Comparing these 2 - The surface cleaner is better for removing more dirt. The broom is better to push all that dirty water off the surface of what you just cleaned, so that dirty water doesn’t sit on what you cleaned. The broom has more jets. The more jets - the less the pressure will build behind them since you are allowing more water out. This is why just using the pressure washer without any attachments cleans the deepest and most aggressively. Pressure washer wand by itself - 1 jet. Surface cleaner - 2 jets. Water broom - 3 to 5 jets.. Depending on your application - less pressure (or a more consistent distance kept from the surface) might be more beneficial. As an example - Using a surface cleaner on a wood deck will keep a fairly consistent distance between the jets and the wood. This MIGHT not clean AS deep as just using the pressure washer wand alone - but it will help eliminate marks left behind from a person constantly varying the distance of the wand from the wood. (The closer you hold it, the more water pressure hits the surface) If you have a painted surface, youll have to be careful you dont apply so much pressure as to start removing paint. Its better to start with something less aggressive and work your way up if youre not sure what will work best with your particular pressure washer. That said - all 3 tools are useful to have, and not very expensive to pick up as homeowner grade tools. A $99 electric pressure washer will do just about everything a big gas one will - it will just take you longer. For a smaller 1600 - 1800 psi unit - you simply hold the tip of the wand closer to what you need to clean (cleaning a smaller area on each pass) - and you might have to forego a surface cleaner attachment to get the deepest cleaning results. To visualize this - you might be able to clean as deep as you need to on vinyl siding with an electric pressure washer rated at 1600/1800 psi - by getting a 3 or 4 inch wide path done - while hold the tip of the wand 5 inches away from the siding - while with a 3600psi gas unit - using the same tip - you can hold the tip of the wand 10 inches away from the siding, and get a 6 or 8 inch side path done that cleaned just as deep. The bigger units save more time - but you can absolutely do 90% of what those machines will do using a smaller electric model, just at the expense of your own time.
We'd recommend a water broom first for faster cleaning and coverage. However, if you had deeper stains, you could spend the extra time using a surface cleaner for a deeper clean on tough spots.
