Afforable Pressure Washer
With a house on the northern slope of a hill, I need to pressure wash my siding and decks annually. Of course, I haven’t actually done this in five years, so I have plenty of pressure washing to do. Rather than rent a washer for several days, I decided to buy one.
It only took a little research to decide that I should buy a gas-powered model instead of electric, as even the smallest gas models are more powerful than the typical electric washer. Pressure Washers Direct has a lot of good buying information, but their recommended models are frequently sold out. The cheapest recommended models are in the $250-$300 price range, and use either Honda or Briggs & Stratton engines.
Out of pure luck I stumbled upon a Briggs and Stratton 2050 PSI Clean Shot Pressure Washer on amazon.com for $199, with an instant $25-off coupon. For $175, that is an excellent deal for a gas-powered pressure washer, so I bought it.
Update: Today, electric pressure washers are finally as powerful as gas ones, and are much more convenient and environmentally friendly. So buy an electric one instead of gas.
At 2050 PSI plus 2.0 GPM water flow, you can send a stream of water so powerful that it will cut a piece of weathered 1×4 redwood clean in two (as I almost did). You need to dial back the sprayer to make sure it won’t destroy the wood. Sturdy shoes, long pants, earplugs, eye goggles, and a dust mask are mandatory when using this thing.
So far, I’ve used the Briggs washer to blast away several years of gray mildew and weathering from a 265 sq/ft deck. Not including the time to remove everything from the deck and spray down some Superdeck no-bleach cleaning solution, the whole pressure washing process took me about two and a half hours plus about a half gallon of gas. Not bad at all, and now the deck has a natural wood finish that is (almost) ready for some new stain.
In the future, I’ll consider buying a more powerful washer so I can clean the decks with a wider spray setting, but for now, this is a perfect budget pressure washer.
