Is It Ok To Pressure Wash A Car?

Author: E. Silva (aka Mr. Awesome - The Niche Specialty Expert)

This is a question that many car owners, new and old, rich and poor, have come up with — I kid you not. I, too, had the question once. And the answer is simple : YES, it is absolutely ok to pressure – wash your car, but on that note alone, there are also some other major points to keep in mind ( and I will walk you through all of them in this short read ) . Please stay with me, and let us have a good time talking about this. Read on now ….

Now first of all, you need a special kind of pressure – washer to pressure – wash your car with ( and for more on this, read any of several other blog pages I made right here, which talk about that and give you a good primer on the matter … you can see I have written much about it, he he he he heh ) … and you also need to consider keeping things at a psi range of 1200 to 1900 ( no more, no less, ideally, though some have argued that you can be able to ‘barely get away with’ spraying at 2000 psi, but not without some eventual long – term paint damage or corrosion ) . When you pressure wash your car, make sure your pressure washer works within these range settings ( and usually the front or back of the product, its box or its user guide can tell ya that … or in many cases , you can look up the model online and see a virtual user guide for it there, as long as the model is relatively new …. or less than 20 years old ) .

Some have initially thought they’d be doing their car a favor ( and truly removing some tough stains, gunk, debris, etc ) by applying a full – force, 3000 – psi spray right on to the car. But they are quite wrong, as a matter of fact, and more than likely ( like, literally, 9 times out of 10, and you can quote me on this, if you’d like, he he he he heh ) damaging the external paint on the car’s body – work. This can cost time and money to have to fix or re – paint ( or hire an expert to do ) , at the end of the day. Just know that, like I have said here and on other pages, anything past 2000 psi is really pushing the limit, so to speak, and you want to make sure to always stay within the given range I mentioned …

For pressure – washing most cars ( trucks and even RTVs / ATVs included, he he heh ) , you want a spray nozzle of no less than 25 degrees ( and no more than 45 degrees ) . Please remember that also.