Karcher K4 Classic Detergent bottle - Karcher Vacuums

If you are having any trouble getting the detergent or water to come out of your vac then this could be down to one of a couple of things.

Now if the vac is new then the chances are you have not held the button down for long enough to allow the water/detergent to flow through the vac so hold the button down for a couple of minutes and it will eventually come out.

Now if you have used this before and it is no longer working then you have got a blockage problem.
The first thing you need to do is tip the vac up on its back and have a good look at where the water/detergent comes out of, you should see several little jets running along the bottom of the vac right at the front, now what you need to do is get a long pin and give all of these little jets a good poke with a long needle make sure you do this to all of the jets.

Once you have done this sit it back up right and give it a try, you may need to hold the trigger down for 2 or 3 min to let the water/detergent work its way through the vac.

If how ever it still dont work then empty the detergent/water bottle and fill it with hot but not boiling water and add a couple of table spoons of salt now put the bottle back on the vac and leave it for 3 or 4 min then switch is on and hold the button down again for 2 or 3min. Now the hot water and the salt should have broke down any build up of gel that the detergent has turned into over time.

Repeat this process 2 or 3 times to give it chance to work its way around the vac.
After doing this check the jets again and poke with a needle as the chances are the blockage has now moved and is by the jets, now give it another try.

If it still dont work then the blockage must be quite bad what you now need to do is unplug the vac and lie it on its back now if you have a good look at where the jets are you will see several screws holding the bottom part of the vac to the top part.
All you need to do is undo these screws and remember where each screw came from in case they are different sizes now once you have the screws out the bottom should come away form the top, be carefull here as the hose that goes to the jets will need pulling off once you have pulled this off the bottom should come away no problems.

Now with the bottom off you can follow the way the water/detergent goes so if you follow it from the jets you should see the hose that carries the water/detergent, so what you now need to do is follow this hose and keep giving it a good squeeze where ever you see water backed up keep squeezing it all the way along as far as you can.
You may see the blockage if you do just give it a good squeeze where the blockage is to break up the gel blockage, if you see no blockage then keep reading on. if how ever you have found the blockage then make sure you squeeze it out as much as you can .

Now put everything back together, if you found the blockage you should find that filling the water/detergent bottle with hot but not boiling water should now get you up and running just keep and eye on the jets until the blockage you found has past out the jets.

Now if you never found the blockage empty the water/detergent bottle and check where the water comes out of the bottle into the vac you should be abe to press it and see if the water flow freely out of the bottle. if it does then you need to check the part of the vac where this bottle attaches to, their should be some sort of filter where this bottle fits so have a look their and clean with a pin if blocked.
If you find no blockage then try again with the hot water to rule out 100% blockage being the problem. if you have checked and their is no blockage then this would indicate a problem with the pump or a blockage in the pump, now as the pump is not a serviceable part you cant take it apart and clean it so the only option you have is keep trying with hot water or replace pump( check any warranty before you do any work yourself)

The hot salty water should work but make take several tries until it breaks down the gel build up.

Now what they should have told you when you purchased your machine is that after every use empty the detergent bottle and fill with clean warm water and then let this run through your cleaner, you need to do this as if you leave the detergent in the bottle and leave it in the pipes inside the vac then what happens is that over time the detergent turns to a gel so making sure the detergent is gone will guarantee the vac will work the next time you want to use it