9 Tips on How To Use A Pressure Washer To Clean Your Car
Most of us take great pride in keeping our cars clean and looking good. This isn’t just about maintenance – there is something satisfying about looking at your car after a fresh cleaning.
As much as we might love the look of a clean car, doing the work by hand can be time-consuming and tedious. As an alternative, you might go to an automatic car wash, but you know it doesn’t do as good of a job as you can, and you might not want to spend the money.
If you are looking for a better way to get your car clean, you might want to consider buying a pressure washer. Along with being great for a variety of outdoor cleaning tasks, a pressure washer can be the perfect tool for washing your car.
In this post, we are going to look at how to wash a car with a pressure washer. We will give you some tips for protecting your vehicle when using a car pressure washer and teach you how to clean the car more efficiently.
Read the Manual
The first step is learning how to use a pressure washer. Before using a pressure washer for car cleaning, you should read the manual. Learn about the different pressure settings, the right way to set it up and all of the recommendations for using the pressure washer.
Beyond just reading the manual, you might want to take some time to practice with the pressure washer before using it on your car. Get used to handling the pressure washer and see how it feels when you work with different settings and nozzles.
Know Your Nozzles
The nozzles change the angle of the spray and this affects the power with which the water comes out of the pressure washer. If your pressure washer does not have nozzles, it might use an adjustable wand to change the pressure settings.
Most pressure washers will come with 2-4 nozzles or settings that are measured in degrees. As you go up in degree, the spray gets wider and less powerful. Starting with the weakest, you usually have options like 40°, 25°, 15° and 0°.
If you are using a pressure washer for car cleaning, 40° or 25° are good options. Anything lower can produce too much pressure and risk damaging the paint. Some pressure washers may also come with special nozzles for soaping or cleaning your car.
Pressure Washer Accessories
Having the best pressure washer will make car washing easier, but you can get better results with some of the accessories. The right accessories will not only make the work easier, but it will also help you get better results.
As an example, some pressure washers are compatible with brushes that can be used to scrub the car while applying water. If your pressure washer does not have a detergent tank, you might also want to look into getting a soap dispenser attachment.
Use the Right Detergent
Most people do not realize that using the right detergent can make a big difference when washing your car. You don’t want to put something like dish soap in the soap dispenser and then use that to wash your car.
When you are looking for a good detergent for pressure washing a car, you want something that is made for cars and made to be used with a pressure washer. Additionally, you should read the instructions before using the detergent. Some pressure washer car wash detergents need to be diluted before you use them.
Think Safety
Washing your car might seem like a simple task, but a pressure washer can be dangerous when used the wrong way. Before you start using your pressure washer, you should take the time to learn about pressure washer safety.
As a start, you should wear the appropriate safety gear. With the more powerful nozzles, a pressure washer could damage your skin. Make sure to wear safety goggles, closed shoes, long pants and work gloves. Additionally, you should make sure to avoid pointing the pressure washer at other people.
Close it Up
A pressure washer operates with a considerable flow of water. All it will take is just a quick spray for the pressure washer to soak the interior of a car. Before you get started, make sure all of the doors and windows are closed. If the car is not closed up, your car pressure washer could create a mess on the interior of the vehicle.
Find a Good Location
Location is not that big of a deal if you are washing your car by hand or using a garden hose with a nozzle. However, the power of a pressure washer can easily kick up pebbles and other debris. If the debris hits the car, it could damage the paint.
When you go to wash your car with a pressure washer, try to do it on solid concrete or tarmac. If your driveway is gravel or stone, you will want to find a different location.
Use the Right Technique
There are a few points you need to know about using a pressure washer on your car. The first is that you do not want to put the nozzle too close to the vehicle. Give yourself at least a foot of space between the end of the nozzle and the vehicle. Additionally, you shouldn’t keep the spray in one location for a long time. Even if you are trying to remove caked-on dirt, you should keep the spray moving around over the area.
Beyond the way you handle the pressure washer, you should start with a rinse, then move onto soaping the vehicle and then finish by rinsing off the soap. The 40° nozzle should be good for all three steps for most cleanings, but if the car is covered with caked-on dirt, you might want to consider the 25° for the rinsing step.
Keep Your Tools and Accessories Clean
You should always clean your tools and accessories when you are done. This isn’t just about taking care of the tools, it is also a step that will protect the finish of your car. It doesn’t take much dirt being in the brush to damage the paint on your car.
Make sure to wash all of your tools and accessories before you put them away. You should also check them to make sure they are clean whenever you get them out to use them. Give everything a quick rinse before you start washing your car if you need to.
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