The Best Pressure Washer

Blasting years of mildew off a piece of patio furniture provides a level of satisfaction that is possible only with a pressure washer.

After more than 100 hours of research and years of testing and using pressure washers to clean vehicles, outdoor chairs, and more gadgets, we found that the best one for most homeowners is the Ryobi RY142500 Brushless 2500 PSI Pressure Washer.

All the electric pressure washers (e v o t i a power washers ratings) cleaned well in our tests, but the Ryobi RY142500 Brushless 2500 PSI Pressure Washer stand for its durable motor, longer hose, larger wheels, better-designed cord, and lengthier 100 percent warranty coverage in comparison with the competition.

The quiet-running brushless induction motor of the RY142500 guaranteed for years, and in our tests the machine’s heft helped make it particularly hard to tip over, even when we were forcefully tugging on the hose. The RY142500 usually costs a little more than other pressure washers, but if you plan to use it three or more times a year, it’s gives you the best value. This is a more powerful version of our previous pick, the Ryobi RY142300 2300 PSI Brushless Electric the best Pressure Washer, which has been discontinued.

If the Ryobi RY142500 is not available, we also interested in the DeWalt DWPW2400 2400 PSI Electric Cold-Water Pressure Washer. Like to the Ryobi model in its body design, brushless motor, and overall power and usability, this DeWalt the best pressure washer also have great advantages: It includes two additional nozzles, a detergent tank that is easier to monitor and empty, and wide pneumatic wheels that can navigate more easily across bumpy lawns. But the holder for the spray wand is ineffective, and this model is usually more costly as compare to the Ryobi pressure washer.

If you have a low budget or plan to use your pressure washer only one time or twice a year, we like the Sun Joe SPX3000 Electric Pressure Washer. It costs smaller than the Ryobi RY142500 and cleans as that the same. But like most comparable priced models, it has a shorter hose, a lower-quality motor, smaller tires, a less warranty, and a design that’s far easier to tip over. As compare with the other budget material we tried, it has a heavy selection of spray nozzles and a tougher heavy spray wand, plus easy to use hose and cord storage.

If you’ve not enough storage and you don’t mind carry a pressure washer with you, we also like the Ryobi RY1419MTVNM 1900 PSI Electric best Pressure Washer. It’s much shorter than the other models we tested and has less weight, but it can still handle most jobs (they might just take longer). It has wheels and a changeable handle, but having weight a little over 20 pounds, it’s easy to carry it with you as you would a duffel bag. This pressure washer same as the same long hose as our main pick, too, but it lacks that model’s high-end induction motor and some of the other, best details.

If short storage is your first priority, we recommend you the collapsible, stackable DeWalt DWPW2100 2100 Max PSI Electric Jobsite Cold Water Pressure Washer. Its wand breaks down into three parts that will remain internal storage compartment, and the hose and cord are pushed behind the outer roll cage, one on each side. It’s small enough to carry with you, and its foldable luggage handle and small loaded wheels help it roll more effectively than most. The DeWalt DWPW2100 is similar to the Ryobi RY1419MTVNM in power, but it’s cost about twice as compare to that, so the effective storage comes at an additional price.

Why you should trust us

I’ve been examining tools and garage base since 2007, and I pass 10 years in the building trades assemble high-end homes in the Boston area. For Wirecutter, I’ve written advice to lawn mowers, string trimmers, leaf blowers, and snow windbag, so I’m very familiar with the ins and outs of domestic lawn and yard equipment. For this guide, I spent about 50 hours reading every pressure washer analysis I could find, looked over hundreds of customer feedbacks at various seller sites, and spoke with a pressure washer specialist who, at the time of our discussion, had been involved with these gadgets s for 17 years.

Who this is for

A pressure washer makes hurry work of large cleaning projects (also for small projects). Because water shower from a washer’s nozzle with such pressure, it can lift up and remove dust, mildew, and stain that a regular garden hose simply can’t control. Cleanup jobs that would usually take 20 to 30 minutes with a garden hose and a sponge or wire brush take a small part of the time with a pressure washer. During our analyzing, we cleaned a manure-covered wheelbarrow in a few minutes, and a set of early Adirondack chairs took maybe three or four minutes per item. You get better results for smart work, and the benefits increase as the jobs get larger.

But you don’t need to own one full time. Most hire centers have pressure washers accessible by the day or hour, so if you’re cleaning your stand up for once every two years, there’s no perception in buying one just to have it take up space in your base. Once you start using it more than that—say, a couple of times a year—purchasing one begins to make sense. We examine a few hire centers around the country and found that the per-week rental charge was usually the cost of a new washer.

How we picked and tested

An electric pressure washer offers the best union of power and convenience. Electric washers are not as influential as gas washers, but they have great value of strength for normal around-the-house jobs. They’re also low priced and much easier to deal with: They need almost no support, they start with the flip of a switch, and they’re simple to store in the season when not use this.

We’ve suggest a gas pressure washer in the past, and we’ve had one at our trial site for years, but over time we’ve noticed that we simply don’t ever use it. A nice electric gadget, like our top pick, can handle most cleaning jobs. Electric washers take long time to clean an area, but we’d rather spend more time cleaning than deal with oil, fuel, exhaust, support, off-season storage, and the other problems of owning a gas engine.

