The Ava Pressure Washer Go P40 L is diminutive in size but still manages to generate great water pressure, and it comes with an unmatched decade-long warranty. That makes it one of the best mobile pressure washers we’ve tried, and worthy of dousing your bike.

Chances are Ava of Norway is a new name to you. It was new to us, but it’s been operating on the continent for 20 years now. This is important because if a company is offering a warranty as long as this (10 years for this particular model) you want it to be around should you need it. And on the strength of Go P40 we’re betting it will.

The P40 GO comes with plenty of attachments, including the water valve inlet

Ava makes a ton of washers, and the Go P40 is the smallest and lightest in its arsenal. At 6.3kg the Go P40 is decently lightweight, you can pick it up one handed without rupturing anything, and that makes it really easy to store. Of course you can go lighter with a pressure washer, the Ryobi One+ is our first choice if you’re after something you can sling in the back of the car for a post-ride washdown. So while the Go P40 can suck up water from just about anywhere thanks to its sucking hose and filter optional extra, you do need a mains power supply, meaning it’s not one for mobile operations. 

Back home and plugged in, the Go P40 generates 120bar of power and will push out 390 litres of water per hour. That makes it more than good enough to strip the mud or indeed grease from your bike, should you waft the nozzle too close. Fortunately you can turn the power down effectively on the regular nozzle by expanding the spray’s arc, lending it safe for e-bike use if you’re careful. 

Extra power you can dial down makes it more useful than the low-powered but bike-safe Muc-Off Pressure Washer Kit, because most of us live normal lives that include things other than just mountain bikes. So a washer needs to be able to clean the car or scrub moss off a patio with equal aplomb.

Bundling the power cable into its home is not a pleasant experience with cold hands on a winter day

Karcher makes a similarly-powered pressure washer in the K2, but the Go P40 outguns it in terms of pressure and water capacity, meaning there’s both a greater volume of water hitting your bike and it’s at a higher pressure too. Karcher’s unit is cheaper, but it’s also taller and less stable, while the squat little Ava is never going to topple over no matter how hard you tug on the hose.

So what do you get with the Go P40? I tested the cheapest bundle in the range, called the Large it omits something called a Facade Brush (for washing buildings perhaps) but includes a foamer bottle, the gun, a telescopic lance, and a high pressure adjustable nozzle. 

I found the foamer gun next to useless as the flow is so restricted through it, and it doesn’t lock into place properly either. The high pressure nozzle is much better, easy to turn and adjust the power, properly powerful and more than capable of cleaning the most encrusted of muddy bikes. You can also fire it straight from the gun without using the lance, a feature I initially thought would be really useful for washing bikes on a work stand. However the resultant sprayback has you drowning in muddy water so I quickly abandoned the idea.

Ava has designed the Go P40 to be deconstructed after use. That means unplugging the steel-braided hose at both ends and coiling it under the handle, slotting the gun into one of the neat holders, and bundling the flex into a tiny crevice. It’s slightly annoying in use, I’d rather there was a simple hook for the hose and power cable. The lance balances on the handle, which is OK but it’s not attached in any way and can fall off when you’re stashing it away in the shed.

If you don’t lose any of the parts then, or become infuriated with bits dropping off it, the Go P40 should last a long time. Ava has committed to the Right to Repair Europe scheme, which requires companies to supply parts and user manuals for 10 years after manufacture, so it should be easy enough to repair. The attachments like lances and guns are all rebuildable too.

The 10 year warranty is good and does cover the motor, switches and housing, but there are limits. Specifically, anything that moves mechanically isn’t included in the warranty, so not the hose, the gun, the nozzles, the lance or any of the seals from the hose or water inlet. The warranty only extends to 10 years if you have it serviced after five though and log it on Ava’s system, and seeing as that costs anything from £50 to £300 in the UK it might not be worth it on an entry-level unit like this.