MBR Editor’s Choice 2019: Worx 20V Max Hydroshot, £164.99

The portable washer was a game changer for those of us who ride through the foulest of winter conditions, or live somewhere without an outside cleaning area. Worx takes the idea one step further with a clever battery-powered jetwash lance that takes up minimal space and can be left in the car for when the need arises. It doesn’t come with a water tank; instead you get a 10m hose and a filter, so you can tap into streams, ponds and even puddles to rinse your bike. And if none of those are to hand, you can fill the included folding bucket, or if you’re really middle-class, use the adapter to attach a mineral water bottle.

The one of the best portable bike washers is the Worx Hydroshot; it’s compact, battery-powered and lets you tap into a natural water supply. Just add water.

Unlike most portable washers, the Worx Hydroshot doesn’t have a water tank. Instead it has a 10m hose that you can dip into any third-party water source. It also has a filter on the end, so you can use dirty water, such as from a puddle, stream, lake and even the sea, Worx says. You get a fold-up bucket for water collection, you can also clip a standard garden hose to the unit, and there’s even an adapter for the bottom of the lance to screw on a mineral water bottle. If there’s water out there the Hydroshot will let you access it – although we’d recommend using the cleanest water you can get to prolong the filter life.

The Hydroshot lance has three pressure settings and the nozzle rotates to offer five different spray features from a powerful jet stream to a wide fan spray for dousing the bike. Worx claims 2.5Mpa water pressure (about 25bar), which is twice that of the Bosch, but in use both units felt pretty similar.

Powering the Hydroshot is one of Worx’s Powershare 20V MAX lithium-ion batteries, which means it can be used with other Worx devices. The Hydroshot is even available as a ‘body only’, should you have a device with one of the batteries included.

In terms of cleaning power, the Hydroshot is more powerful than a garden hose, so will shift stubborn dirt, but it’s not as damaging to paint work and bearings as a full-on jet wash. There’s plenty of grunt to clean mud from tyres and most of the cavities on your bike and on a single charge run time is over 20 minutes, which we found is enough time to clean one bike really thoroughly.

When using the Hydroshot it didn’t feel quite as solid as some competitors, such as the Bosch Fontus, but it’s half the price, and being able to tap into multiple water sources is a big plus when cleaning at the end of a ride.