Cold-Water Professional Electric Power Washer Buyer's Guide
If you power wash homes for a living, you know how reliant you are upon your pressure washer.
As such, you can't settle for cheap throw-away machines.
Professional cold water electric pressure washers are the opposite of throw-away.
These power washers can run all day, every day, allowing you to clean your way to higher profits with less downtime.
Electric Considerations
Some of these professional electric pressure washers require a 20 amp circuit, as well as a dedicated 20 amp outlet to run. You'll want to make sure your circuit box has one of these for where you'll be cleaning, otherwise, you won't be able to use the washer. To be absolutely sure you'll have the power to run your washer, invest in a professional portable gas generator.
A lot of these units come with GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) power cords. They are designed to protect people from severe or fatal electric shocks because they detect ground faults and interrupt the flow of electrical current. Just make sure you have GFCI plugs.
Bypass
One of the easiest ways to ruin cheap pressure washers is to leave the pump running while it has no water to pump. This will cause the pump to burn up and break.
A feature found on some professional pressure washers is a multi-hour bypass. This run-dry capability prevents the pump from damage should you walk away and it runs out of water to pump.
Spray Tips
A nice feature that accompanies cold electric pressure washers is a whole range of spray tips - allowing you to tailor your spray to your cleaning task. If you're rinsing detergent from vinyl siding, go with a wider white or green spray tip. But if you're blasting mud or concrete from a tractor, choose a concentrated yellow or red jet spray.
In a 5-pack, the tips are:
- 0° - red, concentrated pencil jet
- 15° - yellow, high performance
- 25° - green, multi-purpose
- 40° - white, sensitive surfaces
- 65° - black, low-pressure detergent application
