Husqvarna PW 235R
There’s a precision-engineered feel to much of the Husqvarna PW 235R pressure washer, which combines a 135 bar maximum pressure with five-stage motor power control. It feels built to last, but use it extensively over time and you might find details like its hose reel more annoying. Excellent cleaning results mean it’s a decent choice, but it’s not the best you can get at this price.
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Excellent cleaning -
Quality feel to lance and nozzles
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Annoying hose reel -
Not many accessories
Key Features
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Review Price: £154 -
A medium powerful pressure washer
This 135-bar pressure washer should have the grunt for most jobs, but you can turn it down when you need a bit more finesse. It has a choice of nozzles, but no car or patio accessories.
Introduction
Despite the name, the Husqvarna PW 235R pressure washer develops a maximum pressure of 135 bar. That’s moderately powerful, which should make it capable of more taxing jobs like a good patio clean. This version also has a remote power control, letting you reduce the pressure for more delicate work.
While that’s a good start, this pressure washer doesn’t come with attachments for cleaning patios, or cars for that matter. Instead you get two tips for the lance, along with a foam gun. This washer also has a reel for storing its long hose but, as I’ll explain, it’s singularly annoying.
Design and Features
- Quality feel to the pressure components
- Long hose, short-ish cable
- Incredibly annoying hose reel
Pressure washer manufacturers seem happy to leave customers to finish assembling their products. At least in the case of the Husqvarna PW 235R, it’s a chance to discover some excellent build quality. This is most apparent in the eight-metre pressure hose, which feels bullet-proof, and the various clips and interfaces that link the pressure components together. Many of these are secured with beefy clips, but these require strong fingers to operate.
Other parts of the design are less successful. This washer’s handle isn’t telescopic, because it’s also home to a reel for stowing the hose. Some pressure washers offer a captive reel, where you can just pull out the hose – which remains connected to the machine. Here it’s simply for storage – you have to unwind the hose and connect it to the machine before use, then disconnect it and wind it back up afterwards.
You need to click the handle onto your new pressure washer, then I had to bash away to fit the hose reel spindle in place. The final step is to fit the coin cell battery that powers the radio link between the handle and machine body.
The Husqvarna PW 235R comes with a foam sprayer, and a choice of lance tips. The first is designed to generate a good covering of foam for jobs such as car cleaning. The latter two comprise a rotary jet nozzle, designed for robust cleaning over a large area, and a flat jet nozzle.
Unlike many other pressure washers, the flat jet provided here isn’t adjustable for shape. However, you can control its water flow and pressure with the remote pressure control built into the handle.
Performance
- Terrible hose reel
- Excellent cleaning performance
- Odd noise
This pressure washer’s hose reel might look like a convenience, but I grew to hate it. With robust pressure connectors on either end, the hose was awkward to stow and unreel – much more hassle than a captive reel, and more of a fiddle than simply hooking a coiled, disconnected hose over a hook, as you might do on cheaper machines.
While the Husqvarna PW 235R has a generous eight-metre hose, its five-metre cable seemed a little too short. I was left puzzling where to stow it, as there didn’t appear to be a hook. Only when I looked at my product photos did I notice it’s partially obscured below the hose reel – in fairness, it’s a tidier solution than most, once you realise it’s there.
Fortunately, there’s not much else to complain about here. This machine has stowage for the lance, handle, foam dispenser and two pressure heads, helping to keep things reasonably tidy. It comes on two big wheels, making it easy to move around as you work.
Switch this pressure washer on and it defaults to its maximum power. Coupled with the rotary cleaning head, that’s great for heavy-duty jobs like cleaning a patio, where the underlying surface can withstand a strong water jet. I tested this pressure washer against five others, cleaning a single patio slab with each. It produced the joint best results, as you may be able to tell from slab number three in the image below.
This pressure washer’s rated 135 bar is a little over the maximum we’d recommend for cleaning a car. Fitting its flat spray nozzle helps to reduce the aggressiveness of the spray, however, and knocking the output power down by a couple of settings helped ensure that I didn’t strip off any paint. Used in combination with the foam gun I managed to get a great clean, but I had to use a soft brush of my own to remove more stubborn dirt.
Having variable pressure is a great way to reduce the chance of damaging soft woods, paintwork and the like, and helps make the Husqvarna PW 235R a more versatile pressure washer. That said, I’m not sure I need five distinct power settings – two or three would do. Connected to my power meter, I measured consumption between 763 and 1,630 watts from minimum to maximum power.
This pressure washer wasn’t especially loud in use, but it did make a curious whistling noise every time the motor stopped when I released the handle. This happened regardless of which attachments were fitted, but didn’t seem to be a sign of any problems.
Should you buy it?
Buy if you want great cleaning
Despite a middling power rating, this pressure washer delivers excellent results on taxing jobs. It feels robust, too.
Don’t buy if you need convenience
There’s not much to fault on this washer, but its hose storage feels like an annoyance. If you want more convenience, look for one with a captive hose reel.
Final Thoughts
In most ways the Husqvarna PW 235R is an excellent pressure washer. Although it has a modest 135 bar power rating, I found it was a match for any other cleaner I’ve tested in terms of results. I also liked its variable power output, which helped me wash my car, and some paintwork on my house, with confidence that I wouldn’t be causing damage. It’s a shame then about the hose reel. While it wouldn’t stop me buying it, I’d much prefer a machine with a more convenient arrangement.
How we test
We test every pressure washer we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
- Used as our main pressure washer for the review period.
- Tested on a variety of surfaces for cleaning power.
FAQs
This pressure washer doesn’t come with a car cleaning brush, but it’s perfectly suited to cleaning a vehicle. Just make sure you use the fan spray nozzle, and knock the power down to a middling setting.
Husqvarna is headquartered in the southern Swedish town of the same name (now spelled Huskvarna). Some of its products are made in Sweden, but this pressure washer is built in China.
Test Data
Full Specs
| Husqvarna PW 235R Review | |
|---|---|
| UK RRP | £200 |
| USA RRP | Unavailable |
| EU RRP | Unavailable |
| CA RRP | Unavailable |
| AUD RRP | Unavailable |
| Manufacturer | Husqvarna |
| Quiet Mark Accredited | No |
| Size (Dimensions) | 270 x 300 x 850 MM |
| Weight | 12.7 KG |
| ASIN | B0DNN692XC |
| Release Date | 2024 |
| First Reviewed Date | 10/05/2025 |
| Model Number | 970 45 74‑02 |
| Cable Length | 5 Meter |
| Accessories | Foam gun, jet nozzle, spray nozzle |
| Stated Power | 1839 W |
| Run time | hrs min |
| Type of washer | Plugin |
| Pressure range | 105-135 bar |
| Water flow rate | 350-520 litres per hour |
| Hose length | 8 meters |
