Task Force TF1600 Electric Pressure Washer Review

I bought this pressure washer to replace a Campbell-Hausfeld that I thought had failed; I preferred one that I could get locally, and having had very bad luck with Karchers and McCullough, I decided to try the Lowes store brand unit on the strength of the fact that Lowes own products have been pretty good values in the past.  Sadly, this was not one of them.

The unit was defective right out of the box.  The spray gun's valve wouldn't open (the trigger moved freely, but nothing happened.  To ease the process of getting warranty service, I carefully followed the troubleshooting process described by the manufacturer, and immediately ran into a conceptual error; to test the unit to verify that the problem was not in the pump itself, they instructed that the pressure line needed to be disconnected.  With the line pressurized, however, the screw-on conector was next to impossible to unscrew.  With considerable effort (and a pair of pliers) I finally got it undone, and verified that the pump had output when the hose was disconnected.

At that point, I tried calling the toll-free assistance line...and it was after hours, so I got a recording.  Trying the website, I noted that it appeared that they had a process set up by which warranty parts could be ordered online...but that required registering the unit first.  Which would have been OK, but their registration system didn't recognize this unit's model number even though it was shown at the top of the very same page.  So I tried their contact form, and detailed what I had checked, what I had tried, and what I had found, including the problem with the website's inability to register my product.

The next business day, I got an email advising me to call the toll-free number for assistance in getting the warranty registered and getting the unit working.  I called, and the support person was, with some difficulty, eventually able to register the warranty.  After asking some questions about what it was doing (questions which I had already answered in my email), the support person decided that the problem was in the spray gun, and said that a new one would be sent.  It would take about two weeks.  (Well, so much for any advantage in buying locally; they had only one service center for the entire US, and it was in illinois.)

Eventually, the spray gun arrived.  I installed it, and while the unit now could spray, the motor did not shut off when the trigger was released, and the spray pressure seemed very low by comparison to all of the previous units I had used.  So i contacted the customer support people again, and they had me dismantle the unit so that I could adjust the shutoff pressure.  There was just one problem with this; the adjuster wasn't present. This unit's design was completely different from what they sent instructions to address.  Additionally, I could see that the pressure shutoff switch which was used on this unit had broken off of the manifold of the unit, and would need to be replaced in any event.  I sent them a photo of what was actually present, and they sent, in reply, a photo of what they were telling me to adjust...which was not part of the unit I had in front of me.

After pointing out to them that my unit did not resemble the one in their photo, they stated that I would need to replace the output manifold that I had with the one that had the adjustment, and that they would send one; they just needed my address and phone number (which ought to have still been in their warranty database).  I replied with the information that they stated that they needed, and advised that the switch required for that adjustable manifold would need to be sent as well, along with whatever mounting bracket it used, as none of those parts were present on this unit.

And then I started to wait.

A month went by, and I still had received no further communications and no parts; I tried contacting them again, and got an autoresponse assuring me that someone would be assigned to address my concerns and respond.  No one did.  When another 15 days had elapsed (and I had now gone more than 60 days since purchase without having had a fully functional unit) I gave up and contactd Lowes customer service; they arranged for me to return the unit to the store where I bought it, and I got a full refund.

In the process of investigating this mess, I discovered that the company which actually makes this unit is FAIP, and it appears that they also manufacture a large percentage of the other electric pressure washers that are widely available from various retail outlets.  I found numerous scathing reviews of those models as well.  Online research before the purchase is your friend; use it!  I wish I had!