Can you pressure wash a tub?

[Brookenstein]

Ok... my friend who bought the used Artesian is doing her first refill and she wants to use the pressure washer on it.  Is this ok?  I told her it wasn't necessarry, that windex and Mr Clean Magic eraser should be good.  She is going to pressure wash her house and she thought it would be good to just do the tub at the same time.  

Any thoughts.

[Brewman]

I wouldn't do it.  Carelessness with the high pressure spray could do all sorts of nasty damage.  
To the cabinet, especially if it's wood, and to the shell and control panel.  
She needs to be careful if she pressure washes her house, too, so that she doesn't force water between the siding and sheathing.  That could cause rot and mold problems down the road.

[Brookenstein]

Thanks Brewman.

Her house is stucco if that matters.

[Brewman]

 Just have her be careful not to force water under the stucco- we don't have that on our house, so I'm not sure how easy it would be to get water behind it.
 We have lap siding, and I have to direct the water stream down to avoid getting it under the siding.

We do have a big problem with stucco homes and water damage in some parts of this state.  The homes were mostly upper bracket (selling in the $750K and up range) and the stucco was not installed correctly.
Over the span of several years, water got behing the stucco, and rotted out the walls, and mold appeared.
Some homeowners were/are facing repair bills in excess of $100K.  
The contractors are all either gone or denying responsiblity, and the insuarnce companies aren't paying up either.  Icky situation.

Your friend should be okay if she's really careful.  

[autoplay]

When I was pressure washing our pool cage...at the same time I pressure washed the hot tub.  It worked great for me!  

I would tell your friend to be careful of anything that's "soft".  I got too close to 1 of the soft pillows in the tub,and it put a fine hairline cut in it.

[Snowbird]

Brook,

When we do a water change we just wipe down the empty tub with Windex, then hose it off with as little water as possible.  Once we shop vac the water out it is ready for filling.  Unless the tub is very dirty with dried on gunk, a power washer seems to be overkill.

SB

[tmknies1]

Brookenstein,

How is the tub working for them?

We just pressure washed our deck in anticipation of the tub coming. My husband went to do an area of the house a few shingles came off. Pressure washers are very powerful. Tell them to be careful and good luck

[Brewman]

Pressure washers are wonderful for what they do, but in the wrong hands they can do a lot of damage.
My cedar deck has a few "oops" marks from my carelessness with my p.w.  
It's possible to use one on a spa, but you gotta be really careful.  Our spa never gets dirty enough to merit a pressue washing.