Pressure washer advice needed

[Jeff H]

We're planning on getting my dad a pressure washer for Christmas so I was wondering what to look for and what to look out for regarding pressure washers. Is there a certain level of power/pressure that is worthless or too weak for most washing/cleaning. Looking for opinions, thanks.

[427TJ]

My opinion is that it's best to spend a little more and get more pressure. I spent the additional 100 bucks and got a 3000 psi/7.25 gph model for general household use and it's great. It made short work of my backyard patio and my three-car wide driveway plus the spray reaches up to the second floor outside walls of my house to knock bird crap off. The patio and driveway now look like fresh concrete. The backyard fence needed painting so I first hit it (carefully) with the pressure washer and knocked off the loose paint. Beats the heck out of having to sand/scrape 100 feet of fence. One thing though---wear ear protection. After working on the driveway for 30 minutes I needed to put in earplugs because of the motor noise.

[Pantera]

Be sure to drain the hoses and pump after you use it so that it does not rust up. some brands will not work a year or so later if you forget to clean it up. Not to mention it may freeze and burst if your storage area is not heated enough.

(Don ask how I know that)

[budnate]

we bought the 400.00??? dollar unit from Home Depot for work, with the 5hp brigs on it...the grunts beat the snot out of it and it keeps on ticking..plus it had this option of hooking chemicals on the side and it would suck them through and mix with the water...Mom has one of those phony elec 80 buck units basically good for knocking the dirt off the truck and thats it,POS.

[DaveC68]

I've been told the "true" way to compare one pressure washer to the next is to use the following formula between brands/models.
(psi*gph)brand X vs. (psi*gph)brand Y
Of course the one with the higher total is pressumed "better".

[BBIGG BLOCK 396]

I am with Budnate,the 400.00 ones from Home Depot work good.I have had one for 4 years now and it works great. I Especially like the chemical mixture device.I use mine for almost everything and it still works great.I do prefer Honda engines but I have never had a problem with thee old Briggs and Strattons.

Bobby Dodson

[drdave69]

I have one of the $400 units from Lowes that has a Honda engine. I believe it's 2800 PSI. Works great. The only problem is the pump. The long bolts holding the pump housing together seemed to have rusted, thus, allowing a few of them to break. This resulted in me having to disassemble it and replace the pump oil. Quite a pain. A friend had the same thing happen.