how to decide what pressure washer to buy
The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Pressure Washer
Published: 2020-03-27
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HOW TO CHOOSE A Pressure level WASHER
Are you in need of a force per unit area washer, simply not sure where to start?
We take put together this guide to assistance you lot in making your manner through all the technical information associated with choosing a force per unit area washer.
In this guide we include:
- CHOOSING A Power SOURCE
- Electrical Pressure Washers
- Petrol Pressure level Washers
- Diesel Pressure Washers
- HOT OR Cold WATER
- Cold H2o Cleaning
- Hot Water Cleaning
- SPECIFICATIONS AND TERMS
- PSI: Pounds per Foursquare Inch
- LPM: Litres per Minute
- RPM: Revolutions per Minute
- Industry Categorisation
- ACCESSORIES TO WATCH FOR
- Surface Cleaners
- Swivels
- Foamers
- Dual Lances
- Multi-Regs
- CHOOSING A NOZZLE
- GEARING UP
- GETTING STARTED
CHOOSING A Ability SOURCE
The first thing you lot volition need to consider is the power source.
The power source is important considering it impacts the maintenance, mobility, upward front and running costs of the machine.
There are iii standard power types for pressure level cleaners, Electric, Petrol and Diesel.
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Electric Pressure Washers
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Electric pressure washers come in various amperages as single phase and three stage.
One of the few downsides to utilising an electric pressure washer of any amperage, is the requirement of a power cable, which tends to restrict their movement.
Mostly, for this reason, electrical machines are used when the objects being cleaned come up to the pressure cleaner, rather than the other way around.
This makes them pop in stock-still environments like wash bays. Although they can still be moved effectually as long equally power and water are bachelor.
Where they are available though, electric machines tend to dominate the marketplace due to their very depression running costs due to, the lack of a fuel requirement, and the low maintenance requirements of electric motors.
If you are working near locations that crave minimal disruption, electric machines are quiet running and smoke gratuitous, making them safe to use indoors. However, if y'all will be working in remote areas or in need of something easily mobile, petrol and/or diesel may be a better selection.
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Petrol Pressure Washers
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Near petrol machines are on four wheels, making them manoeuvrable and unrestricted by their power source. This means paired with a water tank, they can be used remotely or moved around between cleaning jobs.
This does yet make them heavier than electric machines because they need to carry around their ain fuel, and if used remotely their water supply besides. This is often avoided past mounting the pressure cleaner to the dorsum of a ute or trailer.
Some other pop consideration is the lower upfront cost which is normally obvious when browsing pressure cleaners. Its important to be aware though that with the lower upfront price of the petrol machine, also comes a marginally higher maintenance cost over the life of the machine, just due to the clothing and tear of the petrol motor in comparison to an electric 1.
All this makes Petrol a corking option for any class of mobile cleaning operation. However, if your cleaning performance operates regularly or for long hours, it may be worth investing in a diesel instead which tends to be more cost effective over long term.
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Diesel fuel Pressure level Washers
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1 of the advantages of a diesel fuel pressure washer is the fuel efficiency. Although diesel fuel might be more expensive to purchase it lasts a lot longer than petrol and tin exist running for hours on cease.
On pinnacle of this, they tend to accept a higher menstruation rate and more than powerful engines, minimising cleaning times.
Another reward of diesel engines, is that they tend to last a lot longer than petrol engines.
These things tend to brand diesel pressure washers most mutual for industrial applications. Trailer mounted pressure cleaners are particularly common in certain industries, including the mining and earthmoving industries. It's also a lot more common to notice these as hot water machines (more on that later) because of the diesel fuel requirement of hot h2o, meaning that they only utilize a single fuel source.
Diesel machines tend to exist the heaviest duty, with lower maintenance than petrol and more powerful flow rates. Unfortunately, they do tend to come with a higher base price tag.
HOT OR Common cold WATER
The next thing you want to consider when choosing a force per unit area washer, is whether yous demand hot h2o, or cold water.
There are benefits to both and the choice largely depends on what you will exist cleaning.
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Common cold Water Cleaning
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1 of the reasons the cold-water machines are so pop is the obvious depression up-front cost compared to hot water, due to the fact they don't have a burner or a heating roll that hot water units require to generate the hot h2o.
Some other reward of the cold pressure cleaners is that they are more practical in the sense they are smaller and effortless to move around in most cases.
Common cold h2o is great for cleaning anything from loose paint, thick dirt, or mildew off surfaces, but when it come to greasy and oily substances, you lot will require heavy use of good quality chemic to get these off.
