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- Impressive cleaning power
- Nozzles and power settings add versatility
- Rock-solid, practical design
- Quite noisy
- Nozzle mechanism stiff early on
When asked to recommend a powerhouse pressure washer that can handle serious workloads, I’ve often steered people towards Nilfisk’s excellent P180. It’s incredibly solid and well-built and stupidly powerful, but it also gives you plenty of control. The only problem? It’s a big, heavy and expensive pressure washer, and likely to be overkill for the vast majority of households.
Having tested the Nilfisk Core 150, however, I think it might be the perfect step-down option for those who’d find the P180 a bit much.
It comes in between the P180 and the well-regarded Core 140, giving you the lighter but still very practical physical design of the latter, but with a bump in specs and performance to enable it to cover even tougher jobs. What’s more, Nilfisk sent it through in its Car Wash pack, which comes with additional bundles accessories for even more vehicle-cleaning power.
When asked to recommend a powerhouse pressure washer that can handle serious workloads, I’ve often steered people towards Nilfisk’s excellent P180. It’s incredibly solid and well-built and stupidly powerful, but it also gives you plenty of control. THe only problem? It’s a big, heavy and expensive pressure washer, and likely to be overkill for the vast majority of households.
If you’re after a machine that can tackle paths, patios, decks and driveways, the Core 150 is a very strong option, and with the Car Wash kit it’s one of the best pressure washers I’ve tested for blasting mud and grime off cars, caravans, campervans, quad-bikes and more.
What do you get for the money?
A powerful mid-range pressure washer with a maximum 150 bar pressure and flow rate of 468 litres per hour. That puts it roughly in line with Karcher’s K5 series, which reach 145 bar maximum pressure and a flow rate of 500 litres per hour. It’s still big and heavy, standing 88cm tall with a weight that tops 11kg, but it’s a fraction of the 26.8kg of the P180, which stands 95.5cm high.
Like the P180 it has a metal rather than a plastic pump, so it should last longer than your average pressure washer with a mostly plastic motor. Meanwhile, it uses the same covered, hand-cranked reel as the Core 140 to keep the 10m Steelflex high-pressure hose neat and tidy when the pressure washer’s not in use.
Even the Standard version gives you a generous array of kit, with Rough and Gentle nozzles and a detergent sprayer attachment for applying cleaning liquids and foams. However, the Car Wash version ups the ante with a larger Super Foam Sprayer bottle and a 90-degree angled nozzle for cleaning the under carriage of your vehicles. Neither is essential, but they give you a thicker and more controllable snow foam and a means of getting to those hard to reach spots.
Before I move on to usability or performance, I ought to highlight how practical and well-built the Core 150 is. From the ridged blue plastic casing to the wheels to the reel, everything feels tough and durable. The handle folds up for use and down for storage with a satisfying clunk, the unit stands firm and doesn’t fall over while you’re cleaning, and it’s incredibly useful to have stowage points for the spare nozzles accessible at the back of the machine.
The reel to hold the high-pressure hose makes a massive difference when you’re stowing the unit away, with the connector for the spray lance emerging from a space in the body so nothing gets tangled or snagged when you’re setting up for cleaning.
There’s even a hook and a rubber bung to hang and hold the mains cable in place. Nothing looks too flashy, but everything helps make this pressure washer easier to store and manage.
How easy is it to use?
There’s a little more to this one than point and shoot. For a start, the power dial has three power settings, with the maximum 3 setting nearest to the Off position and the 2 and 1 settings kicking in as you twist clockwise.
Between these and the Rough and Gentle nozzles you’ve got real control over the size and intensity of the jet, and Nilfisk has even put a sticker on the back to guide you to the right combination for different jobs. What’s more, the Gentle nozzle is variable, giving you a range from a right jet to much more easy going, wide area spray.
That’s really helpful when you need a washer that can blast dried-on mud from your car’s bodywork, but can also be trusted to clear algae from your paving without leaving a permanent mark. Overall, I found the Core 150 a pleasure to use. It’s maneuverable, it stays put, the nozzles click into place and come out again when you squeeze a button and the 10m hose means you’re not constantly repositioning the unit just to get around your paving or your car.
How I tested the Nilfisk Core 150 PowerControl
I follow the same basic process when testing all pressure washers so I can compare performance and ease of use. I assemble the pressure washer according to the manufacturer’s instructions, then use it in a range of tasks around my home and garden, cleaning areas of tarmac, paving, plastic and timber.
That way, I can see how well each model handles different surfaces and different types and grades of grime. I’ll also clean my car, paying special attention to the pressure washer’s ability to remove dirt and debris around the bodywork and wheels. While doing so, I’ll use any accessories provided, including foam spray bottles, additional nozzles, driveway brushes and car kits, to see if they make the job any easier or quicker.
How well does it clean?
Extremely well. It’s not as powerful on paper as the P180, but with the Rough nozzle attached it can blast through mud, dried-on grime, seagull droppings and other nasty stuff with ease, even ripping through dried patches of exterior masonry paint.
In fact, you need to be careful on maximum settings, as it will also dig through crumbling patches of tarmac on your driveway and wreck any soft patches of decking. That’s where the lower power settings and Gentle nozzle come in, allowing you to clean your car’s bodywork or areas of stone paving without worrying about the damage that might be done.
As with the Karcher K4 WCM Flex, you’ve effectively got a neat little tag team going, where you can pull in the Rough nozzle for the really tough stuff, then switch back to the Gentle nozzle when you want to clean larger areas or more vulnerable surfaces.
The Car Wash kit isn’t essential, but it is worth having if you want to keep your car looking good as new. While the standard detergent spray bottle can dish out a decent snow foam, the specialist Super Foam Sprayer bottle can lay it on really thick, with an adjustable nozzle to reduce the thickness and widen the spray.
Between it and the higher-than-average flow rate, I had my compact SUV covered with foam within minutes, while the Gentle nozzle did an excellent job of removing it fifteen minutes later. And while I was a little cynical about the angled undercarriage nozzle, it does make it a whole lot easier to get under the car, taking care not to get too rough, or deal with dirty-caked alloy wheels and wheel arches.
What could be improved?
Not too much. The mechanism for attaching and removing nozzles was a bit stiff at first, but seemed to ease up with some use – and possibly a little more muscle power.
Otherwise, the worst thing I can say about the Core 150 is that it’s noisy, dishing out between 81.6dBA and 88.3dBA during testing, depending on the power setting. You’ll want something to protect your ears, but these figures aren’t unusually high for a powerful pressure washer.
Should you buy the Nilfisk Core 150 PowerControl?
I’d definitely think about it, especially if smaller, lighter pressure washers aren’t going to cover the vehicles in your drive or the needs of your paving and decking. It’s easier to store and handle than the really big guys like the P180 or the Kärcher K5 Comfort Premium, but it still has the raw power to deal with just about any household cleaning job.
Meanwhile, the nozzles and variable power make it more versatile and give you plenty of control. Throw in Nilfisk’s usual excellent build quality, and you have a formidable pressure washer that should keep you blasting mud and grime away for years to come.
