The Best Pressure Washer

I’ve been reviewing tools and garage gear since 2007, and I spent 10 years in the building trades constructing high-end homes in the Boston area. For Wirecutter, I’ve written guides to lawn mowers, string trimmers, leaf blowers, and snow blowers, so I’m very familiar with the ins and outs of residential lawn and yard equipment. For this guide, I spent roughly 50 hours reading every pressure washer article I could find, looked over hundreds of customer reviews at various retailer sites, and spoke with a pressure washer expert who, at the time of our interview, had been involved with these machines for 17 years.

A pressure washer makes fast work of big cleaning projects (and small ones, too). Because water sprays from a washer’s nozzle with such intensity, it can lift up and remove dirt, mildew, and grime that a regular garden hose simply can’t handle. Cleanup jobs that would normally take 20 to 30 minutes with a garden hose and a sponge or wire brush take a fraction of the time with a pressure washer. During our testing, we cleaned a manure-covered wheelbarrow in a matter of minutes, and a set of ancient Adirondack chairs took maybe three or four minutes apiece. You get better results for less work, and the benefits increase as the jobs get bigger.

But you might not need to own one full time. Most rental centers have pressure washers available by the day or hour, so if you’re cleaning your siding once every two years, there’s no sense in buying one just to have it take up space in your garage. Once you start using it more than that—say, a couple of times a year—owning one begins to make sense. We checked a few rental centers around the country and found that the per-week rental charge was typically the cost of a new washer.

An electric pressure washer offers the best combination of power and convenience. Electric washers are not as powerful as gas washers, but they have plenty of strength for normal around-the-house jobs. They’re also cheaper and much easier to deal with: They need almost no maintenance, they start with the flip of a switch, and they’re simple to store in the offseason.

Cleaning power is more than just the PSI number. The capability of a pressure washer is determined by its pressure (measured in pounds per square inch, or psi) and flow (measured in gallons per minute, or gpm). “Psi pushes the organic matter from the surface, and the gpm carries it away,” explained Jamie Kramer, who runs PressureWashr.com. He told us the sweet spot for an electric washer’s pressure is in the 1,800 to 2,000 psi range, with a gpm volume of about 1.3 to 1.5. Multiplying these two numbers gives you what the pressure washer industry calls the cleaning units, or CU, of the washer, which is the most accurate way to compare how two washers perform against one another.

How you use the washer also affects how well it cleans. As Kramar explains on his site, “A little trick is to remember moving 2x further away will 1/2 the force the surface feels.” So just moving the nozzle lets you control the pressure. The weaker pressure washers can still get a lot clean, but with one of those models you need to do the job with the spray tip right up against the surface you’re spraying.

Induction motors are better than universal motors. An electric pressure washer with an induction motor is a little more expensive, but as Kramar writes in an article comparing the two styles, “They are also more rugged, quieter and will have a longer lifespan.” In our testing, the induction motors emitted more of a humming, in contrast to the whine of the universal motors.

Convenience features are very important. We’ve learned to seek out models that have big wheels, metal spray wands, and effective hose and cord storage. These are the telltale signs of a tool that is likely to be easy to use and durable, and one that won’t cause additional frustrations. They do add cost, though: Basic models with minimal features and universal motors cost as little as $150, but more feature-laden washers with heavy-duty induction motors start at around $250 and top out around $400.

We tested by cleaning everything we could. To decide the best pressure washer, we washed six cars, a couple of sets of patio furniture, a lawn tractor, a brick chimney, three filthy wheelbarrows, some grime-covered pallets, a small soccer net, a garden cart, a maple-syrup evaporator, and muddy extension cords. We also cleaned years of caked-on cow manure off an old, well-used Ford tractor. In addition, we’ve continued using our picks for all manner of around-the-house use.

After all of our testing and research, we’re confident that the best pressure washer is the Ryobi RY142300 2300 PSI Brushless Electric Pressure Washer. It didn’t clean any faster or better than the other models during our testing, but its smart design touches avoid nearly all of the inconveniences commonly associated with pressure washers.

It cleans well (but they all do). The Ryobi RY142300’s pressure rating of 2,300 psi is very high for an electric pressure washer, but it has a relatively low flow rate of 1.2 gpm, so its actual cleaning ability is on a par with that of the other models we tried. We never found the power of the Ryobi lacking. In our tests, it managed to get blobs of pine sap off a car and push away a graying layer of mildew on patio furniture.

The RY142300’s induction motor adds a number of advantages. Induction motors are quieter and last longer than the smaller universal motors found on the majority of residential pressure washers. They’re also larger and heavier. In the case of the well-balanced Ryobi, the added weight acts as a stabilizer. Even when we gave the hose a good tug, we were unable to tip over the unit.

