How Pressure Washer Fits On Garden Hose And How To Use
Watching years of mildew get blasted off a piece of patio furniture provides a unique form of satisfaction—a feeling attainable only with a pressure washer. After more than 70 hours of research and two weeks using eight pressure washer models to clean cars, outdoor chairs, and more, we found that the best pressure washer for most homeowners is the Ryobi RY142300 2300 PSI Brushless Electric Pressure Washer. All the electric washers we tested cleaned well, but the Ryobi has a durable motor, a longer hose, larger wheels for easier maneuvering, a better-designed cord, and lengthier warranty coverage than the competition.
Our pick
We recommend an electric pressure washer for most homeowners since electric models are easier to use and maintain than gas models. (Gas washers are more powerful, but most people don't need all of that extra force for around-the-house tasks.) The quiet-running brushless induction motor of the Ryobi RY142300 should last for years, and the machine's heft helps make it particularly hard to tip over, even when you're forcefully tugging on the hose. Along with its larger wheels and cable, as well as its hose management, this sturdy design makes the RY142300 the easiest to maneuver and use of the washers in our test group. The company's three-year limited warranty is also the longest we found. The RY142300 usually costs a little more than other pressure washers, but if you plan to use it three or more times a year, it's the best value.
Runner-up
If the Ryobi RY142300 is not available, we also like the DeWalt DWPW2400 2400 PSI Electric Cold-Water Pressure Washer. In many ways, it's identical to the Ryobi, similar in its body design, brushless motor, and overall power and usability. The DeWalt also has some advantages over the Ryobi: It comes with two additional nozzles for a wider array of spray options, a detergent tank that is easier to monitor and empty, and wide pneumatic tires, great for moving the pressure washer across bumpy lawns. The major downsides are that the cord wrap is awkward to get to and difficult to use, and the holder for the spray wand is almost entirely ineffective. The DeWalt is typically a little more expensive, too, and since we think the Ryobi's wheels will be fine for most situations, as will its nozzle selections, we recommend that model first, but we also think anyone getting the DeWalt will be satisfied with its cleaning power.
Budget pick
If you have a smaller budget or plan to use your pressure washer only once or twice a year, we like the Sun Joe SPX3000 Electric Pressure Washer. For about $100 less than the Ryobi RY142300, it cleans about the same, but like most under-$200 models it has a shorter hose, a lower-quality motor, smaller wheels, a shorter warranty, and a design that's easier to tip over. Compared with the other budget models we tried, it has a wider selection of spray nozzles; it also offers a durable metal spray wand, plus convenient hose and cord storage similar to that of the RY142300.
Also great
If you're short on storage and you don't mind carrying a pressure washer around, we also like the Ryobi RY1419MTVNM 1900 PSI Electric Pressure Washer. It's much smaller than the other models we tested and has less oomph, but it can still handle most jobs (they might just take a little longer). Weighing a little over 20 pounds and sporting a top handle, it's compact enough for you to carry it as you would a duffel bag. It has wheels and an extending handle, like a piece of luggage, but the wheels are small and have trouble managing an uneven lawn (we ended up just carrying it everywhere). This pressure washer has the same long hose as our main pick, too, but it lacks that model's high-end induction motor and some of the other, finer details.
Also great
If you need more power or want to go beyond the reach of an extension cord and you don't mind maintaining an engine, we recommend a gas washer. The Ryobi RY803001 3000 PSI Honda Pressure Washer cleans roughly twice as quickly as our electric pick, the Ryobi RY142300, and it's powered by a dependable Honda gas engine. It has many of the same nice features as the RY142300 does, including oversize wheels, a long hose (in this case, 35 feet), good hose storage, ready availability, and a long warranty. The downside: It's heavier, it's louder, and it needs fuel, maintenance, and proper storage in the off-season. But if you need to wash a garden shed at the other end of your property, say, or a filthy boat at the end of your driveway, it'll do the job (if you have a long enough hose).
Everything we recommend
Our pick
Runner-up
Budget pick
Also great
Also great
Why you should trust us
To learn more about pressure washers, we corresponded with Jamey Kramar, who runs PressureWashr, an online resource devoted to all things pressure washer. Kramar has been involved with these machines for the past 17 years and has also spent time as a mechanical engineer working on the design and build of heavy-duty vehicle-washing equipment. He has been writing about residential pressure washers since 2013 and has been focusing on PressureWashr since 2015 (the site generates revenue through affiliate links). At this writing, he owns 10 pressure washers, two of which he has completely disassembled, and he has tested at least 30 models.
We also spent almost 40 hours reading any other pressure washer articles we could find, as well as hundreds of customer reviews at various retailer sites such as those of Amazon and Home Depot. The specialized retailer Pressure Washers Direct, with its involved buying guides and detailed washer information, was a valuable resource.
As for me, I've been reviewing tools and garage gear since 2007, and I spent 10 years in the building trades as a carpenter, foreman, and site supervisor constructing high-end homes in the Boston area. For Wirecutter, I've written guides to lawn mowers, string trimmers, leaf blowers, and snow blowers, so I'm very familiar with the ins and outs of residential lawn and yard equipment.
