Hozelock adapter for my utility room mixer tap so that I can attach a small hose for filling without having to take it outside... and can put warm water in too!
The hose storage involves wrapping the hose up correctly to get it to fit in. Perhaps not something I’d fancy on the trail with freezing hands - but it could be sorted when home. Getting the brush off the nozzle may also prove a bit tricky with cold hands.
The weight when full is pretty heavy! Thankfully the wheels are good if you need to drag it about.
It’s also pretty bulky, so takes up a reasonable amount of boot space.
No way of attaching this to an external water supply. Any water must be poured into the unit through the filler cap.
Overall, it seems like a great piece of kit. The negatives are all minor things that shouldn’t really have any impact on my use... but time will tell.