The storage for the nozzle tips is nicely designed and easy to use. Near the handle, a series of pressure-fit holes hold the nozzle tips with enough grip to secure them, but not so much that they’re difficult to remove. The storage space even has an additional hole in case you add a nozzle later on. The RY142300 comes with three nozzles (rotary, 15-degree, and soap), and among those we don’t think there is any normal cleaning task that the RY142300 can’t handle.

The hose and cord storage is excellent. To store the Ryobi RY142300, both the hose and cord are looped and attached to the washer with either a Velcro strap (the hose) or a bungee (the cord). Because they’re not stored in a tight loop, as on so many other pressure washers, when unwound they lie flatter. The Ryobi’s cord and hose are also of higher quality than those on most of its competitors.

The Ryobi’s big wheels can traverse any lawn. At nearly a foot in diameter, the Ryobi RY142300’s wheels are almost twice as large as the wheels on most electric pressure washers. This made the RY142300 among the easiest washers to maneuver, especially when we traveled over an uneven lawn, hopped a curb, and bumped it up a set of patio steps. Most of the wheels on the other washers were so bad, we had to half drag and half carry them.

The plug can fit any outlet. Due to a pressure washer’s combination of water and electricity, all models come with a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) built into the power cord for added safety. The GFCI brick is always bulky, but Ryobi sets it several inches back from the plug end, which allows the plug to be normal size. Most other pressure washers have the GFCI built directly into the plug end, making them incompatible with covered exterior outlets.

The Ryobi has a three-year limited warranty. This is one of the longest warranties we found for an electric pressure washer. Ryobi tools are readily available at Home Depot, too, and you can have any servicing done through that retailer, as well, an option that adds to the overall convenience of this pressure washer.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The soap dispenser is a problem. The Ryobi RY142300’s soap container is opaque, so you have no way to see how much detergent is left other than popping the cap off and taking a look. The cap is angled, so filling the container with detergent is difficult. But what’s worse is that the tank is bolted to the washer body, so to empty the tank, we had to tip the unit back and pull out the soap-supply hose on the underside of it. In doing this, it’s not easy to preserve the detergent for future use—in fact, we ended up just rolling the whole machine over on its side and dumping the detergent out on the lawn. Many other models have semi-opaque, removable tanks, with easy-to-access caps.

Another pressure washer we like is the DeWalt DWPW2400 2400 PSI Electric Cold-Water Pressure Washer. This model is similar to the Ryobi RY142300 and shares many of its best characteristics, such as the induction motor, overall cleaning power, and sturdy design. But the DeWalt has a number of differences, some of which we liked and others we weren’t fond of.

It’s very similar to our top pick. The DeWalt has the same roll-bar design, with a padded handle and a low center of gravity. The clearly labeled nozzles are stored at the handle, and the cord has the same smart placement of the GFCI brick. The controls are intuitive, as are the connection points for the hoses. We didn’t notice any difference in cleaning power between the two.

In some ways, it’s better than the Ryobi. The detergent tank on this model is removable and translucent, solving all of the issues we have with the tank on our Ryobi top pick. The DeWalt also comes with two more nozzles than the Ryobi does, adding 25- and 40-degree tips, which are not essential but nice to have. The DWPW2400 also sports large, wide pneumatic (air-filled) tires, making it easy to bounce this thing over rough terrain, including across a rocky, cratered area of lawn that had recently been dug up for planting.

But the cord and wand storage are not great. The cord storage is positioned very low, and with a 35-foot cord, wrapping up the entire length takes a while. Additionally, there’s so much cord that it just barely fits around the “horns” that you’re meant to wrap the cord around. It’s such a long (and annoying) process that we had to fully crouch down to avoid the onset of back pain when we tried to do this from a bent-over position. We also didn’t like how the DWPW2400’s wand holder hardly works at all. The spray wand seemed to fall off every time we touched the washer.

If you want a decent washer for the lowest price possible, we like the Sun Joe SPX3000 Electric Pressure Washer, one of the least expensive models we tested. It’s nowhere near as user-friendly as the Ryobi RY142300, but it cleans just as well, so if you’re planning to operate a pressure washer only once or twice each year and you cringe at the Ryobi’s price tag, this Sun Joe washer will get the job done. It has some annoyances, but among the pressure washers in its price range, the Sun Joe stands apart for making fewer compromises than its competitors.