Who this is for
A pressure washer makes short work of big cleaning projects (and small ones, too). Because water sprays from a washer's nozzle with such intensity, it can lift up and remove dirt, mildew, and grime that a regular garden hose simply can't handle. Pressure washers are most often useful for cleaning decks, driveways, yard tools, house siding, fences, cars, and patio furniture. Frequently, a pressure washer can produce dramatic results, as this photo gallery of wood decks at Kramar's site shows.
Pressure washers are not only thorough cleaners but fast cleaners, as well. Really fast. Cleanup jobs that would normally take 20 to 30 minutes with a garden hose and a sponge or wire brush take maybe two minutes with a pressure washer, and for less work you get better results. During our testing, we cleaned a manure-covered wheelbarrow in a matter of minutes, and a set of ancient Adirondack chairs took maybe three or four minutes apiece. This cleaning speed is only amplified as the jobs get bigger, such as if you were to clean your driveway or the sidewalk out front.
But you also need to do a certain amount of pressure washing in order to justify owning one of these machines. Most rental centers have them readily available, so if you're cleaning your siding once every two years, there's no sense in buying a pressure washer just to have it take up space in your garage. But once you start using it more than that—say, a couple of times a year—owning one begins to make sense, as we checked a few rental centers around the country and found that the per-week rental charge was typically the cost of a new washer. Owning one also adds the convenience of simply having it when you need it.
You may also find (as we did) that once you have a pressure washer, you end up using it far more than you expected. The difference between cleaning with a pressure washer and rinsing something off with a hose is dramatic. In our tests, we took on projects we never would have otherwise, letting the pressure washers loose on all sorts of things—tomato cages, shovels, the kids' red wagon, a soccer net. We also paid much closer attention to the underside of a lawn mower, which under normal, non-pressure-washer circumstances would require a putty knife to get really clean.
How we picked
After our conversations with PressureWashr's Jamey Kramar and our additional research, we determined a number of features to look for when purchasing a pressure washer.
Electric powered: We believe that for most homeowners an electric pressure washer offers the best combination of power and convenience. Electric washers are not as powerful as gas washers, but we found that they had plenty of strength for normal around-the-house jobs and were just plain easier to deal with. They need almost no maintenance, and they start with the flip of a switch. Off-season storage requires barely anything more than shutting them off and tucking them in a corner of the garage. Gas pressure washers, on the other hand, need to be constantly fueled up and oiled, and they need to be properly winterized in the off-season; they also require air-filter and spark-plug changes. Price is a difference, as well, with quality electric washers typically priced in the $150 to $250 range, whereas gas models usually cost $300 to $500.
But gas pressure washers do have their place, due to their power. They're considerably faster at cleaning—roughly twice as fast—than electric models. This difference is most noticeable when you're cleaning large areas, such as a driveway or a big deck.
In 2020, Ryobi released a cordless pressure washer, the first of its kind that we've seen. We have more thoughts on that model below.
Cleaning power: Kramar told us the sweet spot for an electric washer's pressure, in pounds per square inch (psi), is in the 1,800 to 2,000 psi range (a garden hose, in contrast, is capable of roughly 40 psi). These models typically move water at a volume of 1.3 to 1.5 gallons per minute (gpm). In an email interview, Kramar clarified the distinction between the two measurements this way: "PSI pushes the organic matter from the surface, and the GPM carries it away." Multiplying the two figures gives you what the pressure washer industry calls the cleaning units, or CU, of the washer. The CU score gives you a comprehensive way to compare how two washers perform against one another, and it is a more accurate metric than psi alone.1
For example, our recommended Ryobi electric model has a powerful pressure rating of 2,300 psi, much more than that of most electric models, but because of its relatively low, 1.2 gpm water volume, it has a total CU of 2,760. The AR Blue Clean AR383, which provides a much lower pressure of 1,900 psi, delivers a higher volume of 1.5 gpm and thus a CU of 2,850, so the two machines have roughly the same cleaning ability.
Gas-powered washers tend to have much higher pressure, with most residential units in the 2,800 to 3,200 psi range. Kramar said that anything over 3,200 psi is overkill, even for the pros. When you take the higher flow rate, in gpm, into consideration, residential gas models land in the range of 6,000 to 7,000 cleaning units; in other words, they clean twice as fast as electric models. You can find less powerful gas models that deliver pressure in the 2,000 to 2,800 psi range, but we believe that if you're going to take on the hassle of owning a gas engine, there's no point in choosing anything in the lower range—you might as well get some significant power in return.
Another major factor in the power of a washer is simply how far away you hold the nozzle from what you're cleaning. As Kramar explains at his site, "A little trick is to remember moving 2x further away will 1/2 the force the surface feels." So just moving the nozzle lets you control the pressure. The weaker pressure washers can still get a lot clean, but with one of those models you need to do the job with the spray tip right up against the surface you're spraying.
Induction motor: We recommend seeking out an electric pressure washer with an induction motor rather than one with a universal motor. Induction motors usually add about $50 to $75 to the overall cost of the washer—they're found only on models starting around $200—but as Kramar writes in an article comparing the two styles, "They are also more rugged, quieter and will have a longer lifespan." Induction motors are quite a bit heavier, too, but we see that as a positive—as long as your machine also has some nice, big wheels. Pressure washers can have a tendency to tip over, and the beefier motor helps prevent that. We tested both kinds and noticed the sound difference: The induction motors emitted more of a humming, in contrast to the whine of the universal motors.
