recommended power washer pressure

[gmason]

Hello All, Just looking to see what pressure range ya'll can recommend for general around the house useage. Washing the dust/dirt off the cars/trucks/atv's.
Will 1500psi do it or do you need over 2000psi.
I'm sure more the better here, but I'm looking at some of the electric ones and they generally are under 2000psi.

thanks
gary

 

[mikim]

I just bought a gas model that says it puts out 2500 psi --- I sure wouldn't want anything less -- not sure I'm going to be completely happy with this. It seems to be just a little less than the wand washers at the diy carwash.
mike

 

[Anderson]

I had a 1500 psi model for a few years, didn't much like the results. I upgraded to 3500 psi this year (12 hp)- no comparison, work's done in 1/4 the time. I think you should get at least 2500 psi for house, car washing.

Nate

 

[PaulinSD]

Several years ago, I bought a Northern Hydraulic p/w, 2000 pounds pressure at 3 gal/min. Works great. It will peel paint off equipment. It has a 5 HP Honda on it, really good machine.

Paul

 

[JATO_RaT]

Gary, whats far more important then pressure is GPM. If pressure was the most important, I'd wash my tractor, driveway etc off with my 3500 PSI paint sprayer with about 1/2 GPM. I have a 3500 PSI, 4 GPM pressure washer 13 HP Honda. I would gladly give away 1000 PSI for another 1 GPM. Its all a trade off when you have a given HP. There are times when I'm moving alot of material that a 20 GPM garden hose at 60 PSI works better then 3500 at 4 GPM. 3 to 4 GPM is pretty good, go from there. Rat...

 

[RMulkey]

I agree with Rat. Go for the high GPM not the higher pressure. I use a 60gal/min 70psi fire hose that works better at cleaning the dirt and crud off the tractor than a 4000psi pressure washer at 3gal/min. I would not go less than 3gal/min at 3000psi or you may not like the results.

-Roger

 

[Boondox]

I have a 2700psi 6.5HP 4gpm model that we picked up at Costco for less than $400. Works great, but I have to be careful since it's enough pressure to peel off decals. Of course, that has its good points too; I was able to remove 16 of those ridiculous lawyer warnings from my ATV with absolutely no residue left behind. /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif

One caveat to the gpm issue. Be sure you have enough water output to support the pump. Many of us in rural areas have rather low output wells. Try running a 4gpm pressure washer on a system that only puts out 2.5 gpm and the washer will never do more than idle with a trickle coming out. Total waste of $$$ if your output can't keep up! /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif
Pete

www.GatewayToVermont.com

 

[JATO_RaT]

Boondox, you better have more then 2.5 gpm available to your house or have water storage in several thousand gallon tanks. Imagine taking a shower when the kitchen sink gets used. Minimum 1.3 gpm for shower and 1.5 for kitchen sink opps, sorry you in the shower. Your problem would be to worry about which pressure washer to get but rather how large of a storage and pump in the tank to install. Rat...

 

[Boondox]

We have a constant trickle into a 400 gallon cistern in the basement, with a shallow well pump pulling water from there to pressurize the house. Pretty common arrangement around here, and some of the shallow well pumps have pretty mediocre output.

Pete

www.GatewayToVermont.com

 

[fractal]

I have a "costco special" electric model myself and am reasonably satisfied with it. I have prep'ed two houses with it prior to painting and have cleaned the driveway untold times with it. It works "ok". I used it to wash the family cars a couple of times and gave up after it peeled the paint off one (fortunately it was my old car so noone cared). Higher pressure is not always a good thing. It can peel paint and it increases the injection danger. I am sure we have all read the horror stories of people loosing hands and arms due to airless paint sprayers injecting latex into people causing gangreen and don't need my driveway cleaner to pose the same risk.

I went with an electric after I adopted the position that I will get electric in any tool that can reasonably run electric. I currently have four 5 hp b&s motors, one 4 hp b&s motor, a couple of 2stroke motors and the diesel on my kubota. I figure I spend 30-50 bucks a year on plugs and oil for the tiller, mower, chipper, generator and trimmer, chainsaw and ryobi multi-tool and still have to fight to start them when they haven't run in a few months. I don't want to think what yearly maintence on the kubota is gonna be.

The electric washer starts first time, every time, and the only maintence I have done on it in 8 yrs is to replace one 'o' ring.

An electric washer will do a better job of cleaning your vehicles with less water than a garden hose with less maintence hassles than a gasoline one. If your needs are met by an electric model you might want to consider a less expensive electric over a gasoline model.

As an alternative, I recently saw an add for someone who "stole my idea " and makes a "power base" with replaceable appliances. You buy one motor and can add generator, pump and pressure washer to it. It was more expensive than the individual components but at least you would be reducing the number of motors you have to maintain and increase the chance that the motor had recently been run if you need more than one of the appliances (but not at the same time). If you are trying to "wash the walls" of a two story house, an electric is probably gonna fall short.