Originally Posted by
Pouhana
