What Is The Best Electric Pressure Washer For Cars 2019?

If you want to look to save a bit of money by not taking your car to the car wash all the time and you don’t want to wash your car with a wash mitt and soap you may want to look at investing in an electric pressure washer for your car.  

The car pressure washer allows you to clean your car without ever touching the surface of your paint which is a benefit as any time you touch the surface of your car paint you run the risk of getting micro scratches in your paint.

If you never touch the surface of your car with a wash mitt or a brush then you greatly reduce the chance of accidentally scratching the paint of your car.  I’ve written up this car pressure washer buying guide for you so that you can understand what you should be looking for when you decide that you want to buy a pressure washer for your car.

If you are looking for the best electric pressure washer for cars in 2019 you may want to look at going with one of the Sun Joe models that I have reviewed below. In my opinion Sun Joe offers the best electric pressure washer for the money and is the electric pressure washer brand that I ended up going with. You can check the the current prices of the Sun Joe SPX3001 on Amazon.com.

Pressure Washer PSI

The main consideration when you are looking at buying a pressure washer for your car should be the amount of PSI that it can output. The PSI that your pressure washer is able to spray at will affect how well it is able to spray water out of the nozzle of the pressure washer. 

Generally the higher the PSI of the pressure washer the better as it will allow you to get your job done quicker without having to make multiple passes with the pressure washer nozzle.

If you are planning to use your pressure washer for more than just cleaning off your car you would want to make sure that you get one with a somewhat high PSI so that you can use it to effectively clean whatever else you want to use it for (house siding, concrete).  

If you are just planning to use your pressure washer to clean your car then I would stick with one somewhere in the 2,000 PSI range.

Gas vs Electric Pressure Washers

There are two main types of pressure washers that are sold on the market gas-powered pressure washers and electric pressure washers.  Generally, gas-powered pressure washers are going to provide more PSI than an electric powered pressure washer as a gas-powered pressure washer is able to use a gasoline engine to be able to pump the water out of the end of the nozzle.  

With electric power washers, they are typically going to be a bit more portable than gasoline-powered pressure washers but they will not be able to output as much PSI in comparison.

If you are planning to use your pressure washer a lot you may want to get a gasoline-powered pressure washer but keep in mind that any gasoline-powered pressure washer is going to need to be maintained if you want the gasoline engine to hold up over time.  

You would want to make sure that when you go to store your gas-powered pressure washer that you either drain the gasoline from the tank or pour in a fuel stabilizer to make sure that the gasoline is still good the next time you go to use it.

An electric pressure washer will also need to be maintained but not to the extent that you would need to do with a gasoline-powered one.  When I was looking for a pressure washer for my car I ended up going with an electric one because I didn’t think that I would use it all the time and I wanted something that was going to be easier to maintain.  

With an electric pressure washer, you would just want to make sure that before you go to store it after every use that you fully drain the water from the system so that it doesn’t allow the water to corrode the pump or freeze inside of the pump.  If you let water freeze inside of the pump during the winter months you will probably need to replace your pressure washer come next spring.

Pressure Washer Nozzles

When you are looking at pressure washers you would want to pay attention to how many nozzles that they have included with them when you go to buy the pressure washer.  You may have the option of buying the nozzles down the line as accessories but you would want to try to find one that comes with a few different types included with the pressure washer from the factory to save you money.

The electric car pressure washer that I ended up going with had about 5 or 6 different nozzles that were included with the purchase of the pressure washer.  This is important because if you are planning on using your pressure washer for more than just your car you want to have different types of nozzles depending on the job.  

If you are just using it for your car you could probably get by with just one or two different nozzles but if you are going to be cleaning concrete with your pressure washer you are going to want a powerful nozzle to be able to clean concrete.

There are different types of nozzles some are designed to spray the water like a fan tip and some are designed to spray the water in a fine point to provide more cleaning power.  The finer that the nozzle will spray the more PSI of cleaning power it will be able to provide so keep that in mind.

