RINSEKIT PORTABLE CLEANER £89.99 › Unique self-powered bike cleaner

THERE ARE LOTS of powered hoses, pumps and sprays on the market for cleaning your bike, but the RinseKit is something a bit different. It has no pump, requires neither batteries nor mains power and works as if by magic. Actually, that’s not quite true, and there’s no need of any Penn and Tellerstyle trickery – it uses pressure from your own tap.

You simply screw the RinseKit’s 6ft hose on to a threaded tap, such as a garden one, turn on the pressure and away you go. The higher the pressure from your own tap, the higher the pressure from the RinseKit’s spray, so turn the tap on as much as you can as quickly as possible for maximum performance. It should take no more than 20 seconds to fill. The water is kept in an internal reservoir, and RinseKit says it should keep the water pressure for up to a month.

It looks like a large plastic toolbox, weighs 4.03kg empty – about 7.8kg with its full 2-gallon (9-litre) capacity – and measures 42x28x35cm tall. If you’ve got limited storage space in your car, especially if it’s shared with a couple of bikes, this might be an issue, so check that out before buying. The most important question, though, is does it work? The answer is yes. We didn’t get the full four-minute blast promised, but we got enough pressure for a couple of minutes, which proved sufficient to clean our bike after a wet and muddy ride. Take care with managing the pressure and the head’s seven different nozzles – from powerful jet to gentle shower – and you’d be able to manage a couple of bikes. It could prove particularly handy for cyclocrossers and mountain bikers and could also be a boon for cleaning your car if you haven’t got a garage. There are a few extras available too. For £11 you can buy an attachment that allows you to fill the RinseKit from a hot water tap. It won’t keep the water warm for that long, but it could still be useful. And for £50 there’s a Field Refill Kit. This consists of a filling bag that you use with a bicycle pump to fill and pressurise the RinseKit when there’s no tap available, for example when you are camping.