Big wheels: Pressure washers are heavy and awkward, and you might find yourself pulling one over street curbs, up and down stairs, across bumpy lawns, or through mud. Big wheels make mobility so much easier that we consider them among the most important features to look for. Our pick from Ryobi has 12-inch-diameter wheels.
Spray wand: We recommend a pressure washer with a metal spray wand rather than a plastic one. A metal wand is more durable in the long run and makes buying additional accessories easier. The spray pattern on a metal wand is determined by a removable tip that you simply click into the wand's end. These tips range from designs that focus the water for an intense, 0-degree pinpoint to 40-degree tips that create a dispersed spray for rinsing. A 0-degree tip can project water with a focus strong enough to cut through clothing and flesh—although it should go without saying, never stick your hand in front of a pressure washer spray or aim the flow at a person or pet.2 Kramar told us that you really need only "one or two nozzles," and he specifically recommends a rotary, or turbo, nozzle (a 0-degree nozzle that spins in a circular pattern) and either a 15- or 25-degree spray.3
Many pressure washers, particularly those at lower prices, come with plastic wands that have a twist adjustment for you to change the spray pattern. We don't recommend these; they're less durable, and the connection points are proprietary from company to company, so additional accessories are more difficult to get, and you may have fewer options.
Hose storage (but not on a reel): The best pressure washers allow you to gently loop the hose and cord for storage. They usually have either a simple hook or a Velcro strap to hold the hose and cord. A large looped cord is quick to pack up and easy to unravel, and because it hasn't been tightly wound, it tends to lie flatter when the washer is in use. Some models have hose reels or multiple brackets to help wind the cord,4 but these features are tedious to use, and the tightly wound cord and hose keep their memory while in use and create more of a tripping hazard. Kramar told us that hose reels are "pretty useless." Not only are they hard to reel, but "over years of use one of my hose reel[s] … has cracked the outer rubber hose layer every foot or so from being wound up."
It wasn't until we got into testing that we realized just how awful most hose reels were. After only one or two uses in our tests, one of the reeled hoses was showing significant strain at the connection end from being so tightly wound. Reeling the hose in was clumsy, too, and we had to brace the unit with our knees while we turned the reel with one hand and guided the hose in with the other.
Cost: For an electric pressure washer in the 1,800 to 2,000 psi range from a reputable manufacturer, you can expect to pay around $150 to $250. Basic models with minimal features and universal motors are at the lower end, while more feature-laden washers with heavy-duty induction motors are at the upper end (models with induction motors tend to start around $200). Most residential gas washers are in the $300 to $500 range, with pro models heading over $2,000. Through our research, we've concluded that you can get something really nice in the $350 to $400 range.
Using these criteria and taking into consideration the overall satisfaction expressed in customer reviews, we selected six pressure washers (five electric, one gas) in 2019 for a closer look. In early 2021, we tested two additional pressure washers, including a new cordless model from Ryobi.
How we tested
Over two weeks of testing, we washed six cars, a couple of sets of patio furniture, a lawn tractor, a brick chimney, three filthy wheelbarrows, some grime-covered pallets, and anything else we could find (including a small soccer net, a garden cart, and some cruddy extension cords). One of the cars was covered in blobs of pine sap, which is tenacious in its stickiness and potentially damaging to the paint. Some of the patio furniture was ancient and hadn't been cleaned in at least a decade. In 2020 and 2021, we did additional rounds of testing, which included, among other things, cleaning years of caked-on cow manure off an old, well-used Ford tractor.
In the end, we couldn't see any real difference between the majority of electric models as far as cleaning speed. We did see a difference, though, in convenience features, so that's where we focused our attention. We evaluated things such as stability, cord and hose storage, portability, accessory storage, hose quality, overall durability, and motor noise. In these respects, unlike with cleaning speed, we found huge variations between the models, with the more expensive washers typically outshining the inexpensive ones on features that sounded at first like minor conveniences but in practice proved to be significant distinctions.
Our pick: Ryobi RY142300 2300 PSI Brushless Electric Pressure Washer
Our pick
After all of our testing and research, we're confident that the best pressure washer is the Ryobi RY142300 2300 PSI Brushless Electric Pressure Washer. It didn't clean any faster or better than the other models during our testing, but it does the work without nearly any of the inconveniences commonly associated with pressure washers.
Compared with other washers, the Ryobi RY142300 is quieter; it also never tips over, and it has fantastic hose and cord storage, made easier by the high-quality hose, which isn't as stiff as those of competitors. It has the largest wheels we could find on any electric pressure washer, which make it very easy to use on an uneven lawn or up a patio step or curb. The washer hose is 5 feet longer than on the majority of competitors (something we noticed while washing cars), and although the 35-foot power cord is standard, Ryobi allows for the use of a 25-foot 12-gauge extension cord (many companies explicitly warn against using them); this gives the RY142300 a 60-foot reach. Even the end of the power cord is well thought out, with a design that makes it easier to use in a crowded outlet box. Setup took us less than a minute.
