Equipment Guide
Pressure Washer Nozzle Chart
Pressure washer nozzles are colour-coded by spray angle: red is 0°, yellow 15°, green 25°, white 40°, and black 65° for applying soap at low pressure. Narrower angles concentrate the same water on less area, so they hit harder and cover less.
That's the half of the chart everyone publishes. The half that decides whether your machine hits its rated pressure is the orifice size number — a separate rating stamped on the tip. Both are below, with a calculator for the second.
Nozzle colors and spray angles
Five standard tips ship with almost every machine. The angle is the whole difference — same water, spread over more or less surface.
Spot-blasting caked-on stains, rust, and stubborn tar
Concentrates all pressure on a coin-sized point. Etches concrete, cuts wood, and injures skin. Most pros never take it out of the case.
Heavy stripping — paint, oxidation, deep oil on concrete
Aggressive enough to leave stripes on concrete if you rush. Keep it moving and hold a consistent distance.
General flatwork — driveways, sidewalks, patios
The everyday tip for concrete work with a wand. Good balance of bite and coverage.
Rinsing, siding, vehicles, painted and delicate surfaces
The safest standard tip and the one most rinse work should use. Wide enough to cover ground fast.
Applying detergent and downstreaming chemicals
Its large orifice drops system pressure, which is what lets a downstream injector draw chemical.
| Color | Angle | Pattern | What it's for | Handling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red | 0° | Pencil jet | Spot-blasting caked-on stains, rust, and stubborn tarConcentrates all pressure on a coin-sized point. Etches concrete, cuts wood, and injures skin. Most pros never take it out of the case. | Expert only |
| Yellow | 15° | Narrow fan | Heavy stripping — paint, oxidation, deep oil on concreteAggressive enough to leave stripes on concrete if you rush. Keep it moving and hold a consistent distance. | Use with care |
| Green | 25° | Medium fan | General flatwork — driveways, sidewalks, patiosThe everyday tip for concrete work with a wand. Good balance of bite and coverage. | Everyday use |
| White | 40° | Wide fan | Rinsing, siding, vehicles, painted and delicate surfacesThe safest standard tip and the one most rinse work should use. Wide enough to cover ground fast. | Everyday use |
| Black | 65° | Soap / low pressure | Applying detergent and downstreaming chemicalsIts large orifice drops system pressure, which is what lets a downstream injector draw chemical. | Everyday use |
A note on the red 0° tip
It puts the machine's entire output through an opening about the width of a pencil lead. It will etch concrete, splinter wood, cut vinyl siding, and cause injection injuries that require surgery — the wound looks minor and isn't. It has a narrow legitimate use for spot-blasting something like a tar blob. If you're reaching for it on general flatwork, the answer is a surface cleaner, not more pressure.
The number nobody explains: orifice size
Every tip carries two ratings. The colour gives you the angle. A separate number — 3.0, 4.5, 5.5 — gives you the orifice size, and that one decides whether your machine actually reaches its rated pressure.
The convention is simple once you know it: a nozzle's size number is the GPM it passes at 4,000 PSI. To size one for any other working pressure:
size = GPM × √(4000 ÷ PSI)
A 4.0 GPM machine at 3,000 PSI needs 4 × √(4000÷3000) = 4.62, so you stock a 4.5.
Too large and you lose pressure. Pressure comes from restriction. A nozzle that flows more than your pump delivers can never build the rated PSI, and the machine feels weak no matter what you do to it.
Too small and you stress the pump. An undersized orifice spikes pressure past the unloader's setting, which is hard on seals and can bypass constantly. Given the choice, size up — a slightly soft machine still cleans; a spiked one needs a rebuild.
Nozzle size calculator
Free, no sign-up. Enter your machine's rating and it returns the exact size plus the two stock sizes either side — with the pressure you'd really run at with each, which is the part that decides which one you buy.
Your machine's rating
Nozzle size needed
4.62
4.00 GPM × √(4000 ÷ 3,000) = 4.62
Stock sizes either side
Rounding down raises pressure and can overload the pump; rounding up drops pressure but is the safer error. When in doubt, size up — a slightly soft machine still cleans, a spiked one needs a rebuild.
The right tip decides how fast the surface cleans. What you charge for it depends on how much surface there is — measure the job from satellite imagery before you price it.
