Gas or Electric Pressure Washer? What’s Best for Home Cleaning?
Homeowners often debate and have their preference between gas powered or battery/electric powered tools. But when it comes to washing your home, whats really best for you?
While yes we offer pressure washing services, but the point of this post is to help homeowners who like a little DIY project here and there get the job done!
Things to look for in your next pressure washing machine
While both gas and electric pressure washers can spray water and clean things, its important to note certain things such as its power, running duration, maintenance costs and usability of each machine, in this article we will go over the pros and cons of each with no bias and give you (in our opinion) the best electric pressure washer overall and the best gas pressure washer overall aimed towards homeowners like yourself! We will also throw in a budget option for each as not everybody has 3 arms to offer with the leg todays economy requires. Lets get started!
Here is why “psi” doesn’t matter!
Typically when looking for a pressure washer most people think the higher the psi the better the pressure washer but that’s just not true! Usually you aren’t even going to be using even close to what psi your machine can produce because using something like 2000 psi on your homes siding or your car is not the smartest of choices. (This is why I always tell homeowners to throw away the red tip that comes with your pressure washer. For no surfaces (not even concrete) will you need to blast it with a red tip)
So what you want to be looking for in your next pressure washer is higher “GPM” or “Gallons per minute”. What this means it how many gallons per minute can be taken from your home’s exterior spigot and sprayed out of your pressure washing gun. The more water the pressure washer can push the faster the job gets done. Most residential properties can push ~4 gallons per minute (or 4gpm) from exterior spigots, so we wouldnt recommend going over 4gpm as it could lead to quick pump damage and leave you with a broken piece of equipment!
Electric Pressure Washers
The Pros
+ Low Maintenance: Electric pressure washers dont require oil changes, air filters, or new fuel lines, this can be seen as a plus for many homeowners looking for a quick wash and then forgetting about the machine for a few weeks/months
+ Not as Expensive: Most electric pressure washer are on the low end of pricing when it comes to pressure washers overall
The Cons
- Limited Power: When it comes to electric the most gpm you can get is 2.8gpm and thats the absolute best gpm. While this is not terrible, it will make projects a little longer.
- Shorter Lifespan: Electric pressure washers are known for being low maintenance, hence their short lifespans, things like hard water can cause corrosion in these machines that causes damage that can be worth more than the machine is worth.
- Potential for overheating: While its not going to happen often, on those hot summer days when you’re sweating your butt off trying to finish cleaning your siding and boom! Machine overheats. This could put a block in time and leave you not even wanting to go back at it the same day.
Gas Pressure Washers
The Pros
+ More than enough power: While gas machine can get pretty high in terms of gpm (>16gpm easily), as we discussed, most residential spigots are not going to reach more than 4gpm, so we’ll cap it here!
+ Faster Cleaning: Because a gas power washer can reach significantly higher gpm of water flowing, this means your house gets cleaned faster, as you are able to move along faster
+ No need for an outlet: Gas power washers can be drug around the yard with you wherever you need! As long as your garden spigot hose can connect, then you are good to go, just fill up the tank and spray away!
The Cons
- Can be noisy: The gas power washers can get pretty noisy, this can be annoying for some people as their neighbors may be close by, and cause them a headache. (Or those pesky HOA's)
- More Expensive: Gas pressure washers will almost always be more expensive than an electric one, theres an engine involved, as-well as other machinery. Regular oil changes, and gas refills are needed. Here and there an air filter may need to be replaced too which are all cheap fixes, but add up!
- Heavy: While most gas pressure washers do have wheels, they can still be heavy and a bit of a hassle to move, just keep this in mind when purchasing!
*We do not use any Amazon Affiliate links in this post, we make $0 off any purchases made*
Best Gas Pressure Washers
Before we hop into options, please note we have not tested these products. We are going based purely on pricing, GPM, PSI, manufacturers and pumps. But its pretty safe to say, if you follow regular maintenance like oil changes, the engine will never go before the pump does. Most of pressure washers fatality is a pump failure in which leads to it getting listed to facebook marketplace because they dont know what went wrong with it. If you’re not using a DOWNSTREAM injector then the chemicals (like degreaser, purple power, ect) get flushed through your pump causing it to corrode away at seals, and the pump. Never use chemicals if its not DOWNSTREAM!
Best Overall
Best Budget
$839.00
Best Electric Pressure Washers
Once again we should mention, we have not tested these machines. But both do come with a soap dispenser that downstreams your soap. This is good for avoiding pump failure due to corrosion from the chemicals as we explained. I found out writing this that 2.6gpm is the highest gpm electric pressure washer made as Im writing this, so thats why its top of the list. As discussed more GPM=Quicker finish ;)
Best Overall
Best Budget
$99.99 USD
$139.99 USD
So now its up to you.. Which one is better for your needs?
While an electric pressure washer may be good for say a in-home car wash, or getting some light cleaning done around the house, it may not be able to take on EVERY job you throw at it. Gas pressure washers are definitely going to be the way to go if youre looking to get some tougher work done, FASTER! But if youre looking for something more portable, for smaller jobs around the house, then electric may be the way to go… if you dont mind dragging that cord and hose along with you!