Westinghouse clearly had its top engineers design this unit; from top to bottom, this pressure washer is packed with features. The Briggs & Stratton has a 35-foot power cord, which, actually, is one of our few complaints. With the 25-foot inlet hose in tandem, we found it to be cumbersome to keep them from tangling every time we wheeled the pressure washer to a different spot. The pistol has an easily accessible lock and trigger release, but the connector for the inlet hose is too close to the trigger and was tricky to secure. Excellent cleaning power, high quality components, and a well-engineered motor made this pressure washer a great pick for most home owners.
“You really need to respect the power of these machines,” says DiClerico. “There’s a higher risk of injury and surface damage if you don’t know what you’re doing.” Wear closed-toe shoes and safety goggles at all times when operating your pressure washer. And if your machine comes with interchangeable nozzles, use the least powerful one first — you can always progress to a stronger nozzle if you need to.
If you are carrying the pressure washer with you on camping trips in your trailer or RV, you can simply detach the wheels. This will further reduce the size of the already compact ePX3000, and it can easily fit into a cargo slide on your RV. 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.
To this day, Karcher’s pressure washers are regarded as top-of-the-line in terms of build quality and technology. While they do make models for homeowners, their Champion Power Equipment commercial and pro-grade stuff takes priority. Electric pressure washers have an inherent advantage over gas-powered models when it comes to home use.
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A pressure washer isn’t quite as powerful as those industrial water cutters but it still packs enough force to eat through a leather boot within seconds if you equip the Red tip. If you want to use detergent, you will have to employ the external bottle which doubles up as a foam generator. Internal soap tanks are nice for convenience but on some pressure washer models like the ePX3000 you have to calculate exactly how much soap you need.
All the units we tested can get the job done, but our top picks made setting up, cleaning, and storage much more enjoyable. The Sun Joe – SPX3000 ranked very close to the Ivation we tested for electric pressure washers. This unit, priced very similarly to the Ivation, had lots of pleasant surprises. For example, the best battery-powered washers max out around 500 PSI, compared with the 2,000 to 3,000 PSIs of the best gas or corded electric models. That’s why our experts say battery-powered models, like the WORX 40V Power Share Hydroshot or the Ryobi 8V Brushless EZClean, are still best for lightweight cleaning tasks, like washing the car. Though that will probably change in the next few years as lithium-ion battery technology continues its rapid improvement.
Don’t buy more than you need but make sure you’re realistic about what you intend to use it for. The RY is usually over $50 more than the average high-end electric pressure washer, including those with induction motors. With the Westinghouse WPX3200 Gas Pressure Washer model, for example, you’ll get 2.5 gallons per minute for volume. Rating this Westinghouse pressure washer, I’ll give it a 9.6 out of 10. The bulk of pressure washers we chose would be suitable for light cleaning jobs in the backyard and house exterior and for occasional cleaning jobs. We also selected a couple of gas-powered models to test for situations when more cleaning power is needed.
It’s the only one we’ve been able to just push in to attach with an auto click and lock system. Perhaps the others have more solid designs because of the higher power they provide. Ironically, this machine didn’t generate enough force to chip any paint off the board in our test. We thought we were shipped the wrong item when The Force – 1800 arrived in the mail.