It seems every manufacturer claims to have the best performing pressure washer these days: The most powerful. The highest PSI. The best nozzle technology.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a way to test these claims? Thankfully there is: it's called an abrasion test, and it measures the most important criteria for judging a pressure washer’s performance: the width and evenness of its cleaning path.

The most efficient pressure washers, those which help you clean most quickly, have the widest and most even cleaning paths. The wider the cleaning path, the greater the surface area you clean with each pass. Of course, this doesn’t mean much if the cleaning is uneven, resulting in spots or streaks that have to be cleaned again.

So which pressure washers have the widest, most even cleaning paths? We ordered a test of some best sellers, the results of which are below.