Warning! Standards/Planned Obsolescence Rant follows. Feel free to ignore.
We have a modest basic Black/Decker 1900PSI electric power washer. It's fine for washing the deck, concrete walkways, and the siding of our house. It's about 15 years old and has worked reasonably well....however, the "gun" part of the device recently developed a leak. I took it apart to see if there was an obvious worn O ring, but everything rubber looked ok and I was not able to isolate the leak with the unit off. When I turned the unit on, the fittings in the gun would just blow apart under the high pressure.
We went to Lowe's this evening to look into getting a replacement gun. Standards have changed. All the ones they have use different fittings at both the input and exit site of the gun. Instead of a quick-connect at the input, they use an M-22. And for the output "wand" my current unit uses a plastic variation of a quick-connect that is spring loaded into the gun, while the new standard seems to be quick-connect.
So in order to get the power washer working, I would need to buy a $10 quick-connect to M22 adapter, a new gun for $30, a new wand for $25, and a new wand spray fitting for $10. That's to make a 15 year old power washer work again. It reminds me of the stories that to buy a part-by-part economy car can cost more than a luxury car. Sad! It did not make sense to put so much money into the parts, so we did not buy them and more likely will just get a new power washer for $125 or so.
Should I cross-post on powerwashers forum?
p.s. only good news is, best I can tell, mask use at Lowe's was 100%