This Ryobi model's pressure rating of 2,300 psi is very high for an electric pressure washer, as most are in the 1,800 to 2,000 psi range. But this washer's relatively low flow rate, measured in gallons per minute, makes for a cleaning units (CU) score of 2,760, on a par with that of the other models we tried. In other words, this Ryobi model doesn't clean any faster or better than the competition—in our tests all the models managed to get blobs of pine sap off a car and to push away a graying layer of mildew on patio furniture. The RY142300 comes with three nozzles (rotary, 15-degree, and soap), and among those we don't think there is any normal cleaning task that the RY142300 can't handle.
The RY142300 has an induction motor, which is found only on high-end models (typically starting around the $200 mark) and adds a number of advantages. First, induction motors usually last longer than the smaller universal motors of the majority of residential pressure washers. Second, due to the design of an induction motor, it is much larger and heavier. Since pressure washers can be tippy, the added weight stabilizes the RY142300. Ryobi has improved this aspect further by designing this model with a very low center of gravity; even when we gave the hose a good tug, we were unable to tip over the unit.
In addition, induction motors are quieter than universal motors, as they tend to hum rather than whine. The motor in the RY142300 makes a fairly inoffensive sound as far as washer motors go. One thing to note is that when this Ryobi washer's motor is powered on, it runs constantly, as on a gas pressure washer; the other electric washers in our test group cycled on only when we pulled the spray trigger. The benefit here is that the RY142300 always has its full pressure ready and waiting, whereas the other electric models need an instant or two to ramp up to full pressure. Unless you were using your washer all the time, you wouldn't really notice any difference. If the motor didn't have such a low-key sound, this constant operation could have been an issue, but at no point did the motor noise bother us.
The storage for the nozzle tips is nicely designed and easy to use. Up near the handle is a series of pressure-fit holes that hold the tips with enough grip to secure them but not so much that taking them out is difficult. The storage space even has an additional hole in case you add a nozzle later on.
The cord and hose storage is also excellent. A simple Velcro strap at the handle holds the looped hose. We like this design because it doesn't confine the hose to a tight loop in any way. Unlike on the hose reels we saw on competitors, the gently looped hose on this Ryobi model isn't strained, and when you need to use the hose, it lies flatter than any hose stored on a reel. (It also helps that the hose on this Ryobi washer is of a higher quality than many of its competitors' hoses.) The power-cord storage similarly consists of a single hook on the side of the handle that's about as basic as it gets, but it's really simple to use: Just loop the cord as you would any extension cord and hook it. A few other models have something similar, but the Ryobi design is the only one that has a small attached bungee to secure the power cord once you've hooked it. Other competitors come with two or three brackets to wrap the hose or cord around, and these pieces do keep the hose or cord tucked away, but they're tedious to loop, and the tight wind tends to give hoses and cords a memory, so they're less likely to sit flat in use.
Another high point of the Ryobi RY142300 is its oversize wheels. At nearly a foot in diameter, they're almost twice as large as the wheels on most electric pressure washers. This is a significant difference, and it made the RY142300 the easiest washer to maneuver around, especially when we traversed a lawn, hopped a curb, and bumped the washer up a set of patio steps. In fact, this was one of the few models we even bothered to roll across the lawn—most of the others we half dragged and half carried due to the total ineffectiveness of their smaller wheels. This Ryobi model also has a padded handle, which adds to the ease of rolling it around.
Another excellent feature is the design of the plug end of the power cord. Due to a pressure washer's natural combination of water and electricity, all models come with a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) built into the power cord for added safety. The GFCI brick is always bulky, but Ryobi makes it more convenient by setting it several inches back from the plug end. This design allows the plug to be normal size and thus able to fit into any outlet, even if something else is plugged in nearby or if it's an exterior outlet with a cover. In our test group, many other pressure washers had the GFCI built directly into the plug end, making it gigantic and either tedious or impossible to deal with when we had to plug in each washer.
Out of the box, the Ryobi RY142300 took us maybe 90 seconds to fully assemble (you just click the handle into the body). No need for any tools or fiddly assembly, as with many of the others. When assembled, it has a sturdy metal roll-bar design, which is much more solid than the plastic bodies of most other electric models.
Last, Ryobi covers this model with a three-year limited warranty, one of the longest warranties we found for an electric pressure washer. Ryobi tools are readily available at Home Depot, too, and you can have any servicing done through that retailer, as well, an option that adds to the overall convenience of this pressure washer.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
For all that we like about the Ryobi RY142300, it has a few drawbacks. None, however, offset its overall ease of use.
First, the soap dispenser (which you use in conjunction with a low-pressure soap nozzle) is an odd misstep in a pressure washer that seems so devoted to convenience. Unlike the majority of the dispensers on the other machines we tested, the soap dispenser on this model is opaque, so you have no way to see how much detergent is left other than popping the cap off and taking a look.
But what's worse about the detergent tank is that it's bolted to the washer body, so if you have detergent left over at the end of a project, you can't easily put it back in the bottle. The instructions say that at the end of each use of detergent you should fill the tank with water and flush the system. To empty the tank, you have to tip the unit back and pull out the soap-supply hose on the underside of it. In doing this, it's not easy to preserve the detergent for future use—in fact, we ended up just rolling the whole machine over on its side and dumping the detergent out on the lawn.
