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Do Pressure Washing Companies Use My Water?

Updated: Feb 19

Pressure washing companies will, nearly without exception, use your water supply for your pressure washing project. Pressure washing is a fairly water-intensive process and your water supply is needed due to the number of gallons used, the availability of the water, and the inconvenience and expense of a large water tank. However, if you do not have external spigots on your home, there may be companies who will be willing to bring in large water tanks to do the job, but it will not be cheap. 


If you are concerned about the cost of a pressure washing company using your water, you can rest easy. In our previous article How much water is used during a pressure washing project, we covered the costs of the water being used and calculated an average house wash to cost the homeowner 20 to 60 cents on their monthly water bill. Although not free, it certainly will be cheaper than hiring a company to bring their water. Now let's take a look at the reasons why we use your water:


pressure washer
A Small Pressure Washer

Number of gallons used

As we covered before, pressure washing is a water-intensive process. To account for the 300 to 900 gallons used in an average house wash, an external spigot will be used. Whether this is directly into a pressure washer or an external water tank will depend on the GPM flow rate of both the pressure washer and the external spigot.


At EcoWash, we use pressure washers that use 2.5-3.5 gallons per minute. We do this because the average residential external spigot will have an approximate flow rate of 4.0 gallons per minute. If our pressure washers stay below this threshold, we can connect directly to the spigot to provide enough water for our machines. 


Other companies, particularly those with larger equipment, will fill a large water tank with city water, connect their pressure washer pump directly to it, and then open the top of the large tank and send a hose from your spigot into the large tank to lessen the draining effect of their pressure washer. This will dramatically increase the time they can get out of a tank and leave their tank partially full for their next project. 


“Even when machines using 8-10GPM of water are used, it will always be more cost-effective to use the water supplied at your home.” - Nicholas Flemion, Central Virginia Power Wash


The availability of the water

Bringing in water from an external location to your home is a costly move. It takes time, fuel, and effort. If you hire a company to bring out a tank, it will almost certainly cost you more money than a company that hooks up directly to your water supply. If it doesn’t, that company is either wickedly efficient or something is up. 


Direct connection to your water supply is the obvious choice, and that is why every single pressure washing company will do it. It just makes sense.


The inconvenience and expense of a large water tank

A large tank will be expensive to purchase, fill, and haul around. This is a move a company will only make if they decide it is in their financial interest to trade time on labor (a higher GPM flow rate will get jobs done quicker) with the cost of a large water tank. At EcoWash, we would rather pay a hardworking service technician more money and save the overhead cost. 


To answer the question directly, yes, a pressure-washing company will use your water with almost no exceptions. It is logistically convenient for them and extremely affordable for you. If you need any help from an EcoWash Representative, please request an estimate from us here.

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