Pressure Washer Nozzle Tip Color Chart: Which Angle for Each Job

A pressure washer's rated PSI is measured with the widest nozzle attached — swap in a narrower tip and the same machine concentrates far more force into a smaller area. That's why the color-coded tip you pick matters as much as the washer's PSI rating, and why the wrong one is the most common way people gouge wood, strip paint, or streak a car's finish.

The color coding is standardized across most consumer and prosumer nozzle tips, so once you know the five colors, you can use them on almost any electric or gas pressure washer with a quick-connect wand.

The five standard nozzle colors and their spray angle

Red (0°): a pencil-thin, zero-degree jet with no spread at all. It's the narrowest, most concentrated spray made, and it's intense enough to etch wood, crack old mortar, and damage most home surfaces. Outside of a stripped bolt or stubborn rust spot on bare metal, most homeowners never need this tip.

Yellow (15°): a narrow, high-pressure spray for the toughest jobs a homeowner is likely to actually do — stripping old paint or stain, cleaning heavily soiled concrete, or scouring stuck-on grime off a driveway. Still aggressive enough to damage wood or vehicle paint if held too close.

Green (25°): the general-purpose cleaning tip for most outdoor surfaces, including driveways, patios, siding, fences, and brick. If a washer's accessory kit includes only one or two colored tips, green is usually the one worth reaching for first.

White (40°): the widest standard spray pattern, and the gentlest. It's the safer choice for anything delicate — vehicle paint, outdoor furniture, screens, and softer woods — because the force is spread over a wider area.

Black (soap/chemical): not a cleaning angle at all — this tip is wide and very low pressure, designed specifically to apply detergent or soap without blasting it off the surface before it has time to work. It's typically the only tip that should be used after a soap tank or injector is engaged.

Matching the tip to the job

Vehicles, motorcycles, and outdoor furniture: start with white (40°), and only step down to green if the surface is heavily soiled and you're confident keeping distance. Never use red or yellow on a vehicle's paint or trim.

Decks, fences, and siding: green (25°) for routine cleaning; yellow (15°) only for stripping old paint or stain, and only after testing on a small, inconspicuous area first, since bare wood grain is easy to gouge.

Driveways, sidewalks, and concrete: green for light dirt and general upkeep, yellow for set-in grease, oil stains, or heavy grime that green can't shift. Red is rarely necessary even here — a dedicated turbo nozzle or surface cleaner attachment is usually a better upgrade than going narrower.

Applying soap or detergent: switch to the black tip (or your washer's built-in low-pressure soap setting) any time a soap tank or injector is in use, then switch back to green or white to rinse.

Why 'start wide and step down' is the safe habit

Nozzle color charts are a helpful shortcut, but surfaces vary — a new whitewashed fence rail and a 20-year-old pressure-treated deck don't necessarily respond to green the same way. Starting with the widest tip reasonable for the job (white or green) and testing a few feet away before moving closer or stepping down to a narrower tip avoids the most common damage: a bleached streak, a gouge in soft wood, or stripped paint that wasn't supposed to come off.

Distance matters as much as the tip itself. Holding any nozzle too close concentrates the same force a narrower tip would produce — most manufacturers recommend starting at least 12-18 inches from the surface and moving closer gradually only if needed.

What about a surface cleaner or turbo nozzle attachment?

A rotating surface cleaner attachment — the round, disc-shaped tool with two spinning jets underneath — is worth adding for large flat areas like driveways and patios. It distributes a narrow jet's pressure evenly across a wide swath, cleaning faster and more evenly than hand-sweeping a single-tip wand back and forth, and it's generally safer for concrete than holding a yellow tip in one spot too long.

A turbo nozzle spins a narrow jet in a cone pattern, giving something close to yellow-tip cleaning power with a wider effective spread. It's a reasonable middle ground for small-to-mid driveways or siding jobs where a full surface cleaner attachment feels like overkill.

Both attachments are sized to the same quick-connect fitting as color-coded tips on most consumer electric and gas washers, though it's worth confirming the thread or quick-connect size matches your specific machine before buying — see our best electric pressure washers roundup if you're also shopping for the washer itself.