Can you Use a Cordless Pressure Washer to Clean a Driveway?

Last Updated on December 9, 2021

Cordless Pressure Washers and Driveways

Back in the old days, pressure washers were uniform and there was only one way to use them.

However, these days there is a huge range of options available, and one of our favourites is cordless pressure washers.

Cordless pressure washers can be incredibly convenient for the fact that they are highly mobile.

You don’t need to connect the tool to a power supply as they are powered by batteries, and you don’t even need to attach it to a hose – you can simply use the suction attachment to take water from a bucket! 

They really are popular tools, but they can be confusing. Almost every day, we are asked the same question over and over again – “can you use a cordless pressure washer to clean a driveway?”

It’s a great question, and we are here to help. Read on to find out the answer!

So, can you?


I’m afraid that I’ve got a bit of bad news for you – unfortunately, I would not recommend cleaning your driveway with a cordless pressure washer.

It may seem super convenient when you think about it. Surely you can just rock up to your driveway with your cordless pressure washer, not having to worry about power or water flow? Well, sadly it isn’t that simple. 

In theory you could clean your driveway with a cordless pressure washer, nobody is going to stop you and it’s not like it is dangerous.

However, there are several reasons as to why I would not recommend you do this. Let’s take a look. 

Reason 1: Pressure Levels


The first and most important reason that I would recommend you do not use a cordless pressure washer to clean a driveway is that the pressure level is simply not going to be sufficient.

Regular pressure washers do a fantastic job at cleaning driveways, but this all comes down to the immense PSI and water pressure that they output. 

Unfortunately, the PSI output of cordless pressure washers will be too low. If you have all of the time in the world to get the job done then go for it, why not?

However, be warned – this job is likely to take you not hours, but days and days. We would recommend getting a regular powered pressure washer for this kind of job, and save the cordless model for smaller jobs around the garden. 

Reason 2: Battery Life


Remember when we just told you that cleaning your driveway with a cordless pressure washer would take days?

That would be true with a cordless pressure washer with infinite battery, but such a device is yet to be invented and thus the job would take even longer!

There is no denying that using a pressure washer without cables is incredibly convenient, but in order to use it, you will need to charge it.

We hope that in the future this technology will be innovated upon, but currently, you may only get 10 to 15 minutes of continuous use for an hour or two of charging! 

There are only so many hours in the day, so consider how much longer the job will take considering that you will continuously have to recharge the device.

In theory, you could purchase some spare batteries so that you could swap them out in a cyclic style, but this is going to get extremely expensive.

You would be much better off using that money to buy a standard mains or gas-powered pressure washer, and leave the cordless model for jobs that take less time. 

Reason 3: No Hot Water


Everybody knows that things can be cleaned a lot faster when you use hot soapy water. The hotter the water the better it will clean, especially when it comes down to greasy and oily residue.

When you load up your cordless pressure washer, it might be tempting to fill it up with boiling hot water immediately in order to optimize the cleaning job and save yourself precious time.  

Stop! It is very rare that a cordless pressure washer will be able to support hot water, and it is very likely that it will instead cause your device to break down.

This might seem counterintuitive, but it’s true. Most cordless washers will support water up to around 40 degrees Celsius which is relatively warm, but it’s certainly not hot. 

You will need that hot water if you are going to successfully clean your driveway, so this is a job better left for a hot pressure washer.

If you don’t believe us, read the manual of your cordless pressure washer and we can guarantee that it will give you similar advice. 

Final Thoughts


Overall, we really would not recommend that you use a cordless pressure washer to clean your driveway. Whilst it may be physically possible in theory, it is going to take forever.

Cordless pressure washers are designed with accessibility in mind for small jobs, and therefore they simply do not have the PSI sufficient for cleaning the deep grime of a driveway. 

If that wasn’t enough to convince you not to do this, the obstacle of battery life is going to be even more frustrating.

Imagine spending 10 minutes cleaning a single tile of your driveway with a cordless pressure washer, only to discover that you need to wait another two hours to recharge the battery to clean another tile. Only 200 more tiles to go! 

Last but not least, the only way to clean your driveway to a high standard is to use hot water. Cordless pressure washers do not facilitate the use of hot water, and doing so could cause damage or completely break your device.

You’re still going to need that hot water though, so this really is the job for a traditional hot water pressure washer. Sure, it may not be so convenient, but at least it will work!

Overall, don’t waste your precious cordless pressure washer on cleaning your driveway. It will take a very long time and could even get damaged throughout the process, so it would be better to use a more traditional model.

Save your cordless model for watering the plants, cleaning your garden furniture, or aiding in the cleaning of your car, and we can guarantee that you will get much more efficient use out of it! 

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