Still doing the cleaning and fixing to sell the house, so we invested in a pressure washer and trust me, it was the right thing to do.
We went with the Ryobi 2,000 PSI
You realize how much grime you accumulate in your walls and floors after 20+ years of urban/suburban living till you remove it. This little pressure washer did the trick very good with only a few complains. I sued it day before yesterday to clean the lake side of the house and the inside of the porch roof and it almost went back to the original white. The cascade of dirty water was both impressive and disgusting.
Two thousand PSI is the minimum I saw recommended for somewhat heavy work. I am still stripping old paint from the deck and this thing (with the tight tip) is doing the heavy work. The telescopic handle and the light weight makes it a dream to move around. The soap container threw me for a loop: It will not dispense soap unless it has the right tip which probably means internally it has some sort of pressure regulated valve that opens the flow when low enough pressure is detected. Anything higher and it just shoots plain water.
That black bulbous thing at the end of the gun is what Ryobi calls the Turbo Nozzle and I believe it will remove all your sins if placed close enough to your soul. I forget how long the electrical cord is, but is long for your regular household plus has a its own ground fault circuit interrupter plug. The pistol part is comfortable and it takes a long time of use for your hand to be tired. Lots of bronze and steel bits in all the needed places and looks and feels well done and solidly built overall.
Now what I do not like: The tips other than the Turbo Nozzle suck. It comes only with a 15 degree tip and a soap tip, both all plastic construction and performance that did not convince me. I bought an inexpensive set from Amazon that has variety and do a better job for under $10.
The other thing I hate is the hose. It is stiff and hard to deal with because it will not lose its material memory and wants to keep coils. You could probably drive a tank over it and not damage it, but it is a royal pain in the ass.
Do yourself a favor and also buy the Electric Pressure Washers Surface Cleaner, specially if you have to clean any flat surface over 25 square feet. It has two revolving zero degree tips that will clean whatever dirt flooring you face, but be aware that zero degree means it is a very aggressive cleaning and that soft surfaces that you d not want damaged will be. It is also fun because it wants to play hovercraft so it slides easy in any direction.
And that’s it. Seriously, for the regular homeowner, this is a very handy power tool to have. It has other accesories including a foamer for car washing. You select what you need and play with it.
Here is the quick reference guide in case you want a bit more info.
Hmmm… that reminds me; a pressure washer is on my need-to-buy list, mainly for cleaning equipment. I expect it’d make cleaning the tiller ever so much easier.
And probably a gas-powered model, given that equipment cleaning tends to happen some way away from the nearest electrical outlet.
By coincidence, I’ve been looking at that one and a couple of cheaper models. They have a 1900 and an 1800 PSI cleaner. My main uses are going to be cleaning the pavers around the house, and occasional car washes.
I have a hard time thinking that going from 2000 psi down to 1800 is going to make that big a difference.
The pressure in itself might not be that different, but what else changes when you go to a different model? Flow rate? Materials or construction? Accessories? Etc.
I’d suggest that before anyone else buys one to have a watch of this series by Obsessed Garage.
It’s the best guide to consumer grade pressure washers that I’ve seen.
Obsessed Garage is one helluva resource. The dude goes down some rabbit holes and has some great video series . . . if my Powerball numbers came in I’d be calling him to completely setup my new Garage Mahal.
I got the 2300psi electric Ryobi pressure washer lasted year . . . how I was a homeowner for a decade without owning one of those is beyond my comprehension. I’ve used it on everything from the driveway to the deck to the brick mailbox to the cars.
I didn’t have luck with the surface cleaner though. I wanted it to work, but got a bad one that didn’t work out of the box. I might get another one though.
The best suggestion I have to upgrade is a set of quick disconnects for the hoses.
Your Ryobi should be standard fittings, so get one of the sets from Amazon.
I did after watching that series, it makes a big difference when you need to store it.
Like this one, https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07MY17MGX
Don’t be a sissy. Get the 3000 psi gas one. I did. It came with a full complement of fittings.
This is a tool, along with an air compressor and shopvac, that you didn’t know you needed until you got one.
I think for most people an electric version will do 80-90% of what they want to do without the hassle of another small gasoline engine to maintain.
I opted to go with a gas unit, a Simpson MS60921:
https://simpsoncleaning.com/products/megashot-ms60921/
… and then added a surface cleaner:
https://www.pressurewashersdirect.com/BE-WAW-16Y/p14126.html
The latter cut the time to pressure-wash my driveway by 2/3, and the cleaning is more consistent and even.
There is a belief that more pressure is better, regardless of the use. And, that is a falsehood.
The overwhelming majority of cleaning tasks you, as the average homeowner, will put to a pressure washer do not need more than about 1500psi. In fact, more pressure than that, on some soft materials, is damaging. Let your nozzle hover over the same spot in concrete for too long, and even 1500psi can etch it.
Anything more than 1500/1700 psi will damage most soft woods (cedar decking for instance.) 2000psi is about the sweet spot for stucco/concrete if you ask me. Enough pressure to dislodge the dirt, but cheap enough that you are not wasting money (and space) on some mega pressure unit. Then again, I would guess a 1500psi unit would do as good of a job as well.
The factor that makes a bigger difference, in my opinion, is the flow rate. Yes, high pressure will dislodge the grime, but if you do not have enough water flowing, it will not go anywhere. Especially on floors/driveways/decks. 2GPM is the minimum in my experience, I would rather pay more for the additional flow, than for the additional pressure.
Having gone through all of that, any pressure washer is better than a normal garden hose, even with the super pressure nozzles you can find in the same aisle as the pressure washers. 1200psi at .5GPM is an improvement over garden hose.
The advent of electric or even battery powered pressure washers really changed the game and it’s one of those tools a home owner doesn’t know they need till they use one. Nice to not need heavy duty hearing protection too.
Glad ya got it working out just don’t run it over your foot if you partake in yard work beers.
I didn’t know how much I needed a pressure washer until I got one.
My two most common uses: the grill and floor mats.
I spray oven cleaner on my grill, let it soak, then blast it clean.
My entry floor mats I wash with a deck brush and Pinalin then hang on the fence and blast clean.
Takes the most ground in dirt out of floor mats.
SWMBO got me a pressure washer for Christmas, much to my surprise. Never wanted one, but reading this makes me want to give it a try.
Will let y’all know if it works!