Is a cheap pressure washer all you need? Maybe.
Where to Find a Cheap Pressure Washer
The big-box home stores sell a lot of things, including portable pressure washers. Their high-end models are called "prosumer." Are they good enough?
Admittedly, We're a Little Biased
A lot of these cheap pressure washers are designed for car washing and cleaning your deck and siding. They'll even do “OK” cleaning off your driveway. For use around the house a couple of times a month they might be just the unit you'll need. But don't confuse them with a commercial pressure washing system.
Performance
The key thing you'll notice when using a cheap pressure washer is performance. While better than using your garden hose, they have low-end PSI and GPM ratings, which means long cleaning times. This kind of performance is fine if you like to spend your free time puttering around your yard, but gets costly when you're paying an employee to do the work.
Maintenance
Here’s where a cheap power washer can get expensive. In order to keep the price down, cheap pressure washers use a lot of plastic. The cart is made of plastic, hoses are plastic, even the pump itself is filled with plastic. The washers and clamps used will be low grade.
In a commercial grade pressure washer, all components are made of high-quality materials and are made for continuous duty. Plastic is replaced by metal, washers and clamps are high quality. If a motor or pump breaks down sometime in the future, it can be replaced easily (try that on a cheap pressure washer).
A Better Option
We can't sell you a commercial machine at home store prices, but we can offer you a lower-priced option: used. Master Blaster takes in lots of used models as trade-ins. We send them through our shop where our techs go through them and refurbish worn-out parts and then we put them online and give you a chance to pick one up at a bargain price. Are they as good as a brand new pressure washer - probably not, but they are a great value.
