I’m American. I like things that are bigger, faster, louder, and more powerful. Everything I own is red white and blue, and runs on fossil fuels. Well, almost everything.
If you would have told me to buy an electric pressure washer 5 years ago, I would have laughed and asked why? So, my neighbors can laugh at me? And I never bought one – my wife did.
I scoffed at it and told her I’d rather throw my shoulder out trying to start my old gas powered one every spring after the gas congealed in the carburetor from sitting too long.
Rightfully disgusted, I held my position for about 2 hours until I heard the sweet purr of the water hitting the driveway – something I had never heard before, because it was drowned out by the drone of a gasoline powered engine.
I immediately life was immediately changed the moment I snatched the washer wand from my wife’s hands and drew a smiley face in the years-worth of dirt buildup on my driveway.
“This thing is awesome” – me
“Dude, it’s so quiet” – me
“Why didn’t anyone tell me about these before” – me (they told me, I just didn’t listen)
So, here it is – an almost comprehensive list of why you should buy an electric pressure washer.
Its electric – duh.
I’m not going to lecture you on why you should reduce your use of fossil fuels and why it’s important to switch to renewables. I mean, your electricity probably isn’t coming from a renewable source, but this is a start.
It is cheaper to operate an electric motor than it is a gasoline powered motor. If you’re paying the U.S. average of $0.145 per kilowatt hour for electricity, it costs about 10 cents per horsepower * hour. In other words, a 1 horse power electric motor costs you 10 cents an hour to run at constant output.
A gasoline motor with equivalent output will cost you about 40 cents per hour to run (considering $5 / gallon gas price)
With gas prices at a historical high right now, electric pressure washers are music to my ears.
Noise pollution
Some people could care less about how loud their equipment is. I implied above that I am one of those people – I am not. The ‘bigger, faster, louder’ part was a joke. I used to have a neighbor that would weed eat his yard at 10pm, for no less than 2 hours at a time – I’m starting to think he was just trying to have some alone time. Anyway, the sound of a 2-stroke motor screaming at you from 3 houses away for two hours at 10pm is not my cup of tea.
Now, that may be an extreme, buy we all have been in a situation where someone was cutting their grass, weed eating, cutting trees, or whatever while you were just trying to relax on your back porch. Or maybe you were working from home, in an important meeting (on your back porch), or maybe you were in your kitchen. Gas motors from lawn equipment make a lot of noise! Switching to electric is not only good for the environment, but its courteous to your neighbors as well. Now you’ve done two good deeds!
Electric pressure washers require less maintenance
I alluded to this in my introduction to this topic. Have you ever let gasoline in a carburetor for an extended period of time? It solidifies and ruins the carburetor, the seals, and the fuel line. Every season you need to drain the fuel tank and engine of gas or add an expensive fuel stabilizer to it so it doesn’t solidify.
Spoiler alert – you do not have to do this with an electric motor! Guess what else you don’t have to do? Yep – change the spark plug. Or change the oil. Again, I love electric motors.
Electric pressure washers have pressure too!
I used to think electric pressure washers were weak. I didn’t think they could tackle the tough job of peeling off 1/16th inch of concrete from my driveway every year. And even if it does clean it, the motor will probably burn up, right?
This is absolutely not the case. Electric pressure washers some in many sizes, anywhere from 1200 psi up to 3000 psi or more. Sure, with a quick search I can find a gas-powered washer that produces 3200 psi. That’s more. But let’s be real – 3000 is pretty close to 3200.
Reliability
I have owned the same one for about 5 years. This was by no means an expensive model – it produces a maximum of 1800 psi and is powerful enough to do it all around my house. Clean the driveway, the siding, and the cars. I have run it for 5 hours straight on a 100F day in the middle of the summer. It still works.
It’s crazy that I ever doubted the quality and reliability of an electric pressure washer. It’s not like I’m a professional pressure washer user or anything. I’m just your everyday suburban user of high-pressure water from time to time. Even if I did wash with pressure for a living, I would now consider buying an electric one!
I hope this helped you get off the fence. And while your off it, hit it with that pressure washer!