Pressure washer?

[speedmaster20d]

does anyone use pressure washer at home to wash their car? what washer/pressure do you use?

[watm3]

I use a Karcher K5:

https://www.amazon.com/Karcher-Premi...05895653&psc=1

It's alright, but the hose is annoying and it's a proprietary wand. The foam cannon that fit was kind of pricey at $60.

[NYG]

Sunjoe. LOVE IT.

[louielouie]

I use one. Definitely useful.

There's a huge range in specs/quality/pricing.

Sun Joes (and a LOT of others) can be had for ~$100-$300, Comets for $700, and Kranzles for $1,000-$5,000. Your best option will vary on how much you want to spend.

[f80er]

Sunjoe spx3000 love it. I have a gas one as well but bought the electric one just to wash my cars.

https://www.amazon.com/Sun-Joe-SPX30...=bestcont06-20

[N1rve]

Originally Posted by speedmaster20d

does anyone use pressure washer at home to wash their car? what washer/pressure do you use?

Just remember if you have any PPF or vinyl, you shouldn't pressure wash or else you might lift an edge.

[allinon72]

I have a Ryobi with a big ole Honda motor.

[david5936]

I typically just hand wash as I have had bad experiences with pressure washers working well, however it sounds like there are a few brands I have not tried, thanks.

[Isj]

Using a Kranzle K1322TS pressure washer, used to have a SunJoe SPX4000 that worked great as well.

Originally Posted by david5936

I typically just hand wash as I have had bad experiences with pressure washers working well, however it sounds like there are a few brands I have not tried, thanks.

Still have to hand wash when using a pressure washer.

[rjd598]

Originally Posted by N1rve

Just remember if you have any PPF or vinyl, you shouldn't pressure wash or else you might lift an edge.

That’s not true. Maybe caution, but to say never is an exaggeration.

I have a wrapped van with average wrapping expertise and it gets only washed with a pressure washer at a self serve station (high psi for consumer use) for reference.

[N1rve]

Originally Posted by rjd598

That’s not true. Maybe caution, but to say never is an exaggeration.

I have a wrapped van with average wrapping expertise and it gets only washed with a pressure washer at a self serve station (high psi for consumer use) for reference.

Hence "shouldn't" and "might". I didn't say the word "never" so don't be putting words in my mouth.

[stevenc]

Got to decide if you want gas or electric. Gas are way stronger but then you have to deal with gas/oil ect.

Electric not as strong with super easy to setup and store.

I recently purchased an off brand ebay special and it turned out great. Reason i got it was because it had the brass connectors that gas pressure washers have so i can use accessories like a foam cannon. Many electric pressure washers use propitiatory connections on the wand that dont take aftermarket accessories.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3000PSI-Pre...0AAOSwQHpbEjVV

[Clark_Kent]

I have a Kranzle K1322TS. I've had it for about 18 months and I'm happy with it. I initially ordered a SunJoe and it leaked with my first use. Packed it up and sent it back for the Kranzle unit.

[kevin @ eas]

I've been using the Harbor Freight one ie.. Portland for the last year and have been happy with it. Works great for cars and cleaning the driveway etc. Converted it over to the quick disconnect wand w/nozzles and added a foam cannon. No complaints.

[G35POPPEDMYCHERRY]

get a 100ish dollar eletric..20 dollar foam cannon...snow foam....drying towel.. and a wheel brush and ur good to go

[damageprone]

Another one for the SunJoe SPX3000.

One thing annoying about this unit though is that its fittings are not standard. I had to get an adapter to fit other guns, etc. Something about it being a 14mm vs 15mm inner diameter connection.

Another annoying thing about it is the hose connection to the machine itself. I always get my skin taken off trying to get that thing to fit without leaking. I ended up buying a Prevost quick disconnect to make it trouble free. Unfortunately the quick disconnect was 1/3 the cost of the pressure washer itself.

