Spring is a time for blooming flowers, baby ducks, and of course spring cleaning.
After dragging home salt, dirt, and oil on your boots and car tires all winter long, it's finally come time to spray it all away.
Pressure washers make spring cleaning faster and easier, but the right accessories will make the cleaning more efficient and effective.
Explore the various pressure washer accessories designed to make spring cleaning a breeze.
As you browse accessories for your pressure washer, be sure to check for compatibility. Some accessories are available that are compatible with most brands, but not all, and some are brand-specific, so compatibility is a very important detail to check before investing in pressure washer add-ons.
On the individual product pages, you'll find more detailed information regarding the fittings and the pressure requirements. If you want the accessory to fit and perform properly, you'll need to make sure that it fits your pressure washer's fittings, and you'll want to make sure that the pressure your unit puts out is compatible with the needs of the accessory.
Before you begin your first pressure washing of the season, we suggest you install a quick connect kit. This will make setup and take-down of your pressure washer quick and easy-going forward - so you'll be inclined to pressure wash more often due to the convenience.
These kits make it easy to click all hoses and wands into place in seconds, so you're not tiring yourself out screwing everything together. They also keep a good leak-free seal so you're not left guessing if you've got it connected right. They're affordably priced, and they make pressure washing less frustrating so you'll enjoy taking your equipment out more frequently.
Got a second story to clean? Second story windows and soffits are hard to reach with a standard pressure washing wand, and you should never pressure wash from a ladder, as it's extremely unsafe.
Telescoping wands maintain pressure further, so you can powerfully blast dirt and water streaks from your second-story windows and siding without climbing a ladder.
They can be difficult for some people to hold steady due to their weight and kick when in use, so we suggest using a telescoping wand belt to help support the weight and maintain control.
Walkways, driveways, and garage floors can take a long time to clean with a wand, and the over-spray can create a mess in some cases. However, using a surface cleaner speeds up the process without streaking, and contains the spray so you don't soak the drywall in your garage.
Surface cleaners have high-pressure nozzles that spin very fast, cleaning more surface area with less effort. You don't have to support as much weight, as it rests on the ground like a floor cleaner. You can stand straight and easily maneuver the cleaner over large surfaces. Surface cleaners will have your driveway, garage floor, and walkways looking like new in no time, and you won't be so exhausted afterward.
Though surface cleaners (mentioned above) are great for sidewalks, driveways, and garage floors, some surfaces aren't as level and smooth. Walkways made of stepping stones, cobblestones, or bricks are easier to clean with a water broom.
Decks and patios are great candidates for a water broom as well. Some water brooms feature spinning brushes and housing, which make for a more even and deeper clean on wood decking.
Water brooms feature a row of nozzles mounted between wheels that allow you to roll forward and backward like a vacuum cleaner. They maintain an even distance from the surface to minimize streaking and the wheels which support it take the strain off of your back and arms.
Birds return with the spring weather, which means a fair share of droppings on your siding and windows. Bird droppings can be hard to clean once they settle in and dry, and stains from grass clippings don't always spray off easily either. Some things won't completely wash away with water pressure alone.
Using detergent helps a great deal, but brushing the detergent in with a pressure washer brush will loosen the mess up and help you blast it away for good. Some pressure washer brushes will even spin from the water pressure, which makes cleaning even easier.
Detergents help get everything cleaner. They penetrate stains and break up tough dirt and debris so it can be removed more effectively.
There are different kinds of detergent though, and it's important to use the right detergent for each application. Concrete detergent, for example, would not be the ideal solution to use on a car or truck. Likewise, house and siding detergent wouldn't be as effective at removing grease stains from a garage floor.
To cover your bases, there are soap kits, which include various kinds of detergents for different applications.
Detergent foamers are the newest trend in pressure washing accessories. They are outstanding for washing your car, boat, or motorcycle. They apply detergent like shaving cream, leaving a thick foam that doesn't instantly run-off. It sticks to the surface, and customers say it works much better than just a soap nozzle.
They come in different styles. There are some that look like a spray bottle and connect to the end of your spray gun with no hoses, simply mixing the solution with the pressurized water as it's dispensed. There are others that utilize a long hose for drawing from a separate detergent bucket.
For those who love to clean their vehicles themselves, there are also undercarriage cleaners that have upward facing nozzles for cleaning the underside of a vehicle. They come in various styles, but they all serve the same purpose.
There are some that essentially resembles an upside-down water broom, some that resemble an upside-down surface cleaner, and others that are like bent lances, so choosing one that's best for your preference or application is key.
These are a great idea for spring vehicle cleaning in areas where snow and road salt are the norm, as you want to clean off any salt or road grime that's become caked on throughout the winter.
For tough stains in concrete, retaining walls, patios, and more, there are turbo nozzles. When all else fails, a turbo nozzle has the power to remove nearly any stain. However, do not use a turbo nozzle on a vehicle. Turbo nozzles combine the concentrated high pressure of a jet stream with a rapid spinning motion to cover more area.
They're extremely powerful, which is why they're great at removing stubborn deep-down stains on hard porous surfaces like driveways, garage floors, walkways, and brick. However, the high pressure is concentrated too much for delicate surfaces like vehicles or painted siding.
Now that you know about the various pressure washer accessories available for spring cleaning, it's worth knowing how to perform the cleaning tasks.
We have several articles to help guide you through spring cleaning tasks with your pressure washer. Browse our how-to guides to become a pressure washing master, and get the most from your pressure washer.