Pressure Washer Care

by Diane M. Calabrese | Published June 2026

 

 

Whether in use, in transit, or in storage, a pressure washer must be handled properly. There should be no using a hose or an electric cord as a tug pull—not even just once—and no using the flat surface as a place to set an energy drink.

We all know the basics of care. We also know they are violated in the quest for expediency, in the heat of summer, and for a hundred other reasons.

Thus, the first tenet of pressure washer care is to treat the machine with the respect it requires. That means doing all the little things, such as securing the pressure washer in the pickup bed or van even if the distance from one jobsite to another is short.

No distance is so short that a weather-cratered road or a fast stop cannot damage the pressure washer. Or, in the worst instance, turn the pressure washer into a projectile that damages it and more.

Common sense is the foundation for the care of a pressure washer. And common sense is simply a polite way of advising that nothing stupid be done.

Beyond acting with forethought when using, moving, or storing a pressure washer, there are the basics of care that meld with routine maintenance. The day-to-day care and routine maintenance will not keep a pressure washer running forever, but they will allow it to reach the lifespan that was built into it.

Manufacturers provide guides for proper use of their machines. Follow the machine-specific guide. Some guides include common sense reminders, but others assume the owner will not do anything foolish.

For a pressure washer in use care taken means it has a kink-free hose of an appropriate length for the machine, and the hose connections are tight.

Integrity of a hose depends upon proper storage, frequent checks for wear (with replacement when indicated), and no mistreatment. Running over a hose, even with the wheels of pressure washer is not good. Running over a hose with a vehicle is very bad.

Care hinges on situational awareness, which is common sense again. The type of pressure washer in use will dictate to some extent where prudence ought to be exercised.

The ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) on an electric washer should not be ignored. If the GFCI trips, it could signal any number of issues from a faulty socket to the use of an ill-advised extension cord.

Do not keep resetting the GFCI. Figure out why it’s tripping. The GFCI is there to shut things down if there is a voltage issue or a socket is faulty because there is a potential safety hazard.

While risks attached to electric pressure washers include electrocution, both electric and combustion-engine pressure washers can pose fire hazards. Combustion engines also pose the risk of asphyxiation if used in a closed space.

Pressure washer care enhances the safety of operators, passersby, and equipment. (So does routine maintenance.)

 

Safety, Performance, and Longevity

Although the first objective on any type of job site is to make certain it’s a safe work area, a pressure washer owner has two other big objectives. One is to ensure that a machine performs as it was designed. The other is to realize the full lifespan for which the machine was designed.

Again, the best source of information for the care of a particular pressure washer is the manufacturer of the machine. There’s a certain reticence among manufacturers and others to provide general advice on care, as in “do these three things” before use, and “do these three things after use.” (More about the caution that prevails today in the next section.)

Yes, many manufacturers and distributors still provide advice that will be valuable beyond a particular machine. Alkota Cleaning Systems offers a primer ‘Critical New Machine Maintenance’ at its website.

The Alkota primer deals with the “50-hour rule” applied to a commercial hot water pressure washer. After the first 50 hours of use, the company recommends the replacement of pump oil and engine oil, as well as a new fuel filter.

Mi-T-M Corporation offers detailed instructions for winterizing equipment, Winterizing to prevent ice from forming in machines is not just a procedure for winter storage, but also a procedure that must be followed when a machine is going to be transported at ambient conditions below 32 F.

Distributor partners of power washing contractors will have good suggestions about proper care of the machines they sell. And the distributor’s advice will be tailored to what they know about the way the machine will be used (type of setting, weather conditions, service hours, etc.)

The more a distributor knows about the way a pressure washer will be used, the more precise will be the suggested schedule for flushing out pump (every use, likely), replacing O-rings before they fail, and how to prevent absolutely preventable problems, such as from gasoline left in a tank for an extended period of time.

There’s a cost attached to the hours it takes to do repairs, and it almost always exceeds the time needed to properly care for a machine. There’s a dimension of cost that has become more apparent in the early months of 2026, and that is the cost of fuel.

A machine that’s not performing at peak efficiency will consume more fuel (or electric energy) because it must be run a bit longer. Over time, the longer runtime and increased consumption of fuel or energy can add significantly to the cost of an operation.

Commenting for an article about preventive maintenance, Bruce Tassone, president of HydraMotion Cleaning Systems in Pottstown, PA, gave us an important numerical appraisal to consider. Therein he says that despite the difficulty of putting forth a general rule about cost of proper maintenance versus benefit, there is a useful shorthand.

Consider a pressure washer. “If it has a four-year life, and we can extend that to five years; we have lowered our cost of use from 25 percent to 20 percent,” says Tassone in the article on preventive maintenance. “Over the life of a business, those savings can be tremendous over time, when a company has a fleet of machines in operation.”

Lowering the cost of operating a business helps compensate for the increases in cost (e.g., energy) foisted on owners. And it begins with proper care of core equipment, which in the case of our industry is often a pressure washer.

 

Caution

Are manufacturers becoming more cautious when providing advice about care of equipment? It began to seem so, which caused us to put the question to Google’s Gemini AI.

True, before we put the question out to an AI assistant, we considered the time interval in which we were working—Easter, Passover, K-12 and college spring breaks, tax deadlines—but still, we asked. It’s worth being aware that information retrieved by Gemini indicates manufacturers are increasingly worried about “failure to warn” litigation.

We have all opened a plastic bag to find it imprinted with the warning that it should never be used as a headcover (or something very close). Ridiculous as the warning is, it speaks to the concern manufacturers have about someone doing something stupid with their product.

And it speaks to the general lack of common sense. A lack that could explain the reluctance of manufacturers to provide too much information.

In fact, the disclaimers that come with equipment (and plastic bags) are meant to protect the manufacturer from liability. Thus, the purchaser of a pressure washer will more likely receive instructions to not target people or animals with the spray than how to keep a spray gun working optimally.

Distributors and manufacturers in our industry want end users to care for their pressure washer by doing the basics. But there’s often concern about the dividing line because basic care and repair.

One need not talk long to a service center technician to hear accounts of the bad outcomes they have seen among customers who tried a do-it-yourself (DIY) fix and then ended up bringing the machine to the service center. On the other hand, there are DIYers with the knowledge and skill and tools to handle repairs.

Without an easy way to determine who will use information, manufacturers are guarded about disseminating it. If used by the unskilled or used incorrectly and something goes wrong, the information provided as a service could make a manufacturer liable for damage or injury.

Discouraging certain repairs has been a form of protection for manufacturers. But now certain states (e.g., California) have pushed right-to-repair legislation. Part of right-to-repair in the Golden State dictates that even if a DIYer bungles a repair and voids a warranty by ever starting the repair, the company still must service the equipment.

For now, the California legislation, which dates to July 2024, does not seem to cover commercial pressure washers. And it excludes trade secrets from information that must be provided to third parties. But the proliferation of similar laws across states and additions to the scope of the law are things for industry members to monitor.