In addition, the cap of the soap dispenser is set at an angle and not on the top of the container. This positioning, and the fact that you can't remove the container from the unit, makes filling the container with detergent difficult.
The other downside is the price. The RY142300 is usually over $50 more than the average high-end electric pressure washer, including those with induction motors. But there's so much Ryobi gets right on this model—the hose and cord storage, the large wheels, the overall stability, the metal frame—that if you use this pressure washer a few times a year or more, it will be worth the cost.
Runner-up: DeWalt DWPW2400 2400 PSI Electric Cold-Water Pressure Washer
Runner-up
Another pressure washer we like is the DeWalt DWPW2400 2400 PSI Electric Cold-Water Pressure Washer. This model is similar to the Ryobi RY142300 and shares many of its best characteristics, such as the induction motor, overall cleaning power, and sturdy design. But the DeWalt has a number of differences, some of which we liked and others we weren't fond of.
Let's start with the good: The body style of the DeWalt is the same as that of the Ryobi. It has a roll-bar design with a padded handle and a low center of gravity. The clearly labeled nozzles are stored at the handle, and the cord has the same smart placement of the GFCI brick. The controls are intuitive, as are the connection points for the hoses. We didn't notice any difference in cleaning power between the two.
The DWPW2400 has large, wide pneumatic (air-filled) tires, which have a nice bounce. As a result, it was easy to get this washer over rough terrain, including across a rocky, cratered area of lawn that had recently been dug up for planting. Just be aware that pneumatic tires also present the possibility of future maintenance. In our experience over time, we've found that these types of wheels can sometimes develop little cracks and lose air, so they might need a quick top-off with a bicycle pump from time to time.
Other high points: The detergent tank on this model is removable and translucent, solving all of the issues we have with the tank on our Ryobi top pick. The DeWalt also comes with two more nozzles than the Ryobi does, adding 25- and 40- degree tips. Lastly, this unit has a longer reach than the Ryobi model, as DeWalt allows for up to 50 feet of 12-gauge extension cord.
The major downside of the DWPW2400 is that the cord wrap is awkward to get at and difficult to use, which in our tests made stowing the washer away a tedious and dreaded chore. At the back of the motor are two "horns" that you're meant to wrap the cord around. These horns are positioned very low, and with a 35-foot cord, wrapping up the entire length takes quite a while. Additionally, there's so much cord that it just barely fits around the horns, and each time we got to the end of the seemingly endless wrapping job, it became a game of precision placement in order to make sure the cord stayed put. It's such a long (and annoying) process that we had to fully crouch down to avoid the back pain that threatened us when we tried to accomplish the chore from a bent-over position. Once the cord is finally in place, it's so tightly wrapped that it develops a shape memory and doesn't sit flat once unraveled, creating a trip hazard.
The DWPW2400's wand holder is another negative. This is a common weak point on most pressure washers, and although the Ryobi washer's holder isn't anything special, DeWalt's holder on this model hardly works at all. Any time we had to move the washer, we took off the spray wand and just carried it because we got sick of it falling off just about any time we touched the washer.
As nice as the DWPW2400's tires are, they aren't a necessity for most people. We feel the same about the additional nozzles, and although we like the detergent tank, the electrical cord's storage faults outweigh that positive, so we don't think this pressure washer's typically slightly higher cost is justified.
Budget pick: Sun Joe SPX3000 Electric Pressure Washer
Budget pick
If you want a decent washer for the lowest price possible, we like the Sun Joe SPX3000 Electric Pressure Washer. It was one of the least expensive models we tested. It's nowhere near as user-friendly as the Ryobi RY142300, but if you're planning to operate a pressure washer only once or twice each year and you cringe at the Ryobi model's price tag, this Sun Joe washer will still get your cleaning done even if it introduces some annoyances. Among the pressure washers in its price range, the Sun Joe stands apart for making fewer compromises than its competitors.
In cleaning power, the Sun Joe SPX3000 ranks right up there with the recommended Ryobi RY142300. Sun Joe advertises it as a 2,030 psi unit capable of moving water at 1.76 gpm, which works out to an extremely high cleaning units score of 3,572—on paper, that's at least a third higher than the CU of the other electric models we tested. But a closer look at the specifications on the Sun Joe website turns up a "rated pressure" of 1,450 psi, which reinforces the idea that manufacturer specs are to be taken with a grain of salt. Regardless of the actual number, we found the Sun Joe to be on a par with the other machines in our test group as far as cleaning power and cleaning speed.
The Sun Joe washer has a metal spray wand (competitors' wands at this price are often plastic), and the unit comes with five removable nozzle tips: 0, 15, 25, and 40 degrees, plus soap. Unfortunately, it has no rotary nozzle, so for especially deep cleaning, you need to rely on the 0-degree nozzle or use the 15-degree tip at extremely close range. This is not ideal due to the danger of the concentrated spray, both to you and the material you're cleaning.
The SPX3000 has two detergent tanks, which is a notable convenience (the RY142300 has only one tank). Some detergents are specific for what you need to clean, so this tank design lets you store two at a time and not have to deal with emptying and filling a tank between projects. We preferred Sun Joe's detergent-tank design over Ryobi's, as Sun Joe's tanks are a snap to remove and translucent so you can see what you have left at a glance.
