Top pick
This powerful washer has smart on-board storage for the wand, hose, and cord, and, while stowed away, takes up a fraction of the space of other models.
After all of our testing and research, we’re confident that the best pressure washer is the DeWalt DWPW2600 2600 PSI Electric Jobsite Pressure Washer.
It cleans well (but they all do). The DWPW2600 has an advertised pressure rating of 2,600 psi with a flow rate of 1.1 gpm. This puts it in the same arena as most of the other washers we tested, and its cleaning power was on a par with its competitors. During our extensive use of the DeWalt, we never found the power lacking: It quickly cleaned a filthy wheelbarrow, some mildewed bricks, and a mud-covered tractor. When we needed more pressure, we just moved the nozzle closer to the surface of whatever we were cleaning at the time.
The body design is unique (and excellent). The DWPW2600 has a rectangular shape, surrounded by a roll cage. It’s durable, easy to grab, and, most important, convenient to store. All the parts and accessories are stored within the rectangular roll-bar frame. The hose tucks into one side, and the cord gets wrapped around horns on the other side. The wand breaks down into three pieces and slides into a lidded compartment at one end. The spray nozzles are stored on the handle of the spray wand, so they go in the compartment too. Because the end result is so perfectly boxy, the DeWalt DWPW2100 can be stored on its narrow end (like a book on a shelf) or on its side. Either way, you can stack items on top of it.
It has a nice detergent tank. Also neatly stowed on the body of the washer is a detergent tank. The tank attaches to the end of the wand, unlike many pressure washers, which siphon the detergent back in the body of the washer and run it through the entire hose. Some models have the detergent tank permanently affixed to the body, so they can be difficult to fill and empty. We prefer the style that the DeWalt uses.
It can be moved around in a variety of ways. The DeWalt model’s roll bar design lets you grab it wherever is convenient. Including cord, wand, and hose, we weighed it at about 32 pounds, so we thought it was manageable to carry around, at least for short distances. If that’s too heavy, the DWPW2600 has a small set of wheels and a telescoping luggage handle, so it can also be pulled around.
The plug can fit any crowded or covered outlet. Due to a pressure washer’s combination of water and electricity, all models come with a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) built into the power cord for added safety. The GFCI brick is always bulky, but DeWalt sets it several inches back from the plug end, which allows the plug to be normal size. Most other pressure washers have the GFCI built directly into the plug end, making them hard to squeeze into crowded or covered exterior outlets.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
It lacks an induction motor. Induction motors are quieter and last longer than the universal motor found on the DWPW2600. But they’re also larger and heavier. If you’re using a pressure washer five or six times each year, a universal motor should be fine, but if you’re using your pressure washer on a very regular basis, you might want to seek out an induction motor. For that, we recommend the Ryobi RY142500 Brushless 2500 PSI Pressure Washer, which we discuss in depth here.
The hose isn’t that great (but none of them really are). The hoses that come with pressure washers are typically pretty stiff, and this one is no different. It’s a hard coil and one that we fought with from time to time. It gets more flexible on hot days, but in the shoulder seasons, it really wants to hold the coiled shape. In our research, we found that many people upgrade their hose. We haven’t tested it, but this Flexzilla pressure washer hose looks nice; a model of theirs was a former pick in our garden hose research.
It costs more than other models with similar power (and better motors). The DWPW2600 sells for roughly $400, which is $70 more than the Ryobi RY142500, which cleaned at the same rate and has a longer lasting motor. The DeWalt is expensive and, in many ways, the Ryobi is the better option. But when it comes to storage, the DWPW2600 is the clear winner. We’ve had both units in the garage, and the DWPW2600 is so much more convenient that we would pay the extra money and sacrifice the premium motor, just so our pressure washer didn’t consume an entire corner of our workshop space.
