pressure washer for mostly cars and such..

[Mace]

How much PSI do I actually need before I start stripping paint of of my cabover or truck?? I really want one to get my junk clean. looks like anywhere from 1200 to 5K psi is available. 5K seems to be just stupid tho (which has it's own entertainment as well)

 

[bigndn]

Mine's a fixed 2400psi with different fan tips (0 degrees, 15, 30, 45, 60, and a soap tip). Mostly I use the 30 for washing the rigs. The 0 will carve into solid wood, a cedar tree in my front yard is testament to that.

 

[D'Animal]

The Gallons per minute is something to consider as well.

A 5,000psi at 1 gallon a minute is strip paint (and maybe cut metal and plastic bumpers.)

A 1,200 psi at 3 gallons a minute is seem like a really really high pressure garden hose.

A good pressure washer is a combination of GPM and PSI. If you get a hot water one, it will clean better and you can use 1/3 of the GMP and PSI.


I have a 2,800 psi 2.5gpm hot water pressure washer and it cleans the nastiest things. Mine is not steam since the rheostat adjustable thermostat only goes to 190 degrees. It burns diesel. With the hot water "On", it will clean better than a 4,000psi 3 gpm cold water unit.


There are several models on the market that you can connect directly to your hot water heater in you house.

When searching, make sure you get one that adds chemicals, soap, etc after the pump. You can still have the high pressure soap feature this way but you will not ahve the cleaning stuff sitting in your pump.

 

[e9999]

yup, watch out, I witnessed a friend (yes, a friend, that's it... ) once stripping decals and paint off a truck with a potent washer...

I'm using a low power unit for the vehicles (1500 psi or so?). And still I'm careful.

 

[bigndn]

yup, watch out, I witnessed a friend (yes, a friend, that's it... ) once stripping decals and paint off a truck with a potent washer...

I used mine to strip the bitchin '85 series decals off my Hilux. Worked great, then with some Goo-gone, the residue went bye-bye.