There are also some nozzles that you can use for your car to spray foam on the surface of your paint.  This can come in handy as if you remember using a wash mitt with car wash can leave micro scratches in the surface of your paint.  

If you spray your car wash solution on your car and spray it off with a pressure washer then you greatly reduce the chance of adding more scratches in the surface of your paint.  

Water Consumption

Because a pressure washer is using water to spray on the surface of your car you are going to be using some water during the process.  With pressure washers, they will use a pump to force the water from the pressure washer through the nozzle which will greatly reduce the amount of water used than if you just sprayed your car off with your hose.  

The amount of water that your pressure washer uses will be dependent on what model you end up going with as each model is different regarding the amount of water used in operation. Electric pressure washers will use less water in general because they will be outputting less PSI and water than a gas-powered pressure washer.  

Foam Cannon

If you are going to be looking for an electric power washer for cars you may want to look at going with one that has a foam cannon attachment included.  The benefits of using a foam cannon to apply car wash soap instead of a wash mitt and bucket are that a foam cannon is going to be a touchless way of applying car wash soap to your vehicle.  

When you apply car wash soap using a wash mitt you are going to increase the chances of causing swirl marks and micro scratches on the surface of your paint. Most electric pressure washers for cars that will have a foam cannon built-in will have some sort of car wash detergent container that it would be able to pull out of and then spray onto your car.  

My Electric Power Washer Recommendations

Sun Joe SPX3000 PSI 1.76 GPM 14.5-Amp Electric Pressure Washer

This Sun Joe electric pressure washer is the one that I ended up purchasing to use on my car and house.  It has since been discontinued so you can no longer purchase it online at some places.  It comes with dual detergent tanks that you can switch between in case you wanted to be able to spray two different car wash detergents or cleaners to your car or house.  

That also means that it comes with a foam cannon attachment that you can use to spray the car wash detergent as a foam onto the surface of your car. It can generate up to 2030 PSI of water pressure and comes with 5 included quick connect spray tips.  The tips go from 0 degrees which is a jet stream, all the way to 40 degrees which would be more of a fan spray tip.

It has a 14.5 amp motor that has an auto stop system that can sense if the pump is not getting any water through it which can shut off the motor to prevent damage and prolong the life of the pump and motor.  It comes with all the needed cables and lines that you would need to get started cleaning your car.

If you own your own home you probably have a hose already, if not you would need to buy one to use in conjunction with this electric pressure washer. The 40-degree tip attachment should be fine to clean the surface of your car if you wanted a more fine spray tip then you could also try the 25 or 15-degree spray tips.  

With all of that said I would take a look at the SPX3001 that I have linked below this review. The SPX3001 looks to be this same model but just with an updated design it also is about the same price as the SPX3000 so I would definitely check both models out before you decide on one or the other.

SPX3001 2030 PSI 1.76 GPM 14.5 AMP Electric Pressure Washer with Hose Reel

The Sun Joe SPX3001 electric power washer is very similar in design to the SPX3000 that I ended up going with but there are a few key differences.  

In starting with the similarities it has the same 14.5 amp motor as the SPX3000 as well as the same 2030 PSI spraying power. The both come with the same 5 quick connect tips ranging from 0 degrees to 40 degrees that also includes the foam cannon tip to spray on car wash solution.  

One area that they differ though as in the design on the top of them. With the SPX3001 it comes with a cable reel so the you can roll up your pressure washer cable into the top of the pressure washer which I think is a nice design. With the SPX3000 you have to roll up the pressure washer cable by hand and then loop the cable into a holding arm on the side of the pressure washer.  

Another distinction between the two pressure washer models is that on the SPX3000 it comes with two detergent tanks at the top of the pressure washer while the SPX3001 only comes with one large detergent tank at the back of the pressure washer.