For a budget pressure washer, it gets a lot right. The Sun Joe washer has a metal spray wand (competitors’ wands at this price are often plastic) and comes with five removable nozzle tips: 0, 15, 25, and 40 degrees, plus soap. Unfortunately, it has no rotary nozzle, but it does have two detergent tanks. It has simple, effective cord and hose hooks, so we never had any issue with the hose or cord falling off while we were moving the washer.

But there are some serious limitations. Compared with the hose on the Ryobi electric model, the Sun Joe’s hose is 5 feet shorter, so encircling a car for washing, for example, is more difficult. The SPX3000 also has small wheels that don’t work well on a lawn—expect to do more carrying and dragging than all-terrain rolling. This washer also has a noisy universal motor, rather than an induction motor like the one on our top pick.

Overall, the Sun Joe lacks the general fit and finish of the Ryobi RY142300. The Sun Joe doesn’t have a metal roll bar, it’s not as stable, the hose connections are just a little more difficult to make, the tip storage isn’t as good, and the GFCI brick is impossible to use in a covered exterior outlet (unless you use an extension cord). These little annoyances—combined with the small wheel size, short hose length, and loud motor noise—can add up to a generally frustrating experience.

For a less powerful but more portable option, we like the Ryobi RY1419MTVNM 1900 PSI Electric Pressure Washer. Although it has the same long hose and cord as our main pick, this smaller Ryobi washer is much easier to carry around and can be stowed away on a shelf. It lacks the premium induction motor of the Ryobi RY142300, so it may not last as long. Another downside is that the GFCI is at the cord end, so it will not work with covered exterior outlets.

The RY1419MTVNM is less than half the weight of our main pick. At about 20 pounds, it’s very easy to carry and store. It can be picked up with the top handle or rolled along on small, luggage-like wheels with the extending handle (we preferred carrying it).

It also has less power than the other models we tested. The smaller Ryobi cleaned all the same things, but we had to hold the nozzle closer to the object and spend a little more time doing that. When it comes to just getting things clean, we preferred the bigger Ryobi, but this one can still work, depending on your timing and technique.

Wirecutter editor Josh Lyon has been long-term testing the RY1419MTVNM for about a year, using it for around-the-house jobs like cleaning patio stones, siding, plastic adirondack chairs, a wheelbarrow, and car tires, among other small chores. Aside from finding the act of pressure washing “ridiculously fun,” he told us the Ryobi RY1419MTVNM’s power is more than enough for the work that he’s doing—he even stripped a little paint off his house when the nozzle got too close. Josh appreciates the RY1419MTVNM’s compact size and has never used its luggage handle, preferring to just carry the washer around. “I don’t think I’d want to deal with a larger machine,” he said. “I find this one just right for easy storage in our smallish shed.”

If storage is your primary concern—and with a rarely used item like a pressure washer, it might be—we recommend the DeWalt DWPW2100 2100 Max PSI Electric Jobsite Cold Water Pressure Washer. Everything about this model’s design is focused on making it easy to stow away. Its biggest flaw is that the hose is very stiff.

There’s a real satisfaction to storing the DeWalt DWPW2100. Pressure washers take up a good amount of space—there is always a hose, a cord, and a spray wand flopping around, so even the small ones aren’t exactly neat, tidy packages. Every detail of the DWPW2100 is designed to reduce that frustration. All the parts and accessories are stored within the rectangular roll-bar frame. The cord tucks into one side and the hose in the other; the wand breaks down into three pieces and slides into a compartment on one side. The spray nozzles are stored on the handle of the spray wand. Because the end result is so perfectly boxy, the DeWalt DWPW2100 can store on its narrow end or have things stacked on top of it (something we’ve never seen in a pressure washer before).

It’s easy to maneuver around. While it doesn’t have a big handle or big wheels, the easy-to-grab roll cage means there are a lot of options for carrying it, which ended up being our preferred method of moving the DeWalt DWPW2100 around. If that’s awkward for you, it also has a retractable handle and small wheels. The wheels are like Rollerblade wheels and work far better than the small, plastic ones found on most pressure washers.

The sleek, storage-centered design comes at a cost. We got a lot done with this pressure washer, but its power is not in the same class as our top pick’s. It’s closer to the compact Ryobi we recommend, but it costs as much as our top pick. That puts it at about twice the price of other models with similar power, so there’s quite a hefty cost increase for the easy storage ability.

For regularly cleaning large or remote areas, we recommend the gas-powered Ryobi RY803023 3100 PSI Cold Water Gas Pressure Washer. The RY803023 comes with a reliable 160 cc Honda engine, and it’s similar to our top Ryobi electric pick in good ways (convenience, availability, warranty) and bad (like the same dysfunctional detergent tank).

It cleans faster than our other picks. On smaller jobs we didn’t notice much of a difference, but we felt it on larger ones like scrubbing down an entire driveway, cleaning a large deck, or rinsing a long stretch of sidewalk. The added power especially helps with cleaning masonry, such as a brick chimney.

The Honda engine has an excellent reputation. The Ryobi RY803023 comes equipped with a 160 cc Honda engine that has a truly stellar reputation. This is the same engine (though just a little smaller) as the one on our gas pick for the best lawn mower, which is without question the most universally praised piece of gas-powered equipment we’ve encountered in our years of reviewing lawn gear.

The Ryobi gas model comes with a single quick-change sprayer tip. It’s designed like a garden sprayer or a showerhead, where you can turn the head and cycle through the spray options. It has 0-, 25-, and 40-degree sprays, as well as two soap settings, fan and jet. This is a convenient feature, and we’re surprised that more washers don’t come with something similar.

But gas engines have issues. As good as the Honda engine is, it will need oil changes, spark-plug maintenance, and seasonal shutdowns. It makes noise and releases emissions. You also need to factor the price of (and time spent getting) gas and stabilizer into the operating costs.

If you’re working on a totally flat surface: In spring 2022, we tested the Greenworks Pro GWP2700 2700 PSI Cold Water Electric Pressure Washer, and in terms of cleaning power, it’s on a par with (or better than) our other picks. It comes with a wide selection of nozzle tips, the cord storage is excellent, and the hose is the floppiest we’ve tested. The Greenworks has big wheels, and the GFCI brick is set back from the end of the cord. The downside is that the body of the Greenworks has the handle orientation of a wheelbarrow (our other picks are more like a two-wheeled dolly). When the washer is in a vertical position, the handle is over the front of the washer and not the back. So moving the Greenworks around on a flat surface like a driveway or lawn is no problem, but getting it up a set of patio stairs or a curb is difficult. In fact, we had to fully lift it, which is awkward, given how the handle sits and where the center of gravity is. Our Ryobi and DeWalt picks just bump right up a set of stairs with minimal difficulty.

Late 2023, Ryobi announced the release of the RY142500 Brushless 2500 PSI Pressure Washer. This model appears to be nearly identical to our pick, except that it has a higher PSI and the handle of the spray wand is a different color. In all other ways it looks to be the same. According to Ryobi, it will be sold for $300, which is actually less than the cost of our pick, which is typically $330. We plan on testing this model in the spring of 2024.

In 2023, we tested the compact Chemical Guys ProFlow PM200 Performance Electric Pressure Washer. It’s a powerful little cleaner designed with the car detailer in mind (indicated in part by the included casters). We liked it, but since it has no onboard hose, cord, or wand storage, it doesn’t store as well as some of the others.

We tested an older version of the Ryobi 40V Whisper Series 1500 PSI Pressure Washer and found it to be very expensive for the power it delivers. It can be hooked up to a hose but also has a siphon tube, so it can pull water from a bucket, lake, or river. For some, this portability may be worth the investment, but for around-the-house work, where a hose and outlet are usually not too far away, we would go with one of our picks.

Most models, like the Ryobi RY142022VNM, the Ryobi RY141612, the Kärcher K1700, and the Kärcher K1900, didn’t have our pick’s combination of features and cleaning power, nor its induction motor.

The AR BlueClean BC2N1HSS and the AR2N1 each have a two-part design in which you can separate the washer unit from the cart. For models priced similar to our pick, however, they fall short in that they lack an induction motor.

The Kärcher K5 is very similar to the now-discontinued K4 (which we tested). It’s a powerful pressure washer, but the convenience features weren’t as comprehensive as those of our pick.

Kärcher’s K3 Follow Me has an interesting four-wheel design that you can pull around behind you. Its low cleaning-units score and so-so owner feedback put it out of the running.

Other models, such as the AR Blue Clean AR383, AR Blue Clean’s AR383SS, and the Sun Joe SPX4600, were marred by subpar cord and hose storage.

Stanley’s electric pressure washers are all made by AR Blue Clean and appear to be the exact same, but with yellow paint instead of blue.

The Greenworks GPW2300 is similar to our Ryobi top pick and DeWalt runner-up, but it has smaller wheels, and we’ve seen availability issues with that company’s models.

We researched a number of popular gas washers, but none matched the Ryobi pick’s ease of use, warranty, availability, and Honda engine. The Simpson MegaShot MSH3125-S 49-State came the closest. It has a larger Honda engine (190 cc) but no quick-change tip; it also has smaller wheels and a shorter warranty. Simpson also sells the MegaShot MS60773-S 50-State, which similarly has a shorter hose and warranty.

This article was edited by Harry Sawyers.