Pressure Washers: What PSI is safe for car washing?

[FastTimesAtFGHigh]

Is a 1200 PSI @ 1.3 GPM pressure washer safe for washing cars?

[IceWindius]

Originally Posted by FastTimesAtFGHigh

Is a 1200 PSI @ 1.3 GPM pressure washer safe for washing cars?

ROFL, thats nothing, you'll be lucky if you take off any caked on dirt at that PSI. Years ago when I worked at a car wash, those babies could pump out 4000 PSI, enough to strip paint right off the body if we weren't careful.

[FastTimesAtFGHigh]

Well i was reading reviews on this one, and some people were using it to strip paint off their decks and such. As long as it's not "too powerful" then i'll be happy!

[maiku]

Any of those electric ones you buy in the store (usually up to 1800psi) would be ok. I'd stay under 2000psi. You could use a more powerful one and just adjust the output (that's what I do).

[06GAsi]

Originally Posted by maiku

Any of those electric ones you buy in the store (usually up to 1800psi) would be ok. I'd stay under 2000psi. You could use a more powerful one and just adjust the output (that's what I do).

but you cant beat a hand wash.

[24boosted]

Yeah my pressure washer is at 1600 psi, if there is a paint chip the pressurized water gets underneith through the chip, it starts peeling it back. I use it to clean off wheels, strip off leftover paint, when I refinish them. If you spread the spray pattern it should be okay, but if it is a solid stream then that could damage the paint.

[loserdrumguy]

I use 1600 psi when I wash

[maiku]

Originally Posted by 06GAsi

but you cant beat a hand wash.

Well I'm not sure how he intends on washing his car, but the pressure washer is just intended to remove excess debris from the paint before hand washing it, and it makes light work of cleaning the underbody and engine bay. The only way to get it clean is to hand wash. If you just pressure wash the dirt off, you still have that layer of road grime and other bonded contaminants on the surface of the paint.