Snap-on-tools 2000 psi pressure washer review
Channel: andycivil
Date: 2015-07-28

This is a review of the Snap-On-Tools branded 2000 psi pressure washer made by AllTrade Tools that I just bought in Costco. Although to be honest, it's a somewhat abbreviated review because really, there's just one thing you need to know about it if you're considering buying one. The motor unit works fine, the interesting part is the nozzles. The black nozzle has a large hole in it, the green nozzle is narrow in one direction only, forming a line, and the red nozzle is narrow in both directions, just having a small hole. There's also the turbo nozzle which has a hole that rotates automatically in use, making a pencil-thin jet that nevertheless covers an area of your target.

Here's the black nozzle in use. There's the potential to build up pressure but the large hole doesn't let that happen, so you get a small spray worthy of a garden sprinkler. Fine. Here's the green nozzle, wide one way, narrow the other. The green nozzle is not super-powerful, but you can adjust the effect a bit by varying the distance to the target. Notice it doesn't actually remove these weeds in my brick. Here's the kind of job this would be useful for: getting mould off a plank without destroying the plank. The red nozzle forces the greatest pressure because it's tiny. The power does clear weeds in its path - the trouble is that the path is small. And your target must be strong; the plank does not survive the blast from this.

The solution to having a high-pressure jet and yet covering some area is the turbo nozzle. But here's a problem. With this nozzle, the whole wand rotates uncontrollably in a kind of precession. Although it cleans what it points at, it's horribly hard to get the wand to point where you want it. If I just hold it in the air you can see how it just wanders everywhere. I had to stop using the supplied turbo nozzle, and I went out and bought an after-market spare made by Generac. On the plus side, the Snap-On-Tools washer does use a compatible connector so that fixing this problem was possible. It doesn't seem right that I have to buy a $40 item to make my new pressure washer work right, but it is what it is.

With the new turbo nozzle, cleaning is much improved; a high pressure jet forms a circle that you can sweep across your target, in this case clearing the weeds in its path. The wood, also, gets cleaned without being destroyed. 

My conclusion then, after having used this washer for a few days, is that everything about it is good and the red and green nozzles are usable according to their purpose. However, if you want the most useful tool, the turbo nozzle, you'd better budget for getting a replacement one.

I'll leave you with some slow motion clips, the green nozzle on a plank, the green nozzle failing to remove weeds, the red high pressure nozzle destroying a plank, the turbo nozzle, and the good turbo nozzle working on weeds in brickwork.