Did I ruin my brand new tires with a pressure washer???

[kmb1966]

I recently had 6 new tires mounted on my motorhome. The shop had alot of white ash/dust all over and it got all over my new tires, so I came home and tried to wash it off. I tried some soap and it didn't clean it off very well, so without 'thinking', I grabbed my Husky electric 1500 psi pressure washer, and washed the tires. Now, I didn't put it on the stream/bead or anything like that, but I did have it on the fan spray mode, and admittedly sprayed it around and around to get this dirt/ash off of the new tires. Now, I'm hearing that wasn't such a great idea. Now I'm concerned if I somehow ruined my tires. Does anyone use a small electric pressure washer? Did I ruin these new tires?

[mobeewan]

I heard pressure washers only damage tires that have been filled with Nitrogen.:W

[FLY_4_FUN]

Throw some Aerospace 303 protectant on those babies and get on with enjoying your rig. Unless you truly used super high pressure within inches of rubber I doubt you did any damage to them. Happy Holidays

[wa8yxm]

kmb1966 wrote:


Was telling a friend of mine that has been in the tire business for about 30 years that I had to clean my tires with a pressure washer and he mentioned that it wasn't a good idea to use a pressure washer on tires, and then I came home and GOOGLED IT and found several articles about the possibility of damage to tires by pressure washing your tires. So then I became concerned.

Well checked it out and I will go back to what I said before

If you hold the wand very close to the tire. And the articles talked about heavy duty COMMERCIAL pressure washers.. if you hold the wand very close.. YES you can damage the tire.

Back off a foot or two as you normally would when washing a car and you will not. That's the thing they over look

THe high frequency pulsations from as much as 1500 PSI to Zero.....
Well that's 1500 PSI at the nozzle. 2 feet away it is more like 15 psi.

NOTE get your hand too close to the nozzle and you will no longer have skin on your bones.. It will slice concrete.. In fact I've done that. But as the distance increases the pressure decreases..

[Chris_Bryant]

Interesting article, it states the problem is not the pressure, rather the pump pulsates at several hundred hz, and it’s the vibration concentrated that damages the cords.

I don’t think I would worry about LT tires as much as car tires.

[ItsyRV]

kmb1966 wrote:
Was telling a friend of mine that has been in the tire business for about 30 years that I had to clean my tires with a pressure washer and he mentioned that it wasn't a good idea to use a pressure washer on tires, and then I came home and GOOGLED IT and found several articles about the possibility of damage to tires by pressure washing your tires. So then I became concerned.

First, nobody can say it's bad or say it's not bad without knowing the details. Unfortunately, when you say pressure washer, some are thinking 1,200 psi at 1.5 gallons with a fan tip at a 45 degree angle, while the article and warnings are based on 3,000 psi at 2.5 gallons with a chisel tip at a 90 degree angle. So in fact a pressure washer can damage a tire just like it can rip the surface of a concrete driveway if used incorrectly.

For the most part, typical household pressure washers used incorrectly will only damage the rubber's outer surface resulting in crumbs being blasted away. It wont have any real impact on the tire except odds are it will always look like it's covered in black sand. Your really have to be using a cutting or chisel tip to do any structural damage.

[drsteve]

The Popular Mechanics article is the only source I can find for this advice. I find no source for the assertion that tire manufacturers warn against using a pressure washer.

[joshuajim]

On one of my projects, we had to remove defective concrete but save the rebar for a repour. The contractor who poured the defective concrete brought in a diesel powered pressure washer that was capable of 60,000 psi. Now that would hurt your tires!

[joshuajim]

On one of my projects, we had to remove defective concrete but save the rebar for a repour. The contractor who poured the defective concrete brought in a diesel powered pressure washer that was capable of 60,000 psi. Now that would hurt your tires!

[wrktfsh]

Stop listening to the people that tell you a pressure washer will ruin your tires. Wonder what other gems of advice they have

[Lwiddis]

Cummings is always looking on the bright side...only 4 out of 6.

[Tvov]

Hmm. First I've heard of pressure washing tires being bad. I would think you would need a very high pressure and hold the nozzle close to cause any damage, if any. Now I want to try it on an old tire and see what happens!

[RJsfishin]

A joke ? A 1500 lb on fan spray won't clean dirt off a sidewalk, don't know how it could hurt a tire,
I rented a 5000 lb one time, w/ the bullet tip it would drill holes in old cast iron. Now that could have been a little tuff on tires too :))

[kmb1966]

wa8yxm wrote:
I am wondering who told you it was not such a good idea..

Ever drive in the rain? You did nothing worse than driving in the rain.

NOW.. If you take a high pressure washer and hold it say 1" from the tire and blast away.. YES. you can damage the tire.. Heck you can drill a hole in concrete (Done it just for fun) but if you are more than a foot away (And you would be in order to let the fan fan out) no worse than a rain storm. IN fact a rain storm can well be worse.

Was telling a friend of mine that has been in the tire business for about 30 years that I had to clean my tires with a pressure washer and he mentioned that it wasn't a good idea to use a pressure washer on tires, and then I came home and GOOGLED IT and found several articles about the possibility of damage to tires by pressure washing your tires. So then I became concerned.

[wa8yxm]

I am wondering who told you it was not such a good idea..

Ever drive in the rain? You did nothing worse than driving in the rain.

NOW.. If you take a high pressure washer and hold it say 1" from the tire and blast away.. YES. you can damage the tire.. Heck you can drill a hole in concrete (Done it just for fun) but if you are more than a foot away (And you would be in order to let the fan fan out) no worse than a rain storm. IN fact a rain storm can well be worse.