The number that trips everyone
Peak pressure is measured with the trigger shut, which is a condition in which no cleaning happens. Here is what to compare instead.
Three numbers appear on pressure washer boxes, and only one of them is chosen to help you.
Measured with the trigger closed. It describes the pump’s stall pressure and nothing about cleaning. It is on every box because it is the largest number available.
What comes out of the nozzle while you clean. Always lower than the peak. Stihl quotes 135 bar working; Scheppach publishes 241 bar maximum and 221 bar working on the same machine. A 135 bar working figure and a 180 bar peak can describe machines that behave far more alike than the numbers suggest.
Litres per hour. This is what carries loosened dirt off the surface, and it is what decides whether a terrace takes twenty minutes or an hour. The Güde Fuel 250 publishes 590 l/h alongside its 234 bar; the Nilfisk Core 140 publishes 465 l/h alongside 140 bar. Wherever both figures exist, the comparison is arithmetic. Wherever one is missing, our review says so instead of estimating it.
145 bar · 500 l/h · 40 m²/h · 6.3 kg
Five hundred litres an hour and a fixed handle: the point in the range where the machine stops being carried and starts being wheeled.
Best for: A long drive, a large terrace or several vehicles — where flow rate, not pressure, sets the finishing time
≈ 250 €
140 bar · 465 l/h · 40 m²/h · 1 800 W
The machine in this group that publishes every figure it should — pressure, flow, area and power — and lets you turn the pressure down.
Best for: Mixed jobs — a car one weekend and a terrace the next — where being able to lower the pressure matters
≈ £195 / 165 €
Maximum is measured with the trigger closed and the water still — a condition in which nothing is being cleaned. Working pressure is what the machine delivers through a nozzle while you use it, and it is always lower. Stihl and Scheppach publish both; most brands publish only the flattering one.
No. Above roughly 130 bar, technique, nozzle choice and dwell time dominate. What changes with more pressure is how quickly you can damage a soft surface, which is why adjustable pressure is worth more than another 30 bar.
Pressure washers and floor washers swing by a hundred euros or more across the year, and the biggest "discounts" often land at prices the same model sold for six weeks earlier. UniverTrack tracks the real price history across retailers, spots fake reductions, and alerts you when it is genuinely the moment to buy.