Nozzle size chart by GPM and PSI
Exact values from the formula. Round to the nearest stock size — and remember these are for a single wand tip. For a surface cleaner, divide your GPM by the number of nozzles on the bar first.
| GPM | 2000 | 2500 | 3000 | 3500 | 4000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.5 | 3.54 | 3.16 | 2.89 | 2.67 | 2.50 |
| 3.0 | 4.24 | 3.79 | 3.46 | 3.21 | 3.00 |
| 4.0 | 5.66 | 5.06 | 4.62 | 4.28 | 4.00 |
| 5.0 | 7.07 | 6.32 | 5.77 | 5.35 | 5.00 |
| 5.5 | 7.78 | 6.96 | 6.35 | 5.88 | 5.50 |
| 8.0 | 11.31 | 10.12 | 9.24 | 8.56 | 8.00 |
Columns are working PSI. At 4,000 PSI the size equals the GPM exactly — that's the reference point the whole numbering system is built on.
Which nozzle for which surface
When in doubt, start wider than you think and step down only if the surface needs it. You can always take another pass; you can't un-etch concrete.
For open flatwork, the honest answer is usually “none of these” — a surface cleaner holds consistent height and overlap in a way no hand-held wand can, which is what separates a clean slab from a striped one. The wand tips above are for edges, detail, and the work a cleaner can't reach.
Worn nozzles cost more than you think
Orifices erode. Water carrying grit passes through a precision opening thousands of times an hour, and the hole gets gradually larger — which means gradually lower pressure. The decline is invisible day to day, which is exactly what makes it expensive.
A tip worn 10% oversize doesn't announce itself. It just means every job starts taking longer, and you assume the surface was dirtier or you're getting slower. On a full schedule, that's hours a week of unpaid time traced back to a $4 part.
The test: keep a fresh set in the truck. When a job feels slow, swap the tip. If the machine wakes up, you found it — and you now know your replacement interval. Most contractors on daily commercial work replace annually at minimum.
Pressure washer nozzles — common questions
Colors, sizes, surfaces, and when to throw a tip away.
Color marks the spray angle. Red is 0° (a pencil jet), yellow is 15°, green is 25°, white is 40°, and black is 65° and drops pressure for applying soap. Narrower angles concentrate the same water onto a smaller area, so they hit harder but cover less ground. The color says nothing about how much water flows — that's the orifice size, a separate number stamped on the tip.
A 25° green tip for general driveway and sidewalk work with a wand, stepping to a 15° yellow only for specific heavy stains. Better still, use a surface cleaner for open flatwork — it holds a consistent height and overlap that no hand-held wand can match, which is what prevents the striping that gives away an amateur job. Save the 0° red tip for spot work you can't solve any other way.
Nozzle size equals your GPM multiplied by the square root of 4000 divided by your working PSI. A 4 GPM machine at 3,000 PSI needs a 4.62, so you'd stock a 4.5. The number is a flow rating, not a physical measurement: a nozzle's size number is the gallons per minute it passes at 4,000 PSI. Get it wrong and the machine either loses pressure (too big) or spikes and stresses the pump (too small).
You can, and it's the fastest way to damage a surface or yourself. A 0° tip puts the machine's entire output through a point roughly the size of a pencil lead — it will etch concrete, splinter wood, cut through vinyl siding, and cause injection injuries that need surgery. Professional operators keep one for narrow spot work like a tar blob or a rust run, and reach for it maybe a few times a year.
The orifice is almost certainly too large for your flow. Pressure is generated by restriction, so a nozzle that passes more water than your pump delivers can't build the rated PSI. The reverse also happens as tips age: an orifice worn 10% oversize quietly drops your pressure and doubles the time every job takes. Nozzles are consumables — most contractors replace them at least annually, and they're the cheapest performance fix on the rig.
The sizing does. A surface cleaner splits your flow across two, three, or four nozzles on a rotating bar, so each tip is sized for its share — a 4 GPM machine with a two-nozzle bar sizes each nozzle for 2 GPM, not 4. Fitting full-flow tips to every arm is the most common reason a surface cleaner underperforms. The angles are also narrower, typically 15° or 25°, because the bar's rotation provides coverage instead of the fan.
At least once a year for daily commercial use, and immediately if you notice pressure falling off or the fan pattern going ragged at the edges. Orifices erode gradually, so the decline is invisible day to day — the tell is that jobs start taking longer for no obvious reason. Keeping a fresh spare set in the truck and swapping one in as a test is the quickest way to confirm whether the tip or the pump is the problem.
The quick-connect fitting is broadly standard — most contractor equipment uses a 1/4-inch quick connect, with larger machines on 3/8-inch — so tips physically interchange between brands. What isn't universal is the sizing: a nozzle correct for one machine can be wrong for another with different GPM or PSI. Never assume a tip that came with one machine suits another without running the numbers.
Related Resources
The rest of the rig, and what to do once it's dialed in.
The tip is dialed in. What about the quote?
Right nozzle, right cleaner, right technique — and the job still loses money if the square footage was a guess. Measure any property from satellite imagery in minutes.