How to Use a Pressure Washer Without an Outside Tap: 5 Alternative Options

Last Updated on January 10, 2023

Pressure washers a valuable investment for those with a lot of outside washing and work to do. If you’re trying to keep your deck in perfect condition, or you need to keep your paving slabs looking great, a pressure washer can help with that.

Pressure washers can be a useful and quick way to clean all manner of outside services. They work a lot better than the standard garden hose, and they’re suitable for various materials too. However, if you want to use a pressure washer, you’re going to need the right tools.

To deliver the best results, your pressure washer needs a source of power and a source of water. Most products available on the market today are designed to simply attach to your garden hose and draw water from the outdoor faucet or tap.

But can you do it without? Absolutely. Read on to learn how to use a pressure washer without an outside tap.

Ways to Use a Pressure Washer Without an Outside Tap

Not everyone has access to an outdoor tap. You might live in an apartment or condo that doesn’t have these kinds of installations. Or, you might simply have never wanted to install an outdoor tap before. If you don’t have the most obvious source of water for your pressure washing machine, then you’ll need to consider some alternative options.

The good news is that there are quite a few options to choose from, depending on the kind of pressure washer you’re using, and what kind of results you want to get.

Option 1: Using a Bucket of Water

Using a bucket of water could be one of the many ways you access your pressure water. Notably, you can’t just fill your bucket of water and place a hose inside of it to access the liquid. Ultimately, there needs to be pressure available to move the water from a bucket through your pressure washer.

However, if you take the time to research your pressure washing equipment before you buy it, you might notice that some devices come with an extra optional accessory. This suction hose is specifically designed for people who want to use a bucket in lieu of a tap.

With the right suction hose, you place one end into your water source (the bucket), and the other end into the pressure washer.

The bucket method isn’t completely ideal, because your pressure washer will probably empty the bucket very quickly. This means that you’re constantly carrying buckets of water back and forth. A big job can become very time consuming this way.

However, if you’re only using a small amount of water on a small project, a bucket could provide a means to get quick jobs done.

Another point to keep in mind is when you’re using pressure washer hoses with a bucket, you may want to use a filter on top of the suction hose. This will stop it from drawing any extra rocks, debris, or stray dirt from the bucket into your pressure washer. It’s difficult to stop debris from entering a bucket sometimes, and any foreign object in your power washer could damage it.

Option 2: Using Water Barrels (or Water Tanks)

Your pressure washing equipment uses gallons of water to get something clean. That’s why water from a bucket generally isn’t the best option. However, you could use a water barrel instead. A water tank or water barrel will contain all the excess water from your downspouts, and they make for an excellent solution when you don’t have an outdoor tap available.

Most of the water barrels that you can buy today already come with taps that are compatible with the hose from your pressure washer. This means that running a hose to your tank is extremely easy. The natural pressure that comes from the gravity of gallons of water in your water barrel helps to move the water more effectively too.

For those looking to save water when using a pressure washer, a water barrel could be an excellent way to collect and store rainwater and protect you from excess waste. Because there are already taps connected to your water butt, you can get to work quickly with a water barrel.

Once again, however, you might want to think about using a filter to protect your power washer from any additional debris that has built up in the tank. Cleaning your pavement with rainwater might be good for the environment, but dirt in your pressure washer may lead to damage.

Option 3: Use Another Kind of Tap

If you don’t have an outdoor tap, and you don’t want to set one up outside, then why not use a different kind of tap for your water pressure? Depending on how far you need to go in your garden, and how much hose you have access to, you may be able to connect an indoor tap instead. Making sure that you have enough hose to run through to the indoor tap and connect properly is crucial here.

Remember that you’ll also need to purchase an adapter for your hose and indoor tap so you can connect an outdoor hose to your standard faucet. If you want to avoid using too much extra hose, consider threading enough of the hose through the window to your kitchen or bathroom and into your garden instead.

If you’re not keen to draw water from your indoor tap, what about a washing machine tap? Lots of people who want to use a pressure washer without an outside tap take advantage of their washing machine taps instead. Most of the household washing machines available today have taps that are the same size as your outside tap.

If the tap or your washing machine seems quite similar to an outdoor tap, with the same kind of threading, you should be able to link up your pressure washer hose quite easily. Depending on how frequently you want to use your washing machine tap with your pressure washers, you may decide to invest in extra equipment.

A two way tap for your washing machine can split the tap into two separate options for water pressure. This ensures that one tab can stay hooked up to the washing machine permanently, while the other occasionally connects to your water pressure machine.

Either of these methods will require you to run a hose through your house and outside into the garden so uou may need a longer hose for this purpose.

Option 4: Try a Portable Option

Still wondering how to use a pressure washer without an outside tap? Most pressure washer machines are designed to work with an outside tap, but there are some alternative options out there. A portable pressure washer could be the ideal option if you don’t have an outside tap to rely on. Portable power washers are designed to be portable, which means that they have their own onboard water tank.

When you use a pressure washer with an included tank, you don’t need to connect to an outdoor tap, because your liquid access is already there. You can leave the garden hose out of the equation.

Portable pressure washers have an easy-fill tank to which you can add a certain amount of water, from your indoor tap or water supply. The tank and washer are integrated into a single device, so your power washer doesn’t need any additional technology.

Although a portable pressure washer can be a bit fiddly to use outside at first, they often come on wheels to help out with moving your washer around. With this solution, you don’t have to carry buckets of water per cleaning session into the garden. However, you do need to find a way to fill the tank, without your outside tap. This could mean that you connect a hose to the tank to save some time and effort. You can fill the tank from an indoor tap too.

A portable pressure washer is likely to be a good option if you’re planning on using a pressure washer to clean your garden furniture and posts regularly. You won’t have to do as much work to fill the washer or use any awkward pump hoses either.

Option 5: Install an Outdoor Tap

This might sound like quite an obvious suggestion, but if you’re worried about using a pressure washer without an outside tap, you could always get one installed. Pressure washers do work best with a pressure washer hose connected to an outdoor tap. The presence of the tap means your pressure washer can collect as much water as necessary through the garden hose, without you having to run back and forward, or use a bucket.

The good news for people who don’t have access to a pressure washing water source outside already, is that installing an outdoor tap isn’t difficult. You can create an outside water supply by drilling a hole into the siding to connect the pipes you have indoors. It’s a quick and easy project, and it should give you enough pressure to use your pressure washer whenever you like.

If you don’t have an outside tap to clean your patio and deck, then you may be able to call a plumber to install one for you and it will give you the power to have more control over your cleaning experience. You’ll also be able to take full advantage of the pump action and cleaning pressure of your washer.

Enjoy Your Pressure Washing Experience

By now, we hope you already know how to use a pressure washer without an outside tap. In the end, there are plenty of ways to attach a pressure washer and pump to your home without having an outdoor tap. Although, it’s fair to say that you’ll pump out water a lot faster if you are using a tap connection. If you use your pressure washer frequently, it might be time to consider installing an outside tap. It’ll come in handy for your garden hose, as well as your pressure washer hose.

On the other hand, if you really don’t want to use a tap, consider looking for something that doesn’t require tap access at all.