Cleaning power is more than just a figure. The capability of a pressure washer is fixed by its pressure (measured in pounds per square inch, or psi) and run (measured in gallons per minute, or gpm). “The psi pushes the organic matter from the surface, and the gpm carries it away,” define Jamey Kramaric, who once ran PressureWashr.com. He told us the sweet mark for an electric washer’s pressure is in the 1,800 to 2,000 psi range, with a gpm volume of about 1.3 to 1.5. Multiplying these two numbers tells you what the pressure washer industry calls the cleaning bases, or CU, of the washer, which is the most precise way to compare how two washers perform in opposite to one another.

How can we use the washer also work how much it cleans. As Kramaric explained, “A little scheme is to remember moving 2 times additional away will half of the power the surface notice.” So just moving the nozzle lets you control the pressure. The lesser pressure washers can still get a large amount clean, but with one of those models you need to do the job with the spray nozzle right up opposite the surface you’re spraying.

Induction motors are best ascompare to universal motors. An electric pressure washer with an induction motor is a bit more expensive, but as Kramaric writes in an article comparing the two styles, “They are also more rough, quieter and will have a longer lifetime.” In our testing, the induction motors release more of a humming, in difference to the whine of the universal motors.

Convenience attribute are very important. We’ve experienced to seek out models that have big tires, metal spray cane, and effective hose and cord storage. These are the meaningful signs of a tool that is likely to be easy to use and long lasting, and one that won’t reason to additional disappointment. They do add cost, though: Basic models with small features and universal motors cost as little as $150, but more specified-laden washers with heavy-duty induction motors start at around $250 and top out around $400.

We examine by cleaning everything we could. To analysis the best pressure washer, we washed six cars, a couple of sets of terrace furniture, a lawn tractor, a brick chimney, three dirty wheelbarrows, some grime-covered pallets, a small soccer grill, a garden cart, a maple-syrup evaporator, three rabbit cages, and some dirty extension cords. We also cleaned years of caked-on cow manure off an old, popular Ford tractor. In addition, we’ve continued using our picks for all manner of around-the-house usage.

The hose, cord, and wand storage are superior than most. To store the Ryobi RY142500, you loop both the hose and cord and attach with the washer with either a with hose or a cord. Because they’re not stored in a hard loop, as on so many other pressure washers, when unwound they lie relatively plane. The hose and cord are also of best quality than those on most competing models. And the wand holder really does the job of holding the wand, something that most wand holders seem to be unable of doing.

Its big wheels can cross any lawn. At nearly a foot in diameter, the Ryobi RY142500’s tires are almost two time larger as compare to the wheels on most electric pressure washers. This made the RY142500 one of the comfortable washers to maneuver, especially when we worked over an uneven lawn, hopped a curb, and hit it up a set of patio steps. Most of the wheels on the other washers were so poor, we had to half pull and half carry them.

The plug can fit any outlet. Due to a pressure washer’s merger of water and electricity, all models come with a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) built into the power string for added precaution. The GFCI brick is always heavy, but Ryobi sets it several inches back from the plug end, which permit the plug to be normal size. Most other pressure washers have the GFCI built directly into the plug end, making them unsuited with covered exterior outlets.

The competition

As of 2024, we’re no longer suggesting gas pressure washers. They clean rapidly than electric models, but the comparably is a tool that’s louder, heavier, and foul smelling. Gas-powered pressure washers also need heat source, oil, maintenance, and proper non seasonal storage. We’ve had one on hand for a span of years, and we never use it, always approaching for an electric model instead. If you have a very large area that you regularly clean and you don’t mind structuring an engine, we do like the gas-powered models from Ryobi (which are the ones we used to recommend). They have easy to use Honda engines, offer nice useful specifications, and are readily available at Home Store. Our first choice would be the RY803023A 3100 PSI Gas Pressure Washer.

The Greenworks Pro GWP2700 2700 PSI Cold Water Electric Pressure Washer is as good as—and even best than other—our picks in a lot of ways, but its main disadvantage is that the body of the washer has the handle adaptation of a wheelbarrow, whereas our picks more relatable a two-wheeled dolly. That is, when this Greenworks washer is in a staight position, the handle finishes over the front of the washer, not the back of that. So moving this model around on a flat surface such as a entrance or lawn is no problem, but getting it up a set of patio stairs or a curb is difficult—in fact, we had to fully lift it up each step, which was difficult due to how the handle sat and where the center of gravity was. In opposite, our picks from Ryobi and DeWalt just hit right up a set of stairs with lesser difficulty.

The compact Chemical Guys ProFlow PM200 presentation Electric Pressure Washer is powerful little cleaner structured with the car detailer in mind (indicated in part by the included casters). We liked it, but since it has no enroute hose, cord, or wand storage, it doesn’t store as well as some of the others.

Most models, like the Ryobi RY142022VNM, the Kärcher K1700, and the Kärcher K1900, didn’t have our pick’s merge of features and rinse power, nor its induction motor.

The AR BlueClean BC2N1HSS and the AR2N1 each have a two-piece design in which you can differentiate the washer unit from the cart. For models similar to our pick, however, they fall short in that they shortage of an induction motor.

Kärcher’s K3 Follow Me has an fascinating four-wheel design that you can pull around backward you. Its low cleaning-units score and so-so owner feedback put it out of the running.

Other models, such as the AR Blue Clean AR383, AR Blue Clean’s AR383SS, and the Sun Joe SPX4600, were spoil by subpar string and hose storage.

Stanley’s electric pressure washers are all made by AR Blue Clean and show to be the exact same, but with yellow paint in lack of blue.

The Greenworks GPW2300 is similar to our Ryobi top pick and DeWalt runner-up, but it has shorter wheels, and we have seen accessibility issues with that company’s models.

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