Karcher Jet Wash: 90 dB with No Recommendation to Wear Hearing Protection

[simb999]

I've just bought a Karcher jet wash for my son to use, no way I could cope with the noise those things make. Had a look at the technical specs and it's 90dB but no mention in any of the safety advice of wearing hearing protection, really surprised me. I'll advise my son to wear hearing protection. Just thought I'd throw this out there. Stay safe everyone.

 

[linearb]

I've just bought a Karcher jet wash for my son to use, no way I could cope with the noise those things make. Had a look at the technical specs and it's 90dB but no mention in any of the safety advice of wearing hearing protection, really surprised me. I'll advise my son to wear hearing protection. Just thought I'd throw this out there. Stay safe everyone.

this is a good callout; people should be generally aware of this.

Safety guidelines for using pressure washers dictate using eye and ear protection. However, this is often a situation where professional users are much more aware of the risks, and home consumers are not. When I see tree crews out around here, they are all wearing kevlar, face shields and hearing protection running their chainsaws. I often see homeowners out back with similar equipment using none of those things. Additionally, consumer grade tools can be louder than their commercial counterparts in some cases, because commercial devices may have better exhaust systems.

Other common things where you really ought to use earpro include electric line trimmers, electric mowers, etc. Most people realize they should wear hearing protection when using the gasoline powered versions of these devices, but that logic somehow gets lost with the "clean green" device. I have a 14" bar electric chainsaw and at full rev into wood, it reads at about the same volume as my dad's 14" gas saw (~112db).

I don't touch any of this stuff without ear protection, but doubling up lowers it to well within the realm of tolerable. It's also good to limit use to ~45-60 consecutive minutes, with breaks, but I think that's general common sense for dangerous tools even without hearing issues.