If you are going to be cleaning grease, grime and oils off surfaces regularly, you lot'll probably find your money better spent on a hot water machine instead.
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Hot Water Cleaning
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Although hot water machines have a college up forepart cost compared to a cold water machine, using hot h2o tin be more cost effective in the long run because you won't need to regularly purchase chemicals or accessories for tougher cleaning.
Hot h2o is faster at cleaning than a cold-h2o pressure cleaner, due to the fact the heat of the water breaks downwardly the substances rather than pushing them around on a surface, cleaning the surface a lot faster.
On top of this, hot water breaks downwards grease and oil rapidly and efficiently at a rate not comparable even by chemical. This makes them very popular for any form of mechanism cleaning.
They are besides popular for sanitation reasons, allowing businesses in the hospitality industry to clean speedily and efficiently co-ordinate to the regime regulations.
SPECIFICATIONS AND TERMS
Now you've picked out a power source and whether its hot or cold water, information technology's time to expect at specifications.
At that place are many terms you volition come across when looking at force per unit area washers. PSI, LPM and RPM are abbreviations y'all will hear regularly, and are all critical things to consider when making your purchase. Another mutual 1 is Industry, we'll cover all of these below.
PSI: Pounds per Foursquare Inch
The force per unit area put out past a pressure cleaner is measured in PSI (pounds per square inch) or BAR.
PSI is a critical consideration in the choice of a pressure cleaner because the pressure put out by the pressure cleaner, impacts direct on the cleaning performance.
Not plenty pressure and y'all'll finish up scrubbing, likewise much pressure and you can say goodbye to your paintwork.
The requirements can vary depending on what yous are using the pressure cleaner for.
Here is a very rough guide to how to await at PSI. (Likewise bear in listen PSI can be roughly converted to BAR by dividing by fourteen.five).
1,000 – 1,900 PSI:
This PSI is low. This type of pressure is skillful for the average homeowner to handle most household and vehicle cleaning jobs, anything from a barbeque to a car wash. This range tends to exist almost common with domestic force per unit area cleaners.
2,000 – 2,900 PSI:
This PSI is moderate strength. This blazon of pressure is adept for the heavier residential jobs, or commercial cleaning.
three,000 PSI:
This is a quite high PSI, and most common in industrial and commercial machines. At this PSI y'all should exist careful of what surfaces you make clean. Industrial equipment, physical and boats are mutual applications for this PSI.
three,000+ PSI:
This PSI is very high. You should be extremely careful with this PSI level as y'all can easily strip pigment or impairment surfaces. This PSI level is normally used for purposes from graffiti or paint stripping, to diggings dried concrete off scaffolding.
Regardless of what PSI range you choose, always be careful on whatever form of fragile surface. Fifty-fifty a low PSI machine tin can take pigment off if its rusty, or you lot are using a pinpoint nozzle.
LPM: Litres per Infinitesimal
LPM litres per infinitesimal measures how much water your pressure cleaner puts out per minute.
A common misconception is that PSI is the most important factor in determining the length of a cleaning operation. All the same LPM (or flow) really has a far greater impact on cleaning performance.
For example, you lot wouldn't try to put out a burn down by throwing a cup of h2o at it, you would want a larger corporeality of water. It's the same with pressure level cleaning, a higher period of water washes away material, much faster than a lower corporeality. While a high PSI ensures you loosen the clay, information technology's the loftier flow that removes information technology.
The more dirt or grime you are trying to remove, the college you want the flow to exist.
RPM: Revolutions per Infinitesimal
In the simplest terms, RPM refers to how hard the motor is working.
A higher RPM (3400+) tends to be associated with domestic machines.
These machines are not designed to work for long hours. The motor works harder when information technology is working and the machine volition have a shorter lifespan than a car designed to work longer hours.
Midrange RPM's (2800) tend to be used by commercial machines, designed to operate for longer periods than domestic, but notwithstanding not continuously.
Depression RPM machines (1450) are the kind used for industrial applications. Running viii+ hours per day. These machines need to keep running for an extremely high number of hours and are built to suit.
Manufacture Categorisation
After RPM, you have probably worked out that the manufacture a pressure cleaner is categorised with is more often than not determined by the number of hours a twenty-four hour period it is expected to run and the PSI/Flow.
To offer a elementary categorisation, you can get by the following:
Domestic -Piffling use, 1 – 2 hours per twenty-four hours.
Commercial -Use upwardly to four hours per day.
Industrial -Heavy use, iv – 8 + hours per day.
ACCESSORIES TO Picket FOR
With an idea of what to look for in the specifications, we thought it would be helpful to include some of the accessories y'all should watch for when purchasing a pressure washer.
The range of accessories for pressure cleaners range wildly, from sand diggings to steaming kits. You can read about some of our favourites here, a few of the more than common and important ones to exist aware of when buying a pressure cleaner are listed below.
Surface Cleaners
Surface cleaners are designed to allow you to clean big apartment surfaces very quickly and safely.
If you application requires cleaning big areas of brickwork or physical, a surface cleaner will speed things up for you immensely.
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Swivels
Sometimes yous can snag a bargain where you receive a swivel with your pressure cleaner purchase.
Swivels forbid endless hours twisting and untwisting the thick loftier pressure hose, and if y'all can get ane, you should, regardless of application.
Foamers
Foamer's are by and large paired with cold water machines to ameliorate cleaning times with chemical.
Foamer'due south will mix the chemic with air and water, to allow yous to create a snowfall like roofing of foam on the surface assuasive the chemical time to dwell on the surface a react with the dirt/grime.
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Dual Lances
Dual lances are similar to a multi-reg although they tend to come up with higher powered machines.
A dual lance allows you to fit two nozzles, instead of one, and usually have some action to swap between the ii nozzles, allowing you to apace spray chemical from one, and then launder it off with the other. Once more, these are a huge time saver.
Multi-Regs
Multi-reg'due south come with several force per unit area cleaners and are designed to speed upwards the cleaning process by allowing you to adjust the force per unit area and angle of the spray with the nozzle caput.
These tin save a lot of time changing nozzles around and are very beneficial to have.
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CHOOSING A NOZZLE
Nozzles are something that oftentimes, not a lot of thought goes into when purchasing a force per unit area cleaner. The nozzle in the end of your force per unit area cleaning lance, sets the degree of a fan yous go in the spray combined with the concrete force the spray hits at.
In that location are several types and the applications you clean may prompt yous to purchase several with unlike fans for various purposes.
0ׄ° Fan Offers a pinpoint spray. Very slow cleaning just very high ability.
fifteen° Fan Offers a 15° fan of high force per unit area water. Removes tough grime from a distance.
25° Fan Offers a 25° fan of loftier pressure level h2o. The nearly common, adept for generic cleaning.
40° Fan Offers a 40° fan of loftier pressure water. Gentler spray that is more than advisable for delicate surfaces.
Depression Pressure Low pressure spray with a wide fan, used for applying chemical or lather.
These nozzles can exist interchanged at will, although in order to work properly you need to buy the correct ones for your machine. Most force per unit area washers will come with a xv° fan.
Important NOTE: Never change the nozzles on your pressure level cleaning lance while the machine is running, this tin cause injury and even decease.
GEARING Upwards
Safety is an important consideration with anything. But where pressure level washers are concerned it is paramount.
And then nosotros have included some communication for prophylactic with your new pressure cleaner beneath.
Read the Manual
Reading a manual can often be stigmatised as a waste of time, however pressure cleaners can be unsafe, and the manufacturers put a lot of endeavour into making sure they offer the best possible advice.
If that's non enough, they also offer warranty and troubleshooting information.
Wear Protective Gear
Pressure washers are deceptively powerful, and yous tin can easily be injured. Don't become for shorts and thongs, prophylactic glasses, gloves, and protective shoes should be the minimum.
Don't Touch on
Never, ever put your manus or any other part of you in front of the spray and don't spray information technology at anyone else either, also keep children and teens well away.
Ladders are a Bad Thought
Due to the amount of force a pressure washer puts out, they can really take quite a kick behind them. Exist careful non to balance or stand up on annihilation as this is a recipe for a fall. Extension lances are the go for reaching heights.
GETTING STARTED
That concludes all the major considerations in choosing a pressure washer.
If you need more data or are interested in what pressure washers we tin can supply you can run across our range of Australian made, Spitwater pressure level cleaners here. Spitwater pressure cleaners come with a wide array of accessories and are built to exist highly reliable, where other companies apply plastic, Spitwater uses brass and steel, to ensure it operates but too on its 100th wash down.
We can as well supply a massive range of parts and accessories for your pressure washer.
To learn more, or for help in choosing a pressure washer, experience free to call united states on (08) 9270 0200, or email u.s.a. on contactoem@oemgroup.com.au
Source: https://www.oemgroup.com.au/news/ultimate-guide-choosing-pressure-washer
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