Buying an Electric Pressure Washer

firewaterword

OK, I may be going out on a limb here, but the staggering amount of diverse knowledge I've seen on this forum says otherwise. I've been thinking about getting an electric pressure washer for taking care of a few things round the house, and I'm trying to figure out (A) what brands/models are good and (B) what the max psi I need is.

I want to be able to do the following:

Wash my car with a foam-cannon attachment
• Powerwash my driveway every once in awhile
• Powerwash my deck in preparation for a new coat of stain/seal.

I don't need to be able to do stuff like siding, but I suppose it can't hurt. I'm pretty certain I want electric, as I hate dealing with gas-powered equipment. I've seen a few for sale for between $100-200, with a PSI range of 1300-1850.

Anyone have any experience with these things?

fuelish

I have a Karcher 1850 psi washer. It works pretty good for smaller jobs, but you need patience to do something big. It came with a couple of heads and you can add soap by dropping the attached pick up into the soap container.
I use it for washing engines and de-mudding my rallyX car. It also worked pretty good when I cleaned my siding.

I would rather handwash a car tho.

JWashke

My dad picked up one of these and I thought I would use it to wash my car, and its not nearly as effective as hand washing. For other uses I can't really comment though.

JebusUD

JWashke wrote: »

My dad picked up one of these and I thought I would use it to wash my car, and its not nearly as effective as hand washing. For other uses I can't really comment though.

they arent really for things like washing cars. More like for blasting the paint off of cars.

One thing to remember is; if you get a washer that has "veins"(essentially little bars that spin their way past other little bars, like the gates at a themepark), not sure exactally what they call that kind, don't leave it running without spraying it for very long. It will wear it out very quickly.

firewaterword

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'd agree that handwashing a car is generally the way to go, but I'd love to be able to use the washer on wheels, wheel-wells, and other annoying to clean areas. Plus, anything that saves time when doing a full detail session (wash, clay, polish, and wax) is always a good thing.

Fuelish, I was actually looking at the Karcher washers on Amazon, so I guess that's the way to go.

Thanks folks!