We also like the SPX3000's hose and cord storage. Two simple hooks, as on the RY142300, make it easy to gently loop the cord and hose, a contrast to the hard-to-deal-with hose reels common to inexpensive models. This hook design, unlike a reel, helps keep the hose from curling too much, so it's more likely to lie flat in use. The Sun Joe washer does not offer a Velcro strap or a little bungee like the Ryobi model does, so you have no way to secure the cord and hose once you've hooked them, but in our tests the hooks were deep enough that we never had any issue with the hose or cord falling off while we were moving the washer.
Sun Joe also allows for the use of a 25-foot extension cord, which not all manufacturers do. This feature, combined with the 35-foot power cord, gives the SPX3000 a reach of 60 feet.
Where the Sun Joe model stumbles is in some of its other convenience-oriented features. Compared with the hose on the Ryobi electric model, this hose is 5 feet shorter, so encircling a car for washing, for example, is more difficult. The hose is nice and pliable, though.
The SPX3000 also has small wheels that seem to be designed only for perfectly flat surfaces such as a paved driveway. Thankfully, at 32 pounds, this washer is fairly light, because while working on a lawn, we ended up half dragging, half carrying it behind us rather than rolling it. Imagine taking a pull-behind suitcase across your bumpy lawn, and you get the picture.
Given the low cost of the SPX3000, it's no shock that this model comes with a universal motor rather than a quieter, longer-lasting induction motor like the kind on the RY142300. One nice thing, though, is that the Sun Joe washer's motor cycles on only when you call for water; the Ryobi model's motor is on all the time. Unfortunately, the Sun Joe motor whines, whereas the Ryobi motor just hums.
In the end, when it comes to cleaning, the SPX3000 does the job well, which is the most important thing. But overall, the Sun Joe lacks the general fit and finish of the Ryobi. It doesn't have a metal roll bar, it's not as stable, the hose connections are just a little more difficult to make, the tip storage isn't as good, and the GFCI plug is hard to use in a crowded outlet box unless you use an extension cord. Keep in mind that these little annoyances (combined with the wheel size, the hose length, and the motor noise) do add up, so the machine's low cost comes at a price.
Also great: Ryobi RY1419MTVNM 1900 PSI Electric Pressure Washer
Also great
For a less powerful but more portable option, we like the Ryobi RY1419MTVNM 1900 PSI Electric Pressure Washer. Although it has the same long hose and cord as our main pick, this Ryobi washer is much smaller, weighing around 20 pounds (as opposed to 50-ish pounds). Being so small and light, it's a design that you can carry around by the convenient top handle, and it's much easier to stow away when you're not using it. The drawbacks are that it lacks the premium induction motor of our main pick, so it may not last as long, and it isn't as powerful. In a practical sense, it should still muscle through the same work—it'll just take longer. Another downside is that the GFCI is at the cord end, so it may be difficult to use with some exterior outlets.
The main advantage of the RY1419MTVNM is that it's so light and compact. Because this washer is less than half the weight of our main pick, you can either pick it up with the top handle or roll it along on small luggage-like wheels with the extending handle. We found that carrying it was much easier. As with the Sun Joe SPX3000, the wheels on this compact Ryobi model are so little that they have a hard time navigating over an uneven lawn.
Storing a machine this small and light is not a problem. The other pressure washers, with their bulk and body style, tend to stay at ground level, but if attic or above-the-garage storage is an option for you, the RY1419MTVNM can sit on a shelf or accompany you pretty painlessly up a set of stairs. With the larger washer models, doing such things is far more difficult.
The little RY1419MTVNM had less power than the other models we tested. It cleaned all the same things, but we had to hold the nozzle closer to the object and spend a little more time doing that. When it comes to just getting things clean, we preferred the bigger Ryobi, but this one will still get the job done.
This 1,900 psi Ryobi model has many of the same features that we like about the larger, 2,300 psi model. It has the 25-foot hose, which is longer than most. It also offers easy storage for both the hose and cord, although it doesn't give you as much room to work with in that regard as our larger main pick does. Like the other Ryobi pressure washers, it has a three-year warranty.
Also great: Ryobi RY803001 3000 PSI Honda Pressure Washer
Also great
If you need to go farther than the electric Ryobi RY142300's 60-foot max cord length allows, or if you'll be regularly cleaning large areas, step up to a gas model. We recommend the Ryobi RY803001 3000 PSI Honda Pressure Washer, a gas pressure washer that offers more than similarly priced competitors do. Like many other highly regarded gas washers, the RY803001 comes with a reliable 160 cc Honda engine, and similar to its electric counterpart it stands out due to its abundance of convenience features (including a 35-foot hose), as well as its ready availability at Home Depot and its strong three-year warranty.
The Ryobi RY803001 operates at 3,000 psi and has a flow rate of 2.3 gpm, which works out to a CU of 6,900. Generally speaking, those numbers indicate that the gas Ryobi cleans twice as fast as the electric one. We didn't detect much of this speed difference while cleaning our cars, wheelbarrows, or patio furniture, but you're likely to notice it if you're scrubbing down your entire driveway, a deck of significant size, or a long stretch of sidewalk.
