Choosing the Right Equipment

Many pressure washing business owners make the mistake of buying the home based or residential style pressure washers and expect to do commercial work with the machines. I’m sure you have heard the motto “You get what you pay for” before.  That motto certainly applies to the pressure washing business, just because the pressure washer is cheap doesn’t mean it’s going to last long.

Also just because a company claims the pressure washer is a commercial grade unit, doesn’t necessarily make that true. In order to determine if the pressure washer is a commercial grade unit you need to have a basic knowledge of the different brands of pumps and accessories outfitted on the machines.

Most of the machines have the standard Honda engine, but it’s the pump on the unit that will determine whether the pressure washer will last 15-30 hours or over 120 hours of continuous pressure washing.
 
You also need to be familiar with the PSI (Pounds Square Inch) rating and the GPM (Gallons per minute). These are the two most important features of the machine and are two key things you need to base your purchasing decision on.  The PSI rating determines the pressure of the water spraying out of the trigger gun of the machine and the gallons per minute of course is the measure of the amount of water that comes out of the end of the trigger gun.
 
Also there are cold water pressure washers, hot water pressure washer, and steam pressure washers.  Cold water pressure washers are great for general purpose cleaning and are the most commonly used. Hot water pressure washers can spray water at temperatures of up to 200 degrees Faranheit.  These machines work best with removing grease and oil, especially on concrete.

Steam pressure washers are far superior to either cold water pressure washers or hot water pressure washers  and use heating coils to achieve temperatures up to 330° F. When it comes to removing dirt, grease, food, chewing gum on concrete, graffiti, and countless other substances these machines work wonders.