Electric vs Manual Portable Horse Washers

Electric vs Manual Portable Horse Washers: Which Is Right for Your Yard

Portable horse washers come in two families. Electric ones use a battery powered pump to pull water from a bucket or tank and push it through a hose. Manual ones use a hand pump to pressurise a sealed tank, then release the water on demand. Both put a wash where the tap isn't. They just fail in different places, and knowing where is the whole decision.

Electric portable washers

How they work. A rechargeable pump, often the size of a large torch, drops into a bucket and pushes water up a hose to a shower head. Some are built into a tank with a battery.

Where they're good. Flow is decent and continuous while the battery lasts, and there's no pumping. If you're washing several horses in a row at a well organised yard with power and a bucket of warm water to hand, they do the job.

Where they fall down. Yards, lorries and show grounds are hostile to electronics: damp, dust, mud and being dropped. The battery is the weak point in every sense, since the charge runs down over a day of use and fades faster in the cold, and a pump that won't start at the lorry after cross country is worse than no pump at all. They also don't heat anything: the warmth of the wash depends entirely on what's in the bucket, and a bucket of warm water goes cold in a winter wind fast. And you still need the bucket, so the kit is pump, charger, bucket and hose rather than one thing.

Manual pressure washers

How they work. Fill a sealed tank, pump the handle ten to fifteen times to pressurise it, and the water sprays on demand for several minutes. Pump again when the pressure drops.

Where they're good. Nothing to charge, nothing to fail in the wet, and the tank is the bucket, so the whole kit is one item that lives in the lorry. The pressure is genuinely useful for dried mud and sweat, and a multi mode spray head can go from a firm jet for feathers to a soft mist for a nervous horse's face. The NewFlow 8 Litre adds the piece that matters most for horses in this country: it holds water up to 50 degrees and the tank is wrapped in 5mm neoprene, so warm water filled at home is still warm at the show, which the cool down advice recommends in cooler weather to remove sweat without chilling the horse [1].

Where they fall down. Capacity: eight litres is a thorough wash down of legs, sweat areas and mud, not a full body bath, and for cooling a genuinely hot horse on a summer day you want the hose and continuous cool water [2]. And there's the pumping, though fifteen pumps is about as much effort as lifting one bucket. A holder on the lorry removes the last inconvenience by giving you both hands.

Side by side

The verdict for most riders

If your washing happens at a yard with power and a hot tap, either works and the electric one saves some pumping. If your washing happens where washing actually needs to happen, at the lorry after hunting, at a show with a queue for the wash bay, at a field yard in February, then the manual pressure washer is the better tool by a distance, because it's the one that still works when it's cold, wet and muddy, and the only one that arrives with warm water inside it.

For the full wash down routine that makes eight litres go a long way, see how to wash down a horse with no mains water, and for the wider buying guide, the best portable horse shower and wash systems. Everything horse specific lives on our portable horse shower and wash page.

References

1. KBIS, The Importance of a Good Cool Down and How to Do It: https://www.kbis.co.uk/advice/how-to-cool-your-horse-down-after-exercise/
2. Animal Osteopathy College, Cooling Hot Horses: The Right Way and Busting Myths: https://www.animalosteopathycollege.com/blog/cooling-hot-horses-the-right-way-and-busting-myths