Ryobi Vs. DeWalt Pressure Washer Surface Cleaner: How Do They Compare?
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Keeping your outdoor spaces clean and looking good can be a lot of work, but having the right tools can make all the difference. There is a whole host of tools for maintaining lawns and foliage, but a quality pressure washer is probably the most useful item for cleaning up your paved areas.
Ryobi and DeWalt are both counted among the best major pressure washer brands on the market, and each of these manufacturers makes a surface cleaner attachment that is designed to work in tandem with these tools. These are made up of a disk-shaped housing that holds a rotating spray bar. When the pressurized water flows into the washer, the bar spins rapidly while the housing contains the spray and keeps it from soaking the user or damaging delicate nearby surfaces. They also have bristle skirts around the edge of the housing, which serve to further contain the water and provide some additional scrubbing action. These can be used to clean decks, sidewalks, driveways, garage floors, pavers, brickwork, and more.
But those who are interested in getting either the Ryobi or DeWalt surface cleaner attachments might want to know a bit more about each of them. What kind of specs do they offer, how much do they cost, and what do users think of them? That way, you can decide for yourself which of these products is best suited to your needs.
The Ryobi surface cleaner is a budget option
Ryobi is well known as a more value-oriented brand. Walk down the aisles of your local Home Depot, and you’ll likely notice that many of the tools that the company makes cost significantly less than comparable models from other major brands. It seems that its 12-inch Electric Pressure Washer Surface Cleaner (RY31012) is no exception. This accessory retails for just $29.97 if you buy it directly from Ryobi or Home Depot, and it’s currently available on Amazon for $24.99. This makes it one of the more affordable options out there.
The attachment promises to clean driveways, patios, and sidewalks up to four times faster than the nozzle alone, covering a greater, streak-free surface area with each pass using its rotating jets. According to the product description on the Home Depot website, “The RYOBI 12 in. Surface Cleaner is compatible with most electric pressure washers up to 2300 psi and 1.4 GPM.” Many of Ryobi’s pressure washers – particularly the gas-powered ones– provide higher pressure than this, but its electric models are safely under that threshold. This surface cleaner also has a ¼-inch quick-connect for easy attachment when you want to use it, and easy detachment when you want to switch back to the spray nozzle.
That said, reviews for the Ryobi Surface Cleaner have been somewhat middling. The attachment has a 4.0 out of 5 star rating on the Ryobi website, a 3.9 on Home Depot, and a 3.8 on Amazon. A majority of reviewers seemed to appreciate its overall functionality, but there were also a significant number of complaints about leakage issues, blockage issues, and a handful of users who didn’t think its rotation speed was fast enough.
The DeWalt surface cleaner can handle more pressure
DeWalt is often seen as a more premium brand when it comes to tools for whipping your yard back into shape, with high power and high performance that has a tendency to be matched by high prices. Unsurprisingly, we see this pattern repeated in the company’s surface cleaner attachment. The 12-inch Surface Cleaner Pressure Washer Accessory (DWZPWSC12) retails for $59.97 at Home Depot and $52.97 on Amazon, putting it at roughly double the price of the Ryobi model. To be fair, however, it’s definitely the more powerful of the two.
The design is fairly similar. The accessory has a 12-inch cleaning surface, a ¼-inch quick-connect attachment method, and two high-pressure rotating jets. The biggest difference is that the DeWalt model is rated for significantly more water pressure, which makes it a better choice for those with larger and more powerful pressure washers. According to the Home Depot product description, it’s “compatible with any corded or cordless electric pressure washers up to 3000 PSI and up to 6.43 L/min (1.7 GPM).” This means that it’s able to handle both more pressure per square inch and a greater volume of water per minute. That said, it’s still not strong enough to work with the more industrial powered gas models.
Unfortunately, it’s reviewers seem to have a lot more of the same criticisms for this accessory that we saw on the Ryobi model. The DeWalt Surface Cleaner has a 3.4 out of 5 star rating on Home Depot and another 3.4 out of 5 on Amazon. While there were still plenty of people who found it to be effective, this accessory also received several complaints about leakage, streaks in the cleaning area, and overall poor performance.
