Compared a $300 pressure washer to a $50 one I borrowed from a neighbor in Corrales

The cheap one took twice as long to strip the moss off my driveway but the expensive one left a gouge in my concrete that I'm still patching, so what's the real cost here, anyone else find the middle ground works best?

2 comments

2 Comments

dakota1601d ago

Hang on real quick, that gouge in the concrete probably wasn't just from the pressure being too high. It could be that you held the tip too close or used a rotary nozzle instead of a fan tip. Those cheap ones usually have a fixed nozzle that's way too aggressive for driveways, while the expensive ones sometimes come with adjustable tips that let you dial it back. The middle ground is actually getting a decent electric model with a few nozzle options and keeping the wand at least 12 inches away from the surface. That way you don't strip moss or gouge concrete, just takes a little longer but saves you the patch job.

fisher.reese1d ago

Whoa, wait a sec. I think @dakota160 is onto something with the nozzle thing, but nobody's mentioned the water supply yet. Ngl, if you're using a garden hose that's been kinked or has a smaller diameter, the pressure drops hard when you let off the trigger, then spikes when you pull it again. That surge is what gouges the surface, not just the steady blast. I've seen it happen with a cheap 2000 psi unit where the flow was inconsistent, and it left these little divots every time I started up. Tbh, it's worth checking your hose setup before you blame the pressure washer itself.