What is the most powerful cordless pressure washer?
For all but the most delicate garden cleaning tasks, a great pressure washer is a go-to tool for people in the know, and after buying one it is hard to imagine how you got on without it.
These wonderful machines have saved me countless hours over the years, thanks to their incredible cleaning prowess that has allowed me to slash the time it takes to blast moss of paths and patios, and transform my car from something that looks like it just competed in a dirt rally, to something worthy of sitting in a showroom.
It used to be fairly easy choosing the right pressure washer. If you had a big garden or some heavy-duty cleaning to do, you’d pick a petrol pressure washer. If you lived in a smaller property, you’d buy an electric one. Then came cordless pressure washers, and at first, they lacked power and were more of a niche thing, and some weren’t much better than a pump sprayer.
However, as time went on, these cordless pressure washers began to change and evolved into the far more powerful versions that we see today, and that leaves me and many others asking- what is the most powerful cordless pressure washer available today?
Are cordless pressure washers as powerful as other types?
When it comes to raw power, neither a corded electric pressure washer nor a cordless one can match a petrol pressure washer, with even the smallest petrol model easily outdoing your average electric powered one.
But that doesn’t mean that you should all run out and buy a petrol pressure washer. In fact, for home use, they can be a bit overkill and it is easy to damage your property, and yourself with all that power if you don’t know what you are doing.
Compared to corded electric pressure washers, cordless versions are still lagging behind in the power stakes, but the latest and best cordless products are getting more and more powerful, all the time. The most powerful cordless pressure washer you can buy today will still have enough ‘grunt’ to deal with common cleaning jobs around the home like cleaning garden furniture, and so are a viable option. Just don’t expect this kind of power-
The strangely satisfying world of watching people powerwash steps.
Richard Van Remmen’s videos of cleaning garden furniture get millions of views. #5liveBreakfast pic.twitter.com/h3Jn3DI1tV
— BBC Radio 5 Live (@bbc5live) June 3, 2018
How do you know if a cordless pressure washer is powerful?
Without actually seeing a pressure washer in action, it is hard to know exactly how they perform. Then again, you can get a good idea by looking at the specifications of the product that you’re interested in, and the two main numbers that you want to know are the maximum water pressure, and also the maximum water flow rate. These specs are also important for water pumps.
The maximum water pressure will usually be shown as a number followed by the letters ‘psi’ which stands for pounds per square inch or sometimes shown as a number followed by the word ‘bar’ (1 bar is the equivalent of 14.5psi). A petrol pressure washer will average between 3000-4500psi, although some are more powerful, and the most powerful corded electric pressure washer can manage 3800psi (or 262 bar). Cordless models vary quite wildly in power, but the more powerful of them are kicking out around 70 bar, or just over 1000psi, which is a good pressure for working on something like wooden furniture.
The other thing to look out for is the water flow rate, which is measured in litres per hour or litres per minute. A powerful petrol pressure washer might have a water flow rate as high as 600-700 litres per hour, most corded models are around half that, but the best ones are pretty close. You can expect a cordless pressure washer to range from 100-300 litres per hour. This might seem low powered when you look at the specs of other types of pressure washer, but it is still far more powerful than a garden hose, even with the best spray gun or jet nozzle attached.
So, if you find a cordless pressure washer that has a pressure of around 1000psi, and a flow rate of 300 litres per hour, you can be pretty sure it is one of the most powerful of that type available like this dewalt product, which is sadly hard to find in the UK at the moment due to covid-19.
What are the advantages of a cordless pressure washer?
To put it simply, the best thing about cordless pressure washers is that they are highly mobile. With a standard electric model, you are limited in range by your power cord unless you use an extension lead, and even then you will still need to be connected to the mains water supply of your house.
With petrol models, you do have more freedom, but the units tend to be quite heavy, are the most expensive, and produce the most noise and vibration, not to mention fumes, and you still need a mains water supply for the vast majority of them. You will also need to service your petrol pressure washer to keep it running well.
Cordless pressure washers are comparatively low in power, but the most powerful offer more than enough psi for the average person’s needs. They are very lightweight, and as they don’t need a mains supply and feed from a water tank, you can use them away from the home, such as cleaning off plates and portable BBQs on camping trips. With some cordless pressure washers, you can even use water from a nearby lake or stream. You can see one using water from a bucket here-
New video up on the pressure washer gun by sunglife https://t.co/Z5qPclUENF via @YouTube #cleancar #pressurewasher #cordless pic.twitter.com/DQsMTZ32Dz
— Brando (@Brandoview) June 9, 2020
I have to make it clear that there aren’t that many accessories or attachments available for cordless pressure washers at the time of writing, although some individual products do come with their own set of extras.
What is the most powerful cordless pressure washer?
Out of all the cordless pressure washers we have tested recently, and there have been quite a lot, I would say the most powerful was the Green Works GDC40 DC. It is slightly larger than most cordless pressure washers, but also substantially more powerful, producing over 1000psi and having a water flow rate of 300 litres per hour. Most of its competitors don’t even get close to this kind of performance.
If you would like to read a full review of this product and other similar products, you can visit our best cordless pressure washers, page. There you will find our thoughts on the top-rated cordless products available at the present time, and also our picks for the best of them.
So, as you can see, cordless pressure washers can’t really compete with their larger counterparts when it comes to power output, but that doesn’t make them useless. In fact, they can be very handy tools to have for certain purposes. However, if you would like a bit more power, but still have a lightweight machine, perhaps you should look for a portable pressure washer.