The performance of a gas pressure washer starts with the engine, and the Ryobi RY803001 comes equipped with a 160 cc Honda engine that has a truly stellar reputation. This is the same engine (though just a little smaller) as the one on our gas pick for the best mower, which is without question the most universally praised piece of equipment we've encountered in our years of reviewing lawn gear. To highlight the significance of adding a Honda engine, Ryobi includes "Honda" in the name of this pressure washer.
As for features, the Ryobi gas washer shares a lot of characteristics with its electric counterpart. It has the same easy-to-use Velcro strap for hose storage, the same giant wheels, and the same metal roll-bar handle (which takes just minutes to set up). The overall look and feel is nearly identical between the two models, and the design is as successful on the gas washer as it is on the electric version.
The Ryobi gas model comes with a single quick-change sprayer tip. It's designed like a garden sprayer or a showerhead, where you can turn the head and cycle through the spray options. It has 0-, 25-, and 40-degree sprays as well as two soap settings, fan and jet. This is a convenient feature, and we're surprised that more washers don't come with something similar. The connection is the same as on the other nozzles, so the RY803001 is fully compatible with surface sprayers and other add-ons, including individual spray tips, should you want them. Unfortunately, the RY803001 doesn't offer any on-board tip storage.
The RY803001 has a 35-foot hose, a feature that distinguishes it from most gas washers, which usually have either a 25- or 30-foot hose. You'll likely add on more garden hoses to truly take advantage of its range—see Wirecutter's guide to the best garden hoses for help finding one—but the ability to add even those extra few feet of hose to this model is a helpful perk over the competition. Like the electric model, the gas Ryobi is available at Home Depot and comes with a long, three-year warranty.
As for downsides, this model has the same soap-tank issues as its electric counterpart—the opaque tank is bolted to the frame and difficult to empty out or to check for its detergent levels.
Additionally, the RY803001 is gas powered, and as with any gas model, a good deal of maintenance goes along with that. As good as the Honda engine is, it will need oil changes, spark-plug maintenance, and seasonal shutdowns. You also need to factor the price of gas and stabilizer into the operating costs. No electric pressure washer requires that kind of upkeep, which is why we recommend an electric model first if you think that type would work for your property.
What about cordless pressure washers?
Recently, a couple of companies have released cordless pressure washers. Small models, rated at roughly 750 psi and below, have been available for a while, but these new washers look to be competitors to the full-size electric models, boasting pressure numbers of 1,000 psi or more. These units come with portable water supplies and offer completely untethered pressure washing (though they can hook up to a hose, too). This feature could be appealing to people with larger properties, as well as those who may want to take their pressure washer on the road for tasks like cleaning off a boat or a dirt bike before loading it back on the truck. In early 2021, we tested the Ryobi RY40PW01DG9 40V 1500 PSI Cordless Pressure Washer, and although we saw a lot to like about it, this model had a number of limitations that kept us from recommending it for general use.
This Ryobi cordless washer is powered by two 40-volt batteries, which are included. It will work with only one battery, but the result is a diminished run time. As for the power, Ryobi refers to the washer as a 1,500 psi model, but it actually has a running figure of around 1,000 psi. It can attain 1,500 psi when you use its "boost" button, which engages the higher pressure for eight minutes, after which it cycles back to 1,000 psi; once another eight minutes' worth of regular use has gone by, you can use the boost mode again. To assess its overall run time, we tested it with two full batteries at the 1,000 psi level, and it ran for roughly 33 minutes.
In cleaning power, the Ryobi cordless model is decent, but it's likely to have a harder time with tough jobs. We managed to remove some light mildew from the side of a house with little issue, but getting the grates clean on our grill was beyond the capabilities of this tool. (To be fair, we barely managed that chore with our Ryobi top pick and our DeWalt runner-up.)
The Ryobi RY40PW01DG9 offers very nice build quality. It's compact, and the battery compartment, on/off switch, and boost button are nicely waterproofed with either clear rubbery coverings or thick gasketing. The telescoping luggage handle makes it easy to haul the unit around and to lift the machine onto the back of a truck or up to a storage shelf.
But even with the solid build, nice portability, and decent cleaning power, we found a number of difficulties in using the cordless Ryobi. Many of these have to do with the portable water source.
You can attach the RY40PW01DG9 to a hose, as you can do with any pressure washer, but it also offers something more: Because it comes with a compatible 5-gallon water bladder, this Ryobi model can be completely untethered from both an outlet and a hose. To do this, you fill the bladder with water and connect it via the included tube. But the instructions say to position the bladder 20 inches above the washer motor while the machine is in use, and accomplishing this is not easy. (The quick-start guide shows the bladder sitting on a mysterious opaque cube.) Five gallons of water weighs over 40 pounds, and while we were trying to clean a remote side of a house, we struggled to find any way to position the bladder higher than the washer and to keep it anywhere near as close to where we needed it to be. We considered hanging the bladder from a branch or a ladder, but we couldn't find a branch nearby, and getting out a ladder merely meant involving another piece of equipment to supplement the supposedly quick and easy approach of a cordless tool. We ended up holding the bag while we got started and then placing it down on the ground; the washer continued to work.
