I was thinking of getting a power washer but the range in pressure is significant from lowest to highest rated machines. At what point do you start to strip paint with these things? Are the 1300 psi units useful around the house?
I have one of the around $70 electric power washers from Harbor Freight. It is very useful around my house and farm. It would not strip paint.
Ability to strip paint with a pressure washer is a function of how well the paint is adhered in the first place, and the substrate which is painted. I’ve pressure washed epoxy painted CMU walls without any damage to the paint, and also stripped the daylights off CMU walls that were painted with cheap latex. If you’re working with wood, be careful. You can do damage to softer woods with a pressure washer, one example being a redwood deck.
I have this one: http://www.karcher.com/uk/products/cce/1027330_IntGB.shtml
It’s about 1500 psi, but it definitely can’t strip paint.
When using on a house, one has to be VERY careful about pressure and volume of water, as you can easily get behind the siding or up into the attic, causing water damage on the inside. A fair amount of my drywall repair jobs are caused by unwary homeowners going at the power washing too aggressively.
And that’s why I usually reccommend that you use a power washer simply for washing, not stripping the paint. Get out some scrapers and take off the loose paint, then wash it all, carefully. Then, after sufficient drying time, paint that bad boy!
Good luck!
Thanks for the responses. I guess I should have worded it better. I want to be able to clean stuff without ruining it. Rims, underbody, maybe siding and windows. I wasn’t sure If the cheaper ones did any good at all considering the selections run from 1000 psi to 3400 psi or more.
Good reminder about getting up under siding. I have aluminum siding and it looks like it would be real easy to get behind it.
I have both at work; the only time I use the lesser-powered one is when I have to use it (electric v gas) indoors. I am not impressed with it at all. There is a big difference between 1300 psi and 2600 psi. But they can be to powerful as in damaging wood or striping flesh. Be careful
A common complaint about these units is that they seem to work for a year, then just stop working right after the warranty expires. Talk to the point of purchase and make sure your happy with the process if and when this happens (I’ve heard this complaint particularly with Karcher and Simoniz units).
I’d strongly advise against using pressure washing on most unpainted exterior woods. The pressure washer makes millions of tiny cuts and imperfections in the wood. The wood may look better temporarily after pressure washing, but it will deteriorate much more quickly than if it were cleaned with a bleach solution (then lightly sanded and treated with a wood sealer).
Pressure washers do have plenty of uses, though, you just have to use common sense about how much pressure to use for various jobs.