All You Need to Know About Pressure Washers

Pressure washers make it easy to clean anything from a concrete patio to a car. They are designed to wash away dirt, dust, mud, mould, paint, clay and other debris from a surface. The reason pressure washers are so good at what they do is that they employ large amounts of pressure to make washing away even the toughest grime easy.

If you are considering hiring a pressure washer, it’s a good idea to know exactly what to look for and how to use the machine to its fullest potential so you can get your job done quickly and easily.

How Pressure Washers Work

Most pressure washers that you can hire for home or business use connect to an existing water supply, like your garden hose, for example. Some models do have tanks for storing water. They pressurise the water using an engine, and then release it at high speeds so the force of the water can be used to clean and wash debris away.

The pressure washer has a button near the nozzle that allows you to stop and start the water stream and many models allow you to adjust the water pressure.

What a Pressure Washer Can Do

The most common use for a pressure washer is cleaning. The water under high pressure makes it easy to wash away even very stubborn dirt and grime and can make a deck, sidewalk, walkway, brick pathway, building or other surface look like new.

Some types of pressure washes make it possible to combine cleaning chemicals or even sand with water to remove things like old paint or graffiti.

Different pressure washers have different levels of pressure, so some are more suitable to certain tasks. For example, you could use a very low pressure model to wash your car, and a higher pressure washer to clean the grime off your driveway.

Choosing a Pressure Washer

There is a wide variety of pressure washers available, and choosing the right one is important. Choosing the wrong washer for your project can make your job harder and can even cause damage to the surface you are working with.

Electric or Gas

There are both electric and gas powered pressure washers. The main difference to keep in mind is that an electric model will require you to have an electric supply nearby while you work, so a gas powered washer may be more mobile.

Electric washers are also generally more suitable for smaller jobs where you don’t need to achieve extremely high levels of pressure. They are ideal for washing windows, cars and other surfaces that may be more prone to damage.

Gasoline powered washers often emit a much more pressurised stream of water, so they work well when you need to remove a lot of dirt or are working to remove something especially stubborn, like old paint.

Mini Power Washers

Mini power washers are smaller, so choose one of these if you are working on a smaller project or a job where you won’t have much space to manoeuvre a larger washer. These washers are designed to clean things like machinery, patios, decks, cars, walls, garage doors and driveways.