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Can You Use a Garden Hose on a Pressure Washer?(Helpful Tips)

Fact Checked By Daniel Wood | Post Updated On: April 29, 2023

A Garden hose is necessary for a pressure washing machine but not to be used with the spray gun. A power washer is a common component in our regular life as it can make cleaning easy and comfortable. Among many components, the hose is an important part that is used to carry the water from one part to another. The machine creates the normal force of water into a high-pressure force that hits the dirt and cleans them. New users think of using their garden hose in their device, which can be very dangerous. You will find the hose of a pressure washer is specially made to tolerate the immense water pressure generated inside its pump. Can you use a garden hose on a pressure washer is a common question among its users.

You cannot use a regular garden hose to your pressure washer unless you use it to inlet the water to the pump from a source. A garden hose is made of regular rubber and plastic, which has very low tolerance capacity. It’ll burst out if used at the place of the high-pressure hose.

Can you pressure wash with a garden hose

Typically a residential garden hose has 40-80 PSI tolerance capacity, where the strong ones come with the capacity of 300-400 PSI. The lowest PSI a pressure washer generates is 1400, which is pretty higher than a garden hose.

You can use a garden hose when you are directly spraying water from your faucet, or you have a machine that can produce less than 300 PSI. At times we need to spray water on the plants of our garden where a power washing machine has no use.

can you use a garden hose on a pressure washer

If we clean our area with a brush and broom, we can use our garden hose there, but not with a pressure washer.

Can you use a 100 ft garden hose on a pressure washer?

First of all, a regular garden hose cannot be used with the spray gun of a pressure washer. This hose is necessary to get the water from a faucet or a tank to the power washer pump, where pressure is generated and sent through an HP hose and spray gun.

In this case, the hose should be 5-10 feet maximum unless you are using another pump between your water tank and pressure washer. It’s because a regular water source has less force and cannot drag the water long enough to the pump.

So if you are using another pump in between, you can use your 100 feet garden hose to carry the water to your machine.

Can you use a garden hose on a pressure washer?

It’s not advisable at all to use a garden hose with your pressure washer gun. Generally, we buy machines that have around 2000 PSI power. To tolerate this immense pressure, a hose must be made of strong materials and undergo many tests. They become stiffer than your regular garden hose because of their tough materials.

Can you pressure wash with a garden hose

There are plenty of experiments done to test a pressure washer’s power where it is seen that using a pencil get nozzle you can cut the regular fruits.

The power of a pressure washer has the capacity to cut through even our flesh. So you can imagine how powerful a power washer can be. This water pressure is generated inside its pump and carried through a high tolerant hose to its spray gun that is used to spray the water. The water pressure remains very high inside a hose that a regular hose cannot tolerate.

A regular garden hose will start shaking, and at one point, it’ll burst, splashing the water all over the place if used with a spray gun. This can be even more dangerous than you can think of, causing injury to you and the others.

That’s why it’s not recommended at all to use a garden hose in the place of an HP hose. Instead, you can use it to carry the water to the pump from its source.

How much PSI can a garden hose handle?

Generally, garden hoses have the capacity to tolerate around 40 PSI, but there are variations in the hoses as well. You can also buy a strong residential hose that can tolerate 400 PSI or more. Again, depending on the different types of work, the manufacturers make the variations.

In the market, you will get garden hoses starting from 40 PSI to 500 PSI. These garden hoses can be used directly with your faucet that has gravity-fed water pressure. They can also be used with small machines that generate low PSI.

Conclusion

With your purchase of a pressure washer, you will get a high-pressure hose that will give you service for a long time. If that is spoilt, somehow, don’t ever use a garden hose as a replacement. This can be very dangerous as they are not strong enough to hold the high water pressure. Instead, buy a new high-pressure hose that goes with your machine rightly.


About Daniel Wood

Daniel has completed his graduation mechanical engineering from a reputed university in US. He worked as a technical engineer in a pressure washer manufacturing plant for four years. He has a great passion for mechanical devices and has opened a workshop where he does research on various machines in his leisure time. His high interest in technology made him an expert in commercial and residential pressure washers.

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