Kranzle K1122 TST
The best of the best is Kranzle. Quality is better than any of the rest, and its output is what we test all the others against 1000PSI and ~2.0GPM (after adapting our aftermarket solutions). The K1122TST is the original standard and comes with all the stock Kranzle accessories, as well as a rolling frame and handle.
Kranzle K1322 TS
The K1322TS is stripped down to the pump and not much else. It can be bought as just a pump or with our accessories.
Kranzle KWS700 TS
Kranzle has discontinued the wall-mounted pressure washer that I had in my old wash bay. They have simplified their line and currently don't have a stainless steel cover available. I think of this pressure washer as our high-end custom install solution to be used with either a hose reel or boom pole.
This new version is wall mountable or may be placed on the ground. Another thing to note is these are designed to run for 30 seconds before shutting off to protect both the pump and electronics as they draw quite a bit of current.
For washing cars, you'll want to reduce the pressure by adjusting the size of the orifice on the spray nozzle at the end of your wand/gun.
AR Blue Clean AR630-TSS
We recently added the AR630TSS from AR. It does not provide the same build quality as the Kranzles, and it does require a dedicated 20A circuit no matter what. It's a great solution for a wall-mounted system.
Active 2.0
Back in early 2021, when I brought in the VE52, the “previous King of entry-level pressure washers,” I was impressed and still am with that unit's performance. One of the highlights of that machine is that it does 1.94 GPM, which is insane. We’re talking Kranzle-like output at a fraction of the cost. If you’re in a situation where you want to upgrade to a better-performing pressure washer and are budget-focused (I hate that word), then this is what you would get. However, before you pull the trigger on the VE52/56, you’ll want to look at the Active 2.0. What James from Active did with this thing is incredible. This pressure washer can output over 2 GPM (gallons per minute). I’m not replacing this for my Kranzle, but I’m not opposed to using this as a backup if something happens to my Kranzle.
Outside of the design change, which is fantastic, the pump has been completely reengineered. The objective when these guys were building this thing was longevity. Most of these other cheap pressure washers on the market (Greenworks, Ryobi, SunJoes) have a lifespan of 100 hours; James and his team set out to increase that lifespan to 200-250 hours.
Comet Static 1700 EXTRA
Next up is the Comet Static 1700. It is one of our mid-tier offerings. It provides almost equal output to the high-end Kranzles but several hundred dollars cheaper. The build quality is good, and the overall fit and finish meet the price. But it takes some effort to fit everything together with the right fittings since it comes from Italy.
Karcher K1700
The Karcher K1700/K1700 Cube is the best of the low range for all of the 65+ pressure washers that we tested. It provided the best output for the PSI and GPM numbers that we were shooting for those pressure washers. It also doesn’t come with a lot of extra unneeded fluff and is very easy to adapt to our aftermarket products to make a great budget total pressure washing solution.
Watch an Obsessed Garage Academy video; we did choose a pressure washer: