Today we’re going to review the Ryobi Electric Pressure Washer 1800psi. Funny story. I bought this two years ago probably, maybe more, when it first came out, so I saw that it was initially launching on Ryobi’s website, saying it would be available soon at Home Depot. I was able to get it as soon as it came on to the Home Depot site. I got it in stock, and then they released a 1900 version that looked the same, and then they pulled it off the website, and I thought they just made a mistake and weren’t actually releasing it, and I never went back to review it again. Well, today it’s back. It’s been back for quite some time.
So the unit is 1800 PSI and 1.2 GPM. They stuck with the everyday things that I love, meaning they have the water inlet hose attachment and water outlet running inline, so you don’t have to worry about things getting tangled up. I always love the handle on top that you screw in. So with this unit, you usually get three nozzles. You get a 15-degree power nozzle and a little blue just wide open. They call, I think they call it their soap dispensing nozzle. I wouldn’t say I liked that thing. There was no reason for it. It usually comes when there’s a solution tank, and you can hook it up when you have a solution going through. I never use that. Anyway, I always use a foam cannon at the end of the gun so that there’s no solution going through the whole unit.
So with this unit, you get 15 degrees and 1.7 orifices, which should get us up to that 1800 psi. Well, I would have to double-check on 1600. I think the new ones come with a 1.8. I believe the 1900 unit came with a 1.7, and this one’s coming with 1.7. That’s how we’re probably how we’re getting up to that 1800. Probably about the same motor. It’s just adjusting those numbers to get up, and then additionally, you also get a turbo nozzle.
There’s a little straw that would attach to a solution tank. You can blow everything through that with this one. You get a little soap blaster. I like this solution better than 1600 that came with it, but I wouldn’t say I like it. The pressure washer wand is the same thing. Just push it in, give it to sit down, and twist it, then it’s locked in the place. The basic trigger system does have a lock on it, which doesn’t lock it into the stray spray pattern. It locks it so you can’t spray for storage on the front. You have your basic quarter-inch quick connect, which is great, fits the nozzles, and you’re good to go.
One thing to note that is entirely different with this unit that I haven’t seen from any other of their units is the hose. It came with a 20-foot hose, and a 35-foot power cord with a ground fault interrupt plug. That’s what it has always come with, but this hose is definitely different for the little connection points. They did an excellent little paint to match and kind of tie everything in. Still a standard 14-millimeter M 22 by 14-millimeter connection point. So, you can upgrade your hose very easily to the Uber flex hose, which is what I recommend.
This hose is very thin and feels cheap, but it feels a lot better than the ones in the past. It says it’s rated to 2000 PSI. Keep away from hot surfaces, and now the coating on this does feel like it’s not the best like it would kind of melt through pretty quickly, but and that does happen on hot days hot, you know you can be pulling it across the tire or some like that and it can kind of burn through, so keep that in mind.
However, this thing is way more flexible than their hoses. You can get it just like the reflex, and you can get it to roll over on itself, but there’s no memory in the line, so whoever you know sourced or designed this new hose for Ryobi, at least for this unit, good job. I don’t know how robust this hose is and how long it will last, but as far as a pleasure to work with, I’m assuming this will be way better than what they previously came with. I do still recommend changing to Uber flex hose.
I recommend the Uber flex hose because of its flexibility and application. The same thing does not think you can get it to roll on itself, but there’s no memory. Uber flex hose is much more robust as the connection points and everything else just much, much sturdier looking than this one that it came with, but as far as a hose that Ryobi’s come with, this is the best one I’ve seen as far as it is flexible and not kinking.
Another reason I like the Uber flex hose is that it’s 50 feet long, so I can get around a car or two if I need to. I can leave a pressure washer in place and get a lot of distance, especially with these that don’t have wheels. You don’t want to be picking it up and having to move it all the time. So the 20-foot hose that it comes with is way better than it’s been, but it’s still pretty short, so I definitely recommend an Uber flex hose.
It’s just it would match the Ryobi Electric Pressure Washer 1800psi color well. So up to you guys. But anyway, we’re going to go ahead and test this thing out. We’re going to test the PSI with an actual meter. We’ll test the GPM, and then we will also test the little foam blaster, and then we’ll switch over to Uber flex hose. We’ll test everything using the hose to make sure we’re doing the exact numbers, and then we will hook up an actual foam cannon to it to see what kind of performance we get from it.
OK, I’ve got the unit plugged in, and the water source is connected. I have it plugged into a little meter on the wall to test the amperage. Also, I’m going to grab my phone to test the decibel levels of the same to see just how loud it is. Typically, 83 to 85 decibels are where these things usually run from 3 feet away. So we’ll test that in a second. there’s no tip on I’m going to pull the trigger. Let the air purge out of the line. You always want to do that first, so there’s no air caught there, so you get excellent clean results. So also, I am using all the factory equipment. Currently, we have it plugged into. I added quickly connects so that I could put my pressure gauge on. Now here is the decibel reader. I’m going to go ahead and fire it on. We’re going to go ahead and put on the 15-degree nozzle because that’s what we constantly test everything with. The turbo nozzle is excellent as well. It typically loses pressure even though it is more effective at cleaning just with the cone pattern.
So we’re going to test it with the 15-degree nozzle. I’m going to go ahead and fire it on, and I’ll be monitoring the gauge on the wall as well, so we know what that is, and I’ll tell you. It sounds exactly like the 1600 PSI unit. It is bouncing around for the sound test, but it’s sitting right at about 85 decibels or 84 decibels. It is still a little bit on the higher end than others. Let me go and test the rating on the wall now. OK, so for me, it maxes out at 14.59 amps.
So, it’s time to test the PSI. Again, we’re using the 15-degree nozzle that it came with, stating that it is a 1.7 orifice. So, it’s taking a bit of time to get there, but we are getting to 1700 PSI. I’m going to go ahead and switch over to a 2.5 and a 3.0 orifice. I think with 1600; I like to operate with the 3.0 if I remember well. I can’t remember exactly, but we’re going to test those now. Why are we testing these other nozzles? Because for car detailing, I like to operate around 1100 PSI somewhere between 1000 and 1200 ideally and get the most GPM or gallons per minute rating I can. The higher the GPM, the more you’re rinsing stuff away in the car. So, I like a higher GPM.
So, we will be using 25 degrees and the 2.5 orifices and 40 degrees in the three-point orifice. The size of the degree does not matter. In this case, it’s just the size of the orifice that matters. If I were using a 40-degree 1.7, the 15 degrees would be the same PSI number. So we’ve already dropped significantly. We’re sitting at 1050 PSI. So, this 3.0 orifice will drop us to between 900 and 850. So here we go. So that’s a bit light for me for my liking on car detailing.
To test the GPM, I have my bucket with a measuring guide on the side. We’re going to run the pressure washer into the bucket for one minute; then, we’ll measure all the water and see the gallons per minute rating. I’ve got the 15-degree nozzle it came with into the bucket. Let me grab my phone. I’m going to set the timer for one minute. The test for GPM is run for one minute with the 15-degree nozzle. This Ryobi electric pressure washer 1800 psi is rated at 1.2 GPM. I’m going to come around the front and measure it out. We’re sitting at 1.188 GPM, and it’s pretty accurate. However, my measurement might be slightly off, but it is very close to the stated GPM for this pressure washer. It might be a tiny bit over, so I would say that the GPM is accurate.
I will switch to the 25-degree nozzle and 2.5 orifices and test the GPM. We’re good to go into the bucket. Get my stopwatch ready again. Reset it, and here we go. There’s one minute it will let that water settle for us. I can confirm that it was sitting at that 1050 PSI, and we are now operating at 1.4375 GPM. So yeah, getting close to that 1.45 GP. That’s great. No, we’re a little lower than that, so we’re probably at one point 1.43 GPM. It’s a little lower than that. Four and a quarter five and a quarter, but that’s good. I’m impressed with that because that’s a big jump between the two orifice sizes, so that’s good.
Let’s go ahead and hook up the machine now to the Uber flex hose to test that and confirm that you don’t lose any pressure or anything like that from it. Again, this pressure washer hose it comes with is excellent. It’s really thin, and it is friendly and flexible. However, it’s still 20 feet short for me, so if 20 feet works for you, this is a great option.
We are now on to the Uber flex hose again. 50 feet long. Nice, pliable, and all that kind of good stuff here. It was sitting at about 1600 and slowly creeping up to 1700. It’s getting 1700, but it takes a little time. So, it showed the same numbers as previously, and we don’t need to test the GPM because we’re getting the exact PSI. It will be the same, but that was the 15 degrees. Let’s go ahead and switch over to the 2.5 orifices and put that in, and with this one, we were getting 1050. It showed the same numbers regardless of the hose size; even though it’s 50 feet long and a little thicker and much easier to work with, it gets the same number.
I will test out the little foam blaster that the unit came with. OK, so I just filled it up with soap for this test, and then the rest is water. I’ll test it on my van to use this. It’s not a quick connection, which is unfortunate. You have to take off the front piece of the pressure washer wand and then install the foam blaster. So, you want to put it in sideways.
It’s just soapy water; it’s not foam. It’s not a foam cannon by any stretch of the means. It’s nice to give it to you, but I will switch you guys over to the MJC Foam Cannon Pro if you want a professional result. So I’m going to be switching over to the MJC Foam Cannon Pro, my foam cannon of choice. You can buy them on Amazon, but they’re a little expensive.
To get better foam from them, especially from a unit like this that has a lower PSI and lower GPM. You want to switch out the orifice to a 1.1. It will create much better foam. Still not anywhere in the same league as this guy. This thing gets so much foam it’s crazy. So we are going to go ahead and put the top back on to it, and then the nice thing about these is that they are a quick connect so you can leave that little piece on, and you don’t have to worry about removing something just to put your foam cannon on. But the foam cannon on just a little quick connect. The benefit of this is how thick this foam is. I mean, it’s just sitting on my hand, not dripping off at all. It’s so thick.
The benefit of that is that the soap can cling onto the panel and break down all the contamination and all that kind of stuff. So when you rinse away, you don’t have to go in and do a contact wash as aggressively as you usually would. This is going to let that dwell on there a little bit. It will break that stuff down, and then it comes up nice and easy. The Ryobi electric pressure washer 1800 PSI 1.2 GPM numbers are accurate. I was getting 1700 PSI, but there is some loss. They usually rate it at the pump, so a little bit of loss to that hose, but not really, because between the 20-foot hose and the 50-foot hose, you don’t lose anything. I think there’s a bit of breaking time, so again, in the past, a lot of the pressure washers I test usually sit about 100 PSI below the rating. So, I think just over break-in time is usually a pretty fair assessment. So, I would say this thing is accurate.
So I like it. Ryobi Electric Pressure Washer 1800 psi represented correctly, and it will have plenty of power for you to do all your stuff around the house, such as pressure washing your driveway side of the house, all that kind of good stuff. And then when you switch it over to that 2.5 orifice nozzle, it’s a little beast for car washing—1050 PSI at 1.4 GPM, not bad numbers at all. The hose is much better than I’ve seen in the past, but it is still short. The foam cannon or foam blaster is not a real foam cannon; it just blows out soap. So, consider getting an actual foam cannon.