A power washer is an electric pressure washer that connects to your water supply and produces a highly pressurised water jet that can be used for outdoor cleaning.
Pressure washers can be used to clean anything from walls and driveways to bicycles and garden furniture. Some models are suitable only for lighter tasks, while others have the high-performance specifications needed to tackle really heavy jobs, such as removing ground-in dirt from masonry.
Those of you who intend to use your pressure washer to wash a bicycle should take care to avoid spraying the parts of the bike where bearings are housed, as highly pressurised water can get through these components and wash out the grease from inside them, which is essential to their function. This advice also applies to washing power tools and white goods.
When using a pressure washer, it’s important to wear goggles (and clothes you don’t care about too much), as the powerful jet can cause small chips of material from whatever you’re washing to fly through the air. It goes without saying that you should never aim a power washer at a person or animal.
Before your first use of whichever pressure washer you choose, make a note of the maximum water temperature the appliance can accommodate, which will be noted in the manual. Running excessively hot water through the pressure washer could cause it to break.
In order to use a pressure washer, you will require a garden hose with a universal tap connector, and access to a power outlet, probably via an extension cable.
Blaupunkt PW7200i Pressure Washer
Power: 2100W
Pressure: 165 bar
Best for: convenient, effective home use
Unbelievable. That would be a fair word to describe the cleaning power of the Blaupunkt PW7200i. It makes light work of cleaning all sorts of surfaces, including brick walls and concrete driveways. Our tester was amazed to see the true colour of his yard after blasting it at close range with the PW7200i.
Based on our experience, the PW7200i is one of the easiest power washers to start using, with very little assembly required before use. It did take us a while to find the nozzle, in its storage space at the rear of the machine, so if you’re buying this power washer, make a note of that to potentially save yourself some time!
We found the PW7200i’s nozzle particularly effective at varying the width and intensity of the water jet, which we were able to do on-the-go, as we sought the ideal mix of power and coverage to efficiently clean different surfaces. The hose reel is a really useful feature for tidying up.
Clarke Jet 9500 2400W Pressure Washer
Power: 2400W
Pressure: 200 bar
Best for: raw power and toughness
True to its sky-high max pressure rating, the Clarke Jet 9500 seems to have the strongest cleaning power of any of the power washers we've tested. Not only did it cut through ground-in dirt like no other; it actually brought up loose material from a rubbly patch of paving, when we held it too close to the ground.
The components of this power washer are of a standard suitable for trade use: tough, hard-wearing and effective. We were particularly impressed with the high pressure hose, which is coated with a tough rubber similar to that which is used with racing bike tyres.
The only real drawbacks to the Clarke Jet 9500 are that it's a bit bigger, heavier and more expensive than some of the alternatives, which might make it a little excessive for home use. However, if you need a really powerful appliance for tough tasks, you'll find this superb power washer well worth the effort and investment.
See available options from Amazon
Kärcher K2 Full Control Home Pressure Washer
Power: 1400W
Pressure: 110 bar
Best for: convenient cleaning for lighter tasks
Compact, user friendly and really quite powerful, the K2 is a great power washer for relatively light-duty cleaning tasks like washing garden furniture, bicycles and patios.
As soon as you start assembling the K2, you get the sense this is an excellent appliance. Its components feel tough yet lightweight, and connecting them up proves to be a smooth, intuitive process.
With no controls except a selection of power settings on the vario lance and an on/off switch on the power washer itself, the K2 is particularly easy to master. Despite its simple setup, the K2 Full Control Home set does offer plenty of versatility by way of its attachments. Particularly of note is the patio cleaner attachment, which is designed to clean outdoor flooring just as well as a regular nozzle, but without sending a curtain of filthy spray all over the user and surrounding area.
We used the K2 to clean about two years’ worth of dirt, cobwebs, and, regrettably, mould, off an old bicycle. This proved to be a total breeze, even though we were using the lowest power setting of the washer’s high-pressure gun/vario lance combination.
Another strong suit of the K2 is its compactness. Not only is this power washer small; it also has useful storage for most of its attachments built onto it, so its footprint in the garage is considerably neater than most.
See all Kärcher pressure washers on Amazon
Ryobi RPW120B Pressure Washer
Power: 1800W
Pressure: 120 bar
Best for: a solid option for middleweight cleaning jobs
Ryobi’s RPW120B is a great-quality power washer at a mid-market. The accessories feel weighty and stoutly made, especially the pressure gun and the variable-pressure lance. A tank at the rear of the appliance (capacity: 1L) can be filled with detergent, which can be added to the water stream using a detergent function on the spray head.
It took us a few attempts to get the knack of attaching the lance to the trigger gun, but we had no problems from that point on. The rotary brush accessory (sold separately), is really handy for getting stubborn dirt off cars and other metal objects.
We used the RPW120B to wash a small white car, which was generously coated with guano and dust. The appliance proved more than capable of removing all but the most ground in dirt, which we were able to winkle loose with the rotary brush accessory.
Once we were done testing the RPW120B, we found we could store it in a surprisingly small space, thanks to the accessory storage solutions built onto the power washer.
VonHaus 1600W Pressure Washer
Power: 1600W
Pressure: 90 bar
Best for: value for money
Do not assume that this power washer is weak, just because it is small. The VonHaus 1600W Pressure Washer is in fact a mighty device, capable of cleaning floors, walls, and even stripping certain types of paint.
The build quality is very good value, too. The pressure gun seems to be of particularly sound build (it’s actually very similar to the one that comes with the Blaupunkt power washer also reviewed here.
There are a few differences worth noting between this and the other power washers featured here. Instead of an in-built soap/detergent reservoir, it comes with a detergent bottle which attaches to the end of the device. This setup makes the power washer slightly easier to use if you tend to power-wash with soap rarely; or a little fiddlier to use if the opposite is true. It also doesn’t have wheels - not that that’s a problem, given how light it is.
Kärcher K7 Premium Full Control Pressure Washer
Power: 2800W
Pressure: 160 bar
Best for: industry-leading innovation
In some countries, Kärcher is used colloquially as a noun meaning pressure washer, or as a verb meaning to pressure-wash. So, you might say this is the Hoover, or the Google, of power washer manufacturers.
Kärcher’s high-end K7 Premium Full Control Pressure Washer bundle certainly lives up to its maker’s eminence, with outstanding cleaning performance and a host of innovative, high-tech features.
The T450 Patio Cleaner head is part of what makes the K7 a standout performer. You can use two foot-operated buttons on the top of it to choose between two actions: one that uses twin rotating spray nozzles inside the head, or another which produces a strong, direct jet.
Another interesting feature is the LED display on the Full Control Trigger Gun, which can be used to set the force of the jet, when the pressure gun is used in certain modes. Add in the variety of spray modes available, including one option that creates a rotating jet, and we can only conclude that this excellent power washer is just showing off now.
Verdict:
Highly effective, easy-to-use and suitable for storing in a reasonably snug space, the Blaupunkt PW7200i is our ES Best Top Pick. That’s not to say we weren’t impressed with its competitors. The Clarke Jet 9500 is supremely powerful; the Kärcher K7 is dazzlingly high-tech; and the other models from Ryobi, VonHaus and Kärcher all offer their own advantages at a more reasonable price point. But the Blaupunkt PW7200i wins the day, thanks to its exceptional combination of usability and cleaning power.