I think that overall it comes down to preference between the two models but if I were looking at choosing between both models I think I may sway toward the SPX3001 because of the pressure washer cable reel and the one large detergent tank.  I don’t ever plan on using two different detergents at the same time.

Sun Joe SPX4000 2030 PSI 1.76 GPM 14.5-Amp Electric Pressure Washer w/ Pressure-Select Technology

This Sun Joe 14.5 amp electric pressure washer has most of the same features that I told you about on the above model that I purchased.  

This model just looks to be a bit different on the design when compared to the Sun Joe SPX3000 pressure washer that I went with.  The Sun Joe SPX4000 pressure washer is designed to be a bit more compact in design than the Sun Joe pressure washer that I went with and is mainly comprised of a metal handle with the pump and connections that sit at the base of the metal carrying cage.  

It has the same 14.5 amp motor and 2030 PSI spraying power as the SPX3000. It also features two large plastic wheels to make it easier to get around without having to carry it in the air. It comes with 5 different quick connect tips that range from the same 0 degrees to 40 degrees like on the Sun Joe SPX3000 and also comes with one large detergent tank so that you can add in car wash detergent to spray onto your car.  

Personally if I were looking for an electric pressure washer now I may look at going with this SPX4000 model than the SPX3000 that I went with as currently they are both about the same price and the SPX4000 looks to be easier to move around than the model that I went with. I also don’t plan on ever using two different detergents so the two detergent tanks on the SPX3000 that I went with won’t be used simultaneously.

Greenworks 1500 PSI 13 Amp 1.2 GPM Pressure Washer

With this Greenworks 1500 PSI 13 Amp pressure washer you get a more portable pressure washer suitable for light jobs around the house and obviously cleaning your car.  

If you want to get a really portable electric pressure washer this is going to be the smallest one on the list. I don’t know that I would go less than 1,500 PSI in spraying power as any less than that and you won’t be able to effectively clean stuff like concrete and your house siding.  

This should still be just fine for any car wash job however as you don’t need the highest PSI to spray bird poop and dirt off of the the paint of your car. This Greenworks electric pressure washer only comes with two included tips a 25 degree tip and a 40 degree tip.

It also includes a handheld foam cannon to be able to spray your car wash detergent onto your car.  If you want to get a high pressure soap applicator they also offer that as an option on as an accessory.

They offer the other sorts of tips but these will also increase the overall price of the power washer. If you are just planning on using your electric pressure washer for cars then you would be fine with going with this electric pressure washer even just the base model.

PaPafix – Electric Pressure Washer 3000 PSI, 1.80 GPM

With this PaPafix 3000 PSI electric pressure washer you get 3000 max PSI of spraying power which is impressive from an electric pressure washer.  

If you were planning on using your pressure washer for more than just washing your car you may want to go with this one as 3000 PSI can come in handy if you are trying to tackle heavier jobs around the house.  

It comes with 5 quick connect nozzles from 0 degrees all the way to 40 degrees and also includes a foam cannon nozzle. This pressure washer also includes a detergent bottle to put in your car wash solution to get your vehicle soapy before you wash it off with your pressure washer.  

It also includes a two year warranty to protect against defects. It has very high reviews for the amount of people that have reviewed the electric pressure washer. You probably would not need to go any higher in PSI than 3,000 PSI if you are just going to be washing your car and tackling jobs around the house.  

Any higher PSI you run the risk of stripping off paint and blowing holes in your siding. It’s even recommended with most pressure washers to start with a higher degree nozzle and work your way down towards 0 degrees so that you don’t accidentally damage what you are trying to clean with the spraying power from the pressure washer.  

In Conclusion

If you are on the look for a pressure washer to use for your car there are a lot of different types and models to choose from.  Hopefully this car pressure washer buying guide was able to better inform you of the differences between gasoline and electric powered pressure washers and will allow you to make a more informed buying decision if you decide to buy a pressure washer to clean your car.