Pressure washer vs. Regular sprayer

AutoApollo

AutoApollo

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Hi guys, I'd like to hear your thoughts on which you prefer of the above and why. Also what you do or don't like about pressure washers or regular garden sprayers to wash your vehicles.

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AutoApollo said:
Hi guys, I'd like to hear your thoughts on which you prefer of the above and why. Also what you do or don't like about pressure washers or regular garden sprayers to wash your vehicles.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Autogeekonline mobile app
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Ease of use, will probably be the number 1 reason. Its just far easier for me to turn on the spigot and spray the car off. Rather than pull the PW out, check the oil, check the gas level, start it up and have it running for 15-20 minutes while i spray off. I would rather pair it with a foam lance if i'm going to use the PW. Water from the hose works just as well, and i'm lazy. lol
 
Foam cannons for pressure washers create much thicker foam than foam guns for the hose.

Firehose nozzles for the hose can create very high pressure.

Gas powered PWs are noisy and run even when you are not spraying water.

Electric power washers are quiet and only run when spraying but are not as powerful and I have bad luck with electric trimmers, mowers, etc.

Gas PW prices have dropped quite a bit and are very affordable.

Electric PWs are cheap.

PWs HURT when you do something stupid, like trying to hold a mat and spray it with a PW but instead spraying the back of your hand. :doh:
 
AutoApollo said:
Hi guys, I'd like to hear your thoughts on which you prefer of the above and why. Also what you do or don't like about pressure washers or regular garden sprayers to wash your vehicles.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Autogeekonline mobile app
Click to expand...

The only real benefit of a power washer for me is the use of less water and cleaning in wheel wells. There are side by sides of foam guns soaking vs just regular pre-rinsing with waterless wash, etc. and there's not much difference.

When I hose wash, which is rare, I usually just use a nozzle but no power washer.
 
i have a PW and only use it for mud and really bad wells, besides that I don't use it. sounded good at the time but not it sits majority of the time.
 
KirkH said:
Electric PWs are cheap.

PWs HURT when you do something stupid, like trying to hold a mat and spray it with a PW but instead spraying the back of your hand. :doh:
Click to expand...

I disagree. I can put my hand in front of my usual 25 degree nozzle and I won't wince...

Washing wheels in insanely faster. No need to wheel woolie, powerstick. You will need to use a mitt to remove the surface film - which shows up more on darker wheels, but there no to chase after spokes, etc

There is almost one thing I would be indispensable with, and that would be my PW.
They remove crud so much more, before you even take a mitt to it.
The less dirt - surface contact I'm making - mitt2panel, I'm game
 
I agree, while they look cool spraying tons of foam everywhere Pressure washers just aren't all that useful for individual car washes. If you have been out mudding they are great, but I use mine way more for household chores than anything else.
 
I like my PW cause after cleaning and rinsing wheels and wells there is significantly less water on the ground than doing the same rinses with a hose on just 2 wheels. Saves water without a doubt and has better cleaning "power"
 
What I don't like about the pressure washer is now that I have it, I feel I should use it.

One more step in the weekly winter wash extravaganza.
Presoak with pump sprayer Salt-Away solution, dwell, D114 pump spray rinse/soap, dwell, then wheel conventional wash with pressure washer, rinse the whole mess(car and wheels), 2 bucket then flood with watering rain wand.

I like my pressure washer more since I changed the laundry room faucet to have a hose bib. This allows a nice warm winter bath.
 
Pressure washers are cool and nowadays there are great electric power washers that produce a ton of suds with a foam gun. They also do make cleaning wheel wells and wheels a lot easier. If your like me and you like to keep the inner wells of the wheels looking clean they are a must. With that being said I also do have my handy gilmour foam gun which I've had for years. That thing never misses a beat and still going strong. I normally wash my car weekly and feel that pulling out the pressure washer weekly is overkill. I also keep a couple gallons of ONR on deck to rinse less wash when its not that dirty it works wonders.

I use an electric washer from lowes with 40 degree nozzle tip with the power washer. And the shower nozzle for foam gun and tons of microfiber for rinse less. Maintaining 4-6 cars a week its good to have all tools on tap so I choose what wash method that suits the needs.
 
I've got a cheap electric pressure washer and I won't touch my car without a rinse from it first. It gets 80% of the gunk off (especially bugs!) and makes the hand washing step easier.

No foam cannon for me, I prefer to presoak out of garden sprayer.
 
DetailZeus said:
I've got a cheap electric pressure washer and I won't touch my car without a rinse from it first. It gets 80% of the gunk off (especially bugs!) and makes the hand washing step easier.

No foam cannon for me, I prefer to presoak out of garden sprayer.
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True that, I am lucky enough to live in an area where I can use water however I please, but for the majority of others in Socal are in a water restricted area (due to the drought), so the rinseless car wash method works great especially if maintained regularly. Sometimes I will take it to the manual car wash and rinse out there.
 
I love my pressure washer and prefer using it. I don't find the 2 minutes it takes to wheel out, hook up and pull start much of an inconvenience.

1. For lightly soiled or dirty vehicles, a pressure washer, foam cannon & blower can be a true "hands off" the paint wash. This is important for many as our dirty, aggressive and often too heavy hands are what I believe contributes to the vast majority of swirls and other love marks on the paint.

2. You can remove probably 90% of "swirl capable" particles on muddy, salty or otherwise extremely dirty vehicles before you even touch the paint. This again = less wash induced swirls.

3. Less water to dry if drying by hand

4. Just like steam cleaners reduce the need for chemicals on interiors (and exteriors), pressure washers do the same for exteriors.

5. They are just more fun to use :)

With all of that being said, it is also probably one of the most "novelty" detailing tools I use. It is not needed, and even though I use it on near every wash I still do a final "Flood Rinse" with an open hose. If your budget allows, and you have everything else you need, then it is a great tool.
 
Pressure washers do save water also. If you have ever tried to fill a bucket with a pressure washer with the nozzle removed, you know that there is not a lot of water coming out of the wand.
 
I use my lower pressure electric washer for the pre-wash, the foaming, and the final rinse with filtered water.
By doing so it not only washes off more surface dust at the start. it uses much less water during the final filtered rinse too. My filter medium lasts much longer.
Plus, of course, much thicker clingy suds from my foamer.
 
I just bought a 2000 psi greenworks from lowes a couple months ago and set it up with quick connects so set up and takedown is a breeze. I'll never look back.

I rinseless or waterless 95% of the time so being able to knock down the salt and sand beforehand is awesome. I live on a road that they cover with sand so unless conditions are perfect even a trip to the coin op doesn't help much because my vehicles will be covered again by the time I get home.

My greenworks uses 1.2 gpm so there is barely any water left on the driveway when I'm done. Same situation with a garden hose and I'll create a small lake on my driveway.

Don't quote me on this but a garden hose uses around 24 gpm depending on size, length, and pressure of hose. I think the average at home car wash with a garden hose uses around 100 - 150 gallons of water. I'm not trying to save the world one car wash at a time but those are crazy numbers. Now I don't know how I got by without a pressure washer.

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yg1829 said:
Don't quote me on this but a garden hose uses around 24 gpm depending on size, length, and pressure of hose. I think the average at home car wash with a garden hose uses around 100 - 150 gallons of water. I'm not trying to save the world one car wash at a time but those are crazy numbers. Now I don't know how I got by without a pressure washer.

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Hose length, ID of pipe feeding garden outlet, hose ID, etc.....I think your meant GPH....
A wild guess is that it takes a bit less than a minute to fill up a 5 gallon bucket with my 3/4 50ft hose
 
You could always buy Garry Dean's new power washer with 1100psi for $900.......... :(
 
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