Pressure Washer Accessories
Pressure washer accessories are great additions to your machine and can really make your life a lot easier. Find out which accessories you should add to your toolkit.
There are many tasks around your home or business that can be accomplished more easily and effectively with the use of a good pressure washer. It doesn’t matter if you are looking to clean your car or truck, resurface your deck or clean years of grime from old bricks or sidewalks, a pressure washer will make the job easier and the end result will be better than if you try to do these things with only muscle power. However the pressure washer is just the beginning. Without the right pressure washer accessories all you have is a stream of pressurized air with some water mixed in – helpful maybe, but not nearly as useful as it can be with the proper add-ons.
What Pressure Washer Accessories Are The Most Helpful?
From the injector through the hose and right up to the nozzle there are specialized accessories that will make your pressure washer more effective and will make the job at hand easier and more enjoyable.
Hoses
The typical electric pressure washer comes with a short hose of maybe 10 feet. That’s fine if you don’t mind carrying the unit around with you everywhere. These hoses can also be more fragile and prone to cracking and breaking. Why not rid yourself of these issues right away by getting a quality hose for your pressure washer? 50-100 feet of hose should be sufficient for most jobs. The hose should be at least 3/8 inch thick and should include a quick connect with a swivel. Depending on your usage you may also want to consider wire braiding or chemical resistance.
Injectors
These are used to add detergent to the water stream and can be either upstream or downstream varieties. Detergents help to clean better, especially in the case of grease or other non water soluble dirt. Upstream injectors add detergent to the water before it goes through the pump and downstream injectors add water after it leaves the pump. Some pumps can be damaged by the chemicals in the detergents so your choice of upstream or downstream will be determined by this. Brass injectors with stainless steel openings are the most rugged.
Telescoping Wands
Telescoping Wands allow you to get to high places without having to leave the ground. Ideal for cleaning second story windows, gutters, large trucks and signs from the safety of the ground.
Nozzles
These are the most important of all pressure washer accessories. Nozzles come in a variety of sizes that are matched to the cleaning power you might need. The nozzles with the smallest openings deliver a high impact stream of water that is very narrow like a pencil. These are good for cleaning machinery, removing stains from concrete and even cleaning weeds from cracks. Care must be taken with this nozzle not to damage the area being cleaned. Other nozzles make the water fan out, creating a larger pattern, but with less pressure.
With such a wide variety of nozzles, you can use them to do everything from scraping paint or mildew with the smaller fans up to cleaning your car or house windows with the largest fan. And for those who need maximum pressure and a larger cleaning area you can get turbo nozzles. These take the small pencil thin stream of water and spin it in a circle of 15 or 25 degrees to increase the cleaning area without losing the top cleaning power.
Rotary Brushes
These add scrubbing power to your pressure washer, making them especially useful for applications where detergent is used. They are ideal for cleaning cars, trucks and airplanes as well as decks and patios and even sidewalks. Brushes come with varying degrees of stiffness to the bristles so you can choose one that is appropriate for the type of cleaning you will be doing. Softer bristles should be used for cars and trucks and stiffer bristles for your tires and for sidewalks or decks.
Sand Injectors
This is one of the pressure washer accessories that most people don’t think of, but by adding one of these you turn your power washer into a sand blaster. Using the pressure washer for car as a wet sandblaster has the benefit of not kicking up a lot of dust like with traditional sand blasting and it can make easy work of tough rust or paint removal jobs. Care definitely needs to be taken with this accessory as you can easily damage the underlying material if you are not careful.
Deck Cleaners
If you’ve ever power washed a large deck then you know how time consuming and tedious this job can be; one board after the other, back and forth, slowly cleaning away the dirt and grime. It’s also really easy to slip and go too close to the surface, damaging boards and sending little splinters everywhere, even if you are a skilled professional. The solution to this problem is a power washer accessory designed specifically for deck cleaning.
Basically this attachment hooks onto the end of the wand and will allow you to clean your deck in larger sweeping motions. Surface cleaner uses a jet action to keep the spray gun at an exact distance from the surface you are cleaning. So you are able to clean faster with no streaks. Using a device like this feels a lot like vacuuming the floor instead of pressure washing.
Where to Look For Pressure Washer Accessories?
Many pressure washer accessories are designed specifically for a particular brand; however there are many types of accessories that can be used universally on any type of washer. If you’re shopping for a whole new washer and want to know which ones I recommend, check out my article on the best pressure washers.
While pressure washers are a mere luxury for some, they are a downright necessity for others. They serve their purpose in a variety of industrial uses and can be very helpful to the average home owner as well. No matter which type of user you are you are sure to need a high quality pressure washer accessory eventually. They are all designed to make the washer work more effectively and efficiently, and no matter what job you are doing there is likely to be an accessory that will help you accomplish it better and faster. Choose the right pressure washer accessories for the job and you will be 10 times more pleased with your decision to purchase a power washer and your cleaning jobs will go much smoother and faster.
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