The quality of the bladder is another issue. It looks and feels like a vacuum-seal bag that you might store sweaters in for the winter. During testing, ours did not leak or break, but we've seen comments from customers on the Home Depot site saying theirs did, and that doesn't surprise us. Whenever we handled the bladder, especially when it was full, we did so with the utmost care. We were very nervous about accidentally placing it on a sharp rock or even an upturned stick for fear of puncturing it. We also never held the bladder by just the handle, because we worried that it would pull right off the bag.
It also turns out that 5 gallons doesn't get you too far with a pressure washer. In fact, it got us only about five minutes of cleaning time, so we had to refill the bag twice while we were cleaning the side of a shed. If you want to use the bag for anything but the smallest cleaning jobs, a nearby hose is a necessity because the bag will need constant refilling. So technically this washer can untether you from a hose—but long enough only for the quickest and most basic cleaning.
The cordless idea has potential and got us thinking about ways it could work better. One solution would be for the washer to have some kind of pumping ability so that you could drop the inlet hose into a 5-gallon bucket. This design would allow for easier scaling up and down of the water supply, and it would avoid the tedious process of filling the bag plus the need to keep the bag elevated over the pressure washer.
The cordless Ryobi RY40PW01DG9 usually costs about $500, nearly twice as much as the considerably more powerful Ryobi RY142300 and DeWalt DWPW2400 (which are already on the expensive side for electric pressure washers). The cost of the cordless model is understandable, given the two 40-volt batteries that are included along with the washer, but the machine's abilities don't match the investment.
Another cordless model is the Sun Joe 24V-X2-PW1200 48-Volt iON+ Cordless Portable Pressure Washer Kit. This Sun Joe cordless washer has a rigid water container, which we like the looks of, but it has a max pressure of only 800 psi, which is getting pretty low, especially considering the over-$300 price tag. It's powered by two 24-volt batteries. In general, we haven't had much success with Sun Joe's cordless lineups.
If you are consistently in a situation where you're far from an outlet and a hose and you need to lightly clean something fast and quick, the cordless Ryobi is worth a look. But for the types of around-the-home cleaning jobs we've detailed for all of our other picks, we don't suggest replacing your electric washer with a cordless model and expecting new levels of convenience.
The competition
Ryobi's RY142022VNM shares a design with the company's cordless model. It is compact, but it doesn't have the large wheels, induction motor, or nozzle selection of our main pick.
The AR BlueClean BC2N1HSS has a two-part design, in which you can separate the washer unit from the cart. For a model priced similar to our pick, however, it falls short in that it lacks an induction motor.
The Ryobi RY141612 is similar in size to the RY1419MTVNM but doesn't have that model's cleaning power or features.
The Beast P2000B-BBM15 looked good in our research, but we can't find a website or any significant information about the company that makes it. Because of that, we have concerns about potential long-term service or warranty issues.
We had some hopes that the Sun Joe SPX4600 could be a viable alternative to our current picks from Ryobi, but its hose is 5 feet shorter, and the cord storage doesn't seem as convenient or polished.
We tested the Kärcher K4, and although we found a lot to like about it—including an induction motor—this model's convenience features weren't as comprehensive as those of the Ryobi RY142300. It has much smaller wheels, a less stable vertical design, and a less robust plastic wand.
The Kärcher K5 operates at a higher pressure than the K4 (which we tested) but at a lower flow rate in gallons per minute, which evens out its cleaning-units score. In all other ways, the two models are identical. We didn't think the added cost made it a good value, given the closeness in performance.
Kärcher's K3 Follow Me has an interesting four-wheel design that you can pull around behind you. Its low cleaning-units score and so-so owner feedback put it out of the running.
Kärcher also sells the K1700, K1800, K1900, and K2000. Although these models look like nice washers, they don't match the K4 and K5 in their cleaning-units scores, yet their cost is nearly the same. On top of that, these models come with individual nozzles rather than an adjustable wand, and they have opaque detergent tanks and the clunky GFCI plug design.
The AR Blue Clean AR383 is a low-cost washer, but after testing it, we can't recommend it. We didn't like the hose reel, wrapping the cord for storage was a tedious process, the machine tended to tip over, and the wheels were tiny.
AR Blue Clean's AR383SS has a hose reel and tight cord storage. It usually costs about the same as the Sun Joe SPX3000, if not more. The company also sells the AR2N1, which has an interesting design that allows you to remove the motor from the frame and mount it to a wall. That feature adds a decent amount of cost to the AR2N1, but it still has only a universal motor.
The Greenworks GPW2300 is similar to our Ryobi top pick and DeWalt runner-up, but it has smaller wheels, and we've seen availability issues with that company's models.
We researched a number of popular gas washers, but none matched the Ryobi RY803001's ease of use, warranty, availability, and Honda engine. The Simpson MegaShot MSH3125-S came the closest. It has a larger Honda engine (190 cc) but no quick-change tip; it also has smaller wheels and a shorter warranty. Simpson also sells the MegaShot MS60773-S, which similarly has a shorter hose and warranty.
Footnotes
About your guide
Doug Mahoney is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter covering home improvement. He spent 10 years in high-end construction as a carpenter, foreman, and supervisor. He lives in a very demanding 250-year-old farmhouse and spent four years gutting and rebuilding his previous home. He also raises sheep and has a dairy cow that he milks every morning.
How Pressure Washer Fits On Garden Hose And How To Use
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-pressure-washer/
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