Cleaning a large area such as a wooden or stone terrace can take a lot of time and effort.
However, thanks to a surface cleaner for a pressure washer, this process can be accelerated and simplified many times over.
There are some quality features that you should look for when buying a surface cleaner. These include, in particular, the housing material and the performance specifications.
If a surface cleaner is to be used indoors, it is essential that it has an extraction function. This is because they are able to remove the dirty water directly. This prevents the entire warehouse from being flooded.
10 Best Pressure Washer Surface Cleaners
B E Flat Surface Cleaner for Pressure Washer with 4000psi Maximum Pressure & 24″ Stainless Steel Head
Karcher Universal 15″ Pressure Washer Surface Cleaner
VEVOR Pressure Washer Surface Cleaner, 23
Bosch AquaSurf 280 Multi-Surface Patio Cleaner
M MINGLE 15 Inch Pressure Washer Surface Cleaner
Wilks-USA High Power Surface Cleaner Attachment with Detergent Tank
POHIR 15″ Pressure Washer Surface Cleaner 4000 PSI
GAISNY T300 Plus T-Racer Patio Cleaner – Pressure Washer Accessory
Greenworks Surface Cleaner Universal Pressure Washer Attachment
Surface cleaner buying advice
When choosing a surface cleaner for a pressure washer, you will notice that the biggest differences lie in the workmanship of the housing and the rollers of the attachment.
High-quality surface cleaners can be quickly recognised by a metal or stainless steel housing and large, free-rotating rollers. However, you should make sure that the rollers do not rub off.
High-quality models can also be recognised by their higher temperature and pressure resistance. This means that they can also be combined with more powerful pressure washers to clean large areas faster and more deeply.
Price-conscious models rely on water pressure to lift them off the ground, so rollers are often omitted. However, rollers are a much higher quality alternative.
However, if the surface cleaner is to be used mainly for cleaning walls, you should opt for lightweight models.
Thus, a plastic housing and the absence of castors are a real weight-saver here. In addition, the presence of handles is a basic requirement for working on walls with a surface cleaner.
However, a low pressure should be used, as otherwise soft woods such as larch can be damaged. Cleaning the patio with a surface cleaner is simple and requires only a few steps.
Which surface cleaner fits my pressure washer?
To find out whether a surface cleaner and a particular pressure washer are compatible, the specifications of the two devices must be compared.
This includes in particular the temperatures and permissible pressures. Ideally, the limitations of the surface cleaner are slightly higher than those of the pressure washer.
In addition, the connections of the two components must be the same. However, if the surface cleaner and the pressure washer gun have different connections, they can usually be combined with each other by connecting an adapter.
Surface cleaner with suction function
If the patio is cleaned with a surface cleaner, the dirty water running off into the garden is usually no problem. However, if you want to clean professionally or indoors with the surface cleaner, the swirled-up dirt should be collected again together with the cleaning water. For this purpose, surface cleaners with an integrated suction function have an additional nozzle that creates a kind of suction under the cleaner.
On the underside of the surface cleaner there is also a circumferential slot into which the dirty water is sucked. This slot is usually a few millimetres wide and thus also determines the maximum particle size of the dirt particles that can be sucked in. The dirty water is then discharged directly via a hose or directed into a collection container.
It is advantageous if the hose can be placed directly in a wastewater sluice. Since powerful pressure washers have high flow rates, collection containers quickly become full and have to be emptied often. This is annoying and prolongs the cleaning process.
How does a surface cleaner work?
A surface cleaner is connected to the high-pressure gun of a pressure washer and thus supplied with water by it. The cleaners, which are usually round in shape, have several nozzles on their underside with which the water is applied at high pressure to the surface to be cleaned. Depending on the model, these nozzles also rotate the water jet to achieve a particularly good cleaning result.
In this way, the dirt is washed off the surface and flushed out of cracks and grooves. This dirt then flows away together with the cleaning water or, in the case of a pressure washer with suction function, is collected again. Higher-quality models also have rollers on the underside that allow the surface cleaner to be pushed effortlessly over the cleaning surface.
Alternatives to a surface cleaner
The surface cleaner is not the only option for cleaning a large area, such as a wooden patio or a paved driveway. It is rivalled by the dirt tiller and the power scrubber.
With a dirt tiller, the water jet of the pressure washer is additionally bundled before it is applied to the surface with full force in the form of a flat jet. The power scrubber works with virtually no pressure at all; instead, the cleaning power is generated by the brushes. It is similar to a conventional scrubber, but has the advantage of a direct water supply and slightly higher water pressure.
