The first thing you need to do is make sure you know what types of oil to put in your pressure washer. If in doubt consult your manual, failing that, phone the people who you bought the machine off and hopefully they’ll be able to enlighten you. The pump, motor and gearbox (if your pressure washer has one) may all require different oils.

Put loads of newspaper down on the area where you plan to change the pressure washer’s oil. Get some kind of container to go under the pressure washer. It will preferably need to be very wide to try and catch all the oil before it hits the newspapers.

It’s a good idea to run your pressure washer for a few minutes first to warm the oil. This will make it drain more easily.

There will be an oil drain plug somewhere on the bottom of the pump, the motor and the gearbox. They will be hexagonal nuts that you have to undo with a socket wrench/spanner to release the oil. As soon as you release these nuts the oil will pour out and may spill all over the place, so have your wide container ready under the pressure washer to catch all the oil as soon as it starts to come out. If any does miss the container your newspapers will hopefully be ready, lying in wait.

Once all the oil has been drained, put the oil drain plugs back in place.

Pour the new oils in slowly, keeping your eye on the glass sight that shows you how much oil you should put in. You need to be particularly careful when pouring the gearbox oil, because gearbox oil is so thick it’s very easy to overfill it. You will probably want to employ the services of a funnel to help pour the oil in as well.

I don’t think the motor oil will have a sight so you’ll need to use your dipstick to tell if you’ve put the right amount in.