When power washing you want to make sure your using the right tools. From the machine itself to the little tip at the end of the wand. Here’s a fresh review on a few different parts we all need to know when purchasing the needed accessories for our machine.

Hoses

1. Length

Look at what kind of task you need to accomplish. Can you get away with running off of a short hose? Or will you need a longer one to finish the job? We like to make it as easy as possible to be able to walk around without too many issues with our hoses. Typically, we always use a longer hose.

2. Diameter

We could be new at this but we need to consider what kind of pressure washer we are running, and how much water we will need. If we have a common smaller pressure washer with a low psi we can get away with using a small hose (1/4″). If our machine is a size up, we could look into getting a medium sized hose (5/16″). They can use a psi of about 3,400. Last but not least we have the large diameter hose(3/8″). These are designed for a professional grade washer, that use a ton of pressure, maxing out at 5,000 psi. The thicker = more pressure allowing more water to push through.

3. Material:

– Plastic

Very common to use, but they tend to be too hard and not very flexible to move around with. Most tend to stay away from these hoses if they don’t have the patience to constantly be trying to unkink their hose allowing them to finish the job.

– Rubber

It gives more flexibility, but they tend to leave markings behind. You know the mark that your tennis shoes used to leave on the gym floor? That is the same marking that these rubber hoses often give people working on patios and working with siding.

– Polyurethane

This hose is a good combination of the two hoses above. It’s moveable like the rubber hose, but does not leave any marks behind. It has a plastic coating that helps keep it strong and flexible. This is an overall good choice, but can be a bit more expensive.

Couplings:

These are pretty simple to learn about. It all depends on the size you need. A coupling helps you put two different ends that usually wouldn’t fit together, come in union when you use a coupling. It makes it so much easier to remove your hoses and wands, quickly. You’ll need one for the end of the hose that plugs into the pump, one for the hose that plugs into the spray wand, and one for the spray wand itself. If you can find them made out of stainless steel they will last longer.

J-Rods

A J-Rod is the holder that keeps the nozzles you will need for power washing easy and accesible to use. It makes it easier to accomplish the task faster and more efficiently. It enables us as powerwashers to easily use high and low pressure, and then to not only rinse but also to apply our solution to the surface. It is amazing to have because it allows us to have the nozzles we need all together without having to dig through our tool kit and switch them out for different sizes and purposes. You may set up your j-rod to have two different orfice sizes that draw vacuum and allow for a good soaping action- and the other two spots you can fill with two other nozzles designed for rinsing. We like having multiple sets of j-rods, with all different high and low spraying orfice sizes varying from 10-40 and a few other j-rods with rinsing capability so we can rinse from degrees of 0, 5, 15, 25. When having these different nozzles and j-rods prepared we can be sure to reach and have the most success washing any surface we need.