Advise me on a pressure washer

I went through this

a number of years ago I bought one of those homer depot ryobi or whatever brand it was, gas pressure washer with a honduh engine on it. While it did the job, I found out later on that it wasn't great. They advertised like 3000 psi and 2.4 gpm I think it was. GPM was low. It developed a pump problem (and mind you, I am really good about taking care of my stuff), and I found out that replacing the pump costs nearly as much as replacing the entire washer. Sold the washer on the market and bought another one. Same unit. I mean, I did get 5 or so years out of it. That one too died in the same manner. Plus, it was hard to start, and on the noisy side. They're all noisy but it was louder'n I thought it should be.

At the time I worked for a Yamaha powersports dealer. They had a Yamaha PW2800 come in and they issued it to the shop guys to wash equipment off. I used it a few times and was impressed with it. Quieter, easier to start, for the most part it was problem free for a number of years, other than there were two morons that kept running over the hose with the forklift, which destroyed it each time. I ended up buying one of those yamaha pressure washers. Same model, just the newer revision.

I've had it for almost 8 years now. I use the heck out of it! Deck, house, driveway, cars/trucks, mower, etc. Every time it's used, when it's done I put pump saver into the pump and circulate it. Ain't had a moment's trouble out of it. The ONLY complaint I have is that the hose is a little stiff after a few years, solvable by going to a hydraulic hose shop and having them make a hose out of hydraulic hose. I just ain't done it yet, and won't until the hose fails.

Couple things I like about it. Quieter. CAT pump. The wheels never go flat, and they're large enough that they roll easily. The frame is built well. Also the handlebar assembly folds down, and it folds FLAT across the top so that you can stack stuff on top of it if needed. Sort of a neat feature. Soap dispenser holds a gallon. The wand tip is interchangeable but I have never found a need to change the tip-the tip it comes with is rotary and you can choose what pattern you want just by turning the rotary selector. 20 deg, 40 deg, soap jet and soap fan, and low pressure. The low pressure setting is what I use most of the time. You get volume but not a lot of pressure and the volume does most of the work on loosely packed stuff. AND-I made (you can buy them too) an undercarriage washer out of some scrap,2 skateboard wheels, 4 nozzles, and a wand extension. Picture below of what I'm talking about. I use it to wash under the mowing deck of the mower, under the cars/trucks, etc. Great little attachment! You guys in the salt belt might benefit from this to help warsh some of that stuff off of your vehicles after winter's gone. The second attachment I have is a 15" surface cleaner. If you are washing a deck or a driveway or whatever, these things will cut the time down dramatically! It's effortless to use too, just like sweeping the floor but even easier as when the nozzles are turning with water pressure running through them, it also helps to lift the attachment a little, which reduces the amount of weight that you are having to push/sweep across the surface.

yamaha also has a 4000 psi version which is way more than I would ever need.

And--at work they have a 25 year old brushless 120v electric washer, I think it's a Mi-T-M or something like that. 1800 psi, but something like 3.1 gpm. The volume is high pressure is not. Boy am I impressed with that thing! It's real old, and is used several hours every day for 6 days a week for the last 20 some odd years. If I didn't already have my yamaha I'd probably buy one.

90sickfox said:

My harbor freight green electric pressure washer is almost at year 2 with no issues. I keep a wire down in the tip to keep it from corroding shut and grease the Orings often. No leaks and no issues at all. It was really cheap and has done everything from cleaning the gutters and siding to cleaning heavy mud and dirt off my truck. I'd recommend it 100%

A quick spry down with Gunk engine decreaser and a spray down with that cheap pressure washer and it'll clean up well. The higher pressure ones can get you into trouble with blowing paint and stickers off. The cheap one can too but is easier to manage.

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I have the green one from HB as well, works great. Had a Karcher before that for almost 15yrs that I ended up giving to a friend.

If all you are going to do with it is clean your engine bay, buy a cheap electric and be done with it.
But if you plan on doing other things, especially things that could be high up like gutters, buy something slightly more high end.
I find that the cheap electrics aren't that great with attachments (like the disc which is very useful).

I have a generac 3100 with electric start. It was like $300. It's pretty damn potent, i can't seeing ever needing more than that for an average user.
Good enough that any neighbor or friend that has borrowed it bought one.
Just keep in mind that all properties in my neighborhood are an acre so the last thing you want to need is 200ft of extension cord (voltage drop is real) and hose.

limp, I had a few elect. ones and didn't use them much. so they leaked after time. if all you need is your engine and under carriage cleaned, then get one that you can return, spend whatever as long as you can return it. I like to think of it as borrowing from the store.