[danchee]

I use one of these - https://www.ryobitools.com/outdoor/p...ressure-washer Mine is green though and was $70 out the door at homedepot last fall.

[Eric S]

if anyone is interested, I have a client looking to sell his used 2 times PW and Master blaster with the 30ft hose, and foam canon for $450. Roughly 200 bucks off retail for everything

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-1-...-203800590-_-N
https://www.amazon.com/Metropolitan-...e%2C207&sr=1-8

[speedmaster20d]

thanks all for so much for all the feedback, I got SunJoe SPX3500 after reading all of this, it was in stock and had one day shipping on Amazon. I won't have much use for it besides car wash so it doesn't make sense for me to buy the latest and greatest top of the line models. Practiced on the drive way and seems to work just fine, it is not loud at all which is a plus, I like the long pressure hose, don't have to move the unit around much when working with it... we will see how it works.

I need to get a water deionizer too as the water here is too hard. Any recommendations for that? I was looking at this one https://www.amazon.com/CR-Spotless-D...7999&s=gateway

I have never done this before, my understanding is that I spray crash wash soap/foam using the soap nozzle first, let it sit then pressure wash and dry with towel. is that all ?

[Clark_Kent]

Originally Posted by speedmaster20d

thanks all for so much for all the feedback, I got SunJoe SPX3500 after reading all of this, it was in stock and had one day shipping on Amazon. I won't have much use for it besides car wash so it doesn't make sense for me to buy the latest and greatest top of the line models. Practiced on the drive way and seems to work just fine, it is not loud at all which is a plus, I like the long pressure hose, don't have to move the unit around much when working with it... we will see how it works.

I need to get a water deionizer too as the water here is too hard. Any recommendations for that? I was looking at this one https://www.amazon.com/CR-Spotless-D...7999&s=gateway

I have never done this before, my understanding is that I spray crash wash soap/foam using the soap nozzle first, let it sit then pressure wash and dry with towel. is that all ?

Someone was selling a water deionizer not too long ago on here. Might be able to save a few bucks if it's still available.

[damageprone]

Originally Posted by speedmaster20d

I need to get a water deionizer too as the water here is too hard. Any recommendations for that? I was looking at this one https://www.amazon.com/CR-Spotless-D...7999&s=gateway

I have never done this before, my understanding is that I spray crash wash soap/foam using the soap nozzle first, let it sit then pressure wash and dry with towel. is that all ?

I think the unit that www.DIRINSE.com is offering is better than the CR Spotless.

The CR doesn't hold a lot of resin so you'll be changing it relatively often depending on how hard your water is and how often you use it.

The cartridges that you need to use are annoying to refill and re-install. The design of those cartridges can be prone to blending hard water with DI water giving you false PPM readings which would then cause you to change the resin prematurely.

There is no bypass system, so if you want to wash with hard water first then rinse with DI, you have to unhook the whole system. If you don't have quick disconnects fitted, this gets old fast.

I've probably spent another $180 on my CR spotless just to make it work like the unit that DI Rinse offers. I've added modified dip tubes to get rid of the cartridges and hold more resin and get rid of the water mixing issue, a bypass, and quick disconnects.

To answer your question about car washing, there are many schools of thought on washing your car. Youtube it. But unless your car is lightly dirty, I wouldn't just foam, rinse and dry. You need some sort of agitation via a chenille sponge/glove/etc. I wash with a foam gun and pressure washer and it doesn't get off the majority of the grime from the road with that alone even with proper dwell times, etc.

[PhatLyfe]

I have a simpson/honda power washer 3000 use 2.5 gpm for washing around the house, I recently started to wash the car with it and i really think it too much for the car to be washed with. anything will 1.5 to 1.7 gpm is more than enough to wash the car. but I do enjoy the higher psi of the washer to clean the wheels after a sonax wheel cleaner application, no agitation required. What ever you decide, go with a gas pressure washer.