Best pressure washers: the best post-ride bike cleaners tested

Cleaning your bike isn't just about making it look nice, it's important to keep your components free of encrusted dirt and the potential for rust. That's where the best pressure washers for bikes will come in handy.

Washing the grime off post-ride is the best thing you can do to keep your steed running happier for longer. This is especially true when it comes to winter cycling, as that's the time of year when there's a plethora of dirt, road grime and mud lurking, ready to coat your drivetrain.

Whichever bike it is you're cleaning, whether it's a quick rinse of your best carbon road bike, or a deep clean of your best gravel bike or best cyclo-cross bike (not sure of the difference? Check out our feature on gravel vs cyclo-cross), a pressure washer can make quick work of claggy mud.

After a muddy ride, it’s important to make sure you get the muck off your frame before it solidifies because once it's dry, it’s harder to remove than a chainring mark on your brand-new white cycling socks.

There is a fair bit of controversy when it comes to pressure washing bikes, but as long as you're sensible and don’t point a stream of high-velocity water directly into bearings seals at point-blank range, we think they can be a beneficial tool to simplify your post-ride clean up. 

Read on for our picks of the best pressure washers for bikes, head to the bottom for our advice on what to look for in a pressure washer, or educate yourself on the best cleaning practices in our guide to how to clean your bike.

The best bike-friendly pressure washers you can buy today

Touted as ‘the world’s first bike-specific power washer’, Muc-Off’s take on the jet wash isn't all that different from a light-duty unit from your local hardware store, requiring both a power and water source. It has a flow rate of 6.5-litres per minute and a max pressure of 1450 psi.

It comes with three lances, including a low-power head specifically for bikes — Muc-Off is also offering a snow-foam head, which has an inline mount for a bottle of your favourite bike wash to give your bike a bubble bath. For the time being, the Muc-Off Pressure washer isn't available to our Australian readers, but can be found in the US and Europe.

Read more about why we like it in our Muc-Off Pressure Washer review.

The Aqua2Go pressure washer holds 17 litres of water and runs off of an internal 110v rechargeable battery allowing for about 12min of spray time. With the included ‘pistol’ sprayer, the pressure can be adjusted from 44psi up to 115psi, and the 5m hose means you’re not tethered directly to the unit.

It’s one of the more weighty portable washers on this list, with the fixed battery tipping the scales at 7kg before it's filled with water - the washer does have wheels for easy manoeuvrability though we would like to see some slightly larger wheels fitted. The washer also comes with a showerhead and brush with an inline mount for soap or bike wash.

For more in-depth detail, check out our Aqua2Go Pro Washer review.

With a 7.5-litre capacity, the Rinse Kit requires no battery or pumps, instead utilising an internal pressure chamber to drive water through the end of the nozzle. When it's time to spray, the Rinse Kit will give you about two minutes at full blast before the pressure starts to drop off - about enough time to de-mud a bike. If you’re cleaning multiple bikes by yourself, there is a pump accessory that allows you to top up the pressure. 

The tank is insulated (Rinse Kit also offers a car cigarette-lighter-powered heater), so you don’t need to freeze cleaning up in a trailhead parking lot, and the washer can be filled either using a garden hose or your kitchen sink.

Roughly the size of a small cooler, it comes with a 1.8m hose, meaning it can be left in the back of your car while spraying off bikes. 

For more information, take a look at our Rinse Kit Plus review.

The Mobi V-15 utilises a 12v accessory plug to power the pump which pushes water from its 15-litre reservoir out of the spray nozzle at up to 135psi. From full to empty, the washer will spray for just under seven minutes at full chat. 

The hose is long enough to leave the reservoir in the back of your car, and the washer uses a clever anti-lag system to deliver a constant stream from the moment you press the trigger until it runs out, preventing air from finding its way into the pump.

Mobi also includes a showerhead and brush attachment, though we didn't think either was particularly useful for bike cleaning. 

Head over to our Mobi V-15 Mobile Washer review for more.

With the pump located inside the lance; Worx claims the Hydroshot offers about 363psi of pressure on tap, and the multi-spray nozzle allows you to customise the stream, you'll just need to find a water source.

It comes with a hose, a collapsible bucket and works with fittings from a standard garden hose — you can even screw a bottle into the bottom.

Worx makes an extensive range of power tools, and the Hydroshot uses the same battery as the drills, saws, grinders, and leaf blowers in the range; so if you’ve already bought into the ecosystem, all your tools batteries will be compatible.

Roughly the size of a piece of carry-on luggage, the Bosch Fontus is a fully self-contained unit which runs on the brand’s standard 18v cordless power tool batteries. For a portable unit, the Fontus has a sizable 15-litre water tank, and weighs nearly 10kg empty — luckily there are wheels and an extendable handle, so you don’t have to lift and carry the hefty unit. 

The spray gun looks like a garden hose head and offers four spray patterns and three pressure settings. We think this is handy as users will be able to choose a less intense setting for more sensitive areas of the bike such as headsets, hubs and bottom brackets. This should help minimise water ingress into these sensitive areas. There is also accessory storage and an in-operation gun holder which we like.

When it comes to electric power washers, there is a whole hardware store full of units that will turn your water tap into a concentrated stream. For bike cleaning (and general domestic use) we like the Karcher K2 Full Control. It's a bit more powerful than the Muc-Off unit with 1600psi on tap but included is the Vario Power Spray Wand which allows you to adjust the water pressure with a twist. 

A snow foam nozzle can be purchased separately, which allows you to attach a bottle of bike wash and cover your bike in a layer of foam. Although snow foam is a fun way to clean your bike, it also helps protect the paintwork. Loosening and transporting mud and dirt off the paintwork without the need to agitate it by hand, thus reducing the risk of adding swirls and scratches to the paintwork. 

What to look for in a pressure washer