Outdoor cleaning is hard work. Decks, patios, driveways, home siding — it’s easy to lose an entire Saturday to making your home and property look brand-new. Thankfully, though, there are tools that can help speed up the process and allow you to clean more efficiently.
At HY-C, we manufacture one such tool under our Gardus brand name called SpinAway. It’s an extendable cleaning brush that attaches to a drill and utilizes the powerful rotating motion to scrub away dirt, grime, moss, mud, and other debris.
Another popular outdoor cleaning tool is the pressure washer (or power washer). These powerful, motor-driven machines attach to a hose and emit a highly concentrated stream of water. The pinpoint force of the water jet blasts debris off of nearly any surface.
So, when you have to clean outdoors, which one should you use: SpinAway, or a pressure washer?
That’s exactly what we’re going to dive into in this guide. We’ll consider both tools’ cleaning capabilities, the time it takes to clean with them, how comfortable they are to use, their prices, and more.
By the time you’re finished here, you’ll have all the information you need to decide whether you should use a pressure washer or a SpinAway to clean your home and yard.
Table of contents (click a link to jump to a section)
- Cleaning surfaces
- Cleaning time
- Comfort level
- Price
Cleaning Surfaces
When cleaning your outdoor landscaping, you’ll come across a number of materials that need cleaning, including:
- Concrete
- Siding
- Wood
- Metal
- Glass
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for cleaning each of these materials. Each tool has its pros and cons.
SpinAway
SpinAway’s brush head is built with soft yet firm polyester bristles. It can be used wet in combination with soap and other cleaning solutions, or dry to sweep leaves, twigs, and dirt away.
The tool can scrub moss, mold, mud, and more off of concrete, wood, siding, glass, and metal. It won’t clean quite as deeply as a pressure washer, but when it comes to spot-cleaning particularly dirty areas, it gets the job done well.
Pressure Washer
A pressure washer will use its powerful water jet to blast away dirt and grime with hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of pounds of force per square inch. The cleaning results are very good — sometimes too good.
Pressure washers are so strong that they may actually end up eroding your cleaning surface a bit. If you’re not careful, they can crack concrete seals, take the stain off of your wooden deck, or take paint off of your car. They’ll clean, but they may damage, too.
Verdict:
Use SpinAway for light and medium-duty cleaning jobs on any surface. Use a pressure washer for heavy-duty cleaning on tough surfaces like concrete or metal.
Cleaning Time
SpinAway
SpinAway is much faster than scrubbing on your hands and knees with a brush or a rag. That said, it still takes time to use it right and get the job done, especially depending on what you’re trying to clean.
While the brush head combined with centripetal force is effective, sometimes, it can take multiple passes over the same spot to scrub the dirt out. Also, be sure to keep spare drill batteries handy. If yours dies, you’ll be waiting quite a while to get back to cleaning.
Pressure Washer
With a pressure washer, there’s a balance you have to find between the width of the water jet, how close you have to hold the spray head to the cleaning surface, and how effective the water jet is.
A wider jet means more cleaning surface area covered but less pressure to clean with. A tighter jet makes for a smaller cleaning area but more high-pressure, effective cleaning. After you find the right balance, though, you shouldn’t have to make multiple passes over the same area twice.
Verdict:
As long as you take the time to get your nozzle settings correct, a pressure washer should get the job done more quickly than SpinAway.
Comfort Level
SpinAway
All told, SpinAway weighs less than two pounds. It’s made to be as lightweight as possible while still cleaning effectively and offering around ten feet of total reach. The weight of the entire cleaning system varies depending on which drill you use, but in all, it’s not very heavy.
In fact, SpinAway’s creator designed it for use during a short-term disability he was suffering from. This is all to say that SpinAway is comfortable and easy to use. It won’t leave you straining and sore. The drill does the work so your muscles won’t have to.
Pressure Washer
Pressure washers are big — close to the size of a lawnmower in some cases. They’re powered by large motors. It’s what allows them to clean so effectively.
At the same time, though, their unwieldy size can make them tough to maneuver, especially if you have to drag them up onto a deck or porch. The cleaning wands themselves can be heavy and demanding to use — not to mention the pain of accidentally passing over your feet with the water jet, which can be very dangerous.
Verdict:
SpinAway is a bit more comfortable to use than a pressure washer, especially with regards to post-cleaning soreness.
Price
SpinAway
In terms of price, SpinAway is pretty easy to discuss. The entire kit (including an extendable pole and brush head) has an MSRP of $49.99. Replacement brush heads have an MSRP of $11.99.
Pressure Washer
There are hundreds of models of pressure washers on the market, all with different features, abilities, and levels of effectiveness. Prices vary between gas-powered, battery-powered, and electric pressure washers.
On average, though, you can expect to pay around $250 for a pressure washer. Some cheaper models may cost as low as $80, while some high-end models may run you as high as $400 or more.
Verdict:
SpinAway costs quite a bit less than virtually any pressure washer on the market.
Should You Use a SpinAway or a Pressure Washer?
Now that we’ve looked at some of the key differences between SpinAway and pressure washers, let’s think back to our original question: which one should you use?
The answer depends on how each of the four points of comparison addressed above fit you, your home, and what you want to clean.
If you’re deep-cleaning 15 years’ worth of residue from the surface of your driveway, a pressure washer may serve you well in that situation.
If you’re interested in clearing some dirt and pollen off of your lawn furniture during the summer, SpinAway may make more sense for you.
The answer really depends on what you need to clean, the material from which it’s made, your budget, and what kind of shape you’re in to handle the demands of each cleaning implement.
To learn more about the ins and outs of SpinAway and more situations to use it in, our honest review of SpinAway can help. It covers the advantages and disadvantages of SpinAway in depth to help you decide whether or not it’s a good fit for you and the things you need to clean.
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