so since I have to help my elderly stepfather with his property, I want to build/ buy a pressure washer that I can use there and also help clean up his farm equipment, and when im done there and have recouped part of my costs, I want to keep it so that I can do the driveway and house down where im at, and when I move back to my paid off house in the other part of the city I can use it from there on out since I live near a protected wildlife area so that means here in FL high heat and humidity and algae.

I asked a friend of mine who use to be in the paint and pressure wash business and he said to get a CAT pump or a GP pump and to avoid the annovi pumps that a lot of consumer grade big box store pumps use. that im better off spending around $600 and building my own setup. he said what matters is the GPM and not the PSI as much, and that he recommended something around the 4GPM range would outlast anything I needed to do. as I tend to prefer to buy the intro commercial stuff than consumer grade, as I know commercial is built tougher and most of the time better.

since I will be going with a direct drive over belt drive, and yes I know that a belt drive is better for longevity of the pump, it is putting it into the 800-1000 range which is above what im wanting to spend and this pump will not be running 40 hours a week. should I go with a cheap motor like a Honda clone from HF since its pretty much the same motor or am I better to go with an actual Honda motor ? the pump I was looking at I think says needs a 9-13hp to run, and its 4GPM @4000 psi, im assuming that's more than enough for what I need to do for cold water pressure washing ?

my other thought is that with a basic commercial setup, I can hopefully do small side jobs here and there for friends to recoup the cost of the equipment and at the end my out of pocket cost for it sitting in the garage would be zero. I completely understand that pressure washer business are like lawn businesses, anyone with a truck and a trailer can do it, so I know doing that as a source of income would not be the wisest.

check out Northern Tool and equipment; they have some awesome pressure washer stuff.

I owned their single axle pressure washer with tank and heater for about 5 years and never had a failure of any kind.  It came with a Honda engine and Cat pump.

a real nice unit

I have a northern tool workforce or something motor on my vacuum on my tractor. Starts one pull all the time. No issues.  Works great.  Get a HF motor and if you blow it up, get another.  The pump won't know if it's a Honda or HF. As long as the hp is there, your good

Find a used one at auction and rebuild it.

I did a nut and bolt restoration on mine. Paid $450 for pressure washer. I have another $300 in it in hose, wand, parts, unloader, etc.

This is a $2,000 belt drive from northern tool. The blue ones like mine were the older series. Since recently replaced by the red series. The new ones are red now, have half the metal to them, and shitty italian pumps. Mines a General Pump TS2021. The standard industeial pressure washer pump by which others are judged. Made in MN.





After.

I thought CAT was the standard by which others are measures. But I've heard General is a great brand and even Comet will work for light commercial use

I saw a used one at a pwn shop.

Paid less than $100.

The only thing I checked was that the engine would turn over.

Need new orifices for the wand.

I can write my name in concrete.

so I almost bought a partial setup for $175 till I talked to my pressure washing buddy and he made a valid point, it was a Honda 390 motor on a MSM aluminum cart, and an unknown pump that was missing an unloader, it was a belt drive, but as my friend said, I would probably spend 100-120 for an unloader to see if the unknown pump even worked, and even if I had said F it and just bought a new pump for 500 ish, there is a chance that the Honda 390 motor could crap out at any moment and then I would need to spend 300ish for a new motor. and that looking at the photo they had removed the stickers and painted the belt drive cover, so who knows why they did that. so if I take what I would spend on the above mentioned setup, I could of just bought a new setup from a local MFG, as I found out Pressure Pro / WaterCannon is in the greater Orlando area where I am and their warehouse is only an hour away, and that if I had to buy the above setup I would still need a wand and hose setup, and sometimes you can get a package deal with the new setups.

Why would you buy the top of the line, high end pump, and bolt it to the cheapest motor you can find?

So I just bought this today :

https://www.ebay.com/itm/222270160268

Just snagged one of these for $720 since I called them directly to save the 10% ebay takes from them.  Brand new with a 3 year consumer warranty. Honda motor and cat pump. 4gpm so I can run surface cleaners and do sidewalks and driveways. Includes pressure wand , 50ft hose and free freight ship from IL. The place here in orlando that sells online is asking like 1300 for their setup plus tax. Even if it's 50-75 for shipping factored in that's pretty much half the cost of local supplier

"motor" or engine?

Both are pretty much commodity items.

If you use it all day every day you buy better power.

For an occasional use the best pump lets you do more things.

Call it what ever you want. Buy a junk pump to match the junk engine.

Finally got my pressure washer after shipping and working out of town for a week

Nice machine OP. Surprised no one made a Walmart reference.

All I have is a crappy little $300 Ryobi unit but I just use it once or twice a month to wash cars and rarely to clean other things.

I have a Ridgid.  Closeout from Home Depot.  I think I paid just over $300 for it.  Mine has a Subaru engine and the pump looks the same as yours.  I like it.  The 25 ft hose it came with only lasted a few years.  I replaced it with a really good hose and it's working great.  I think you'll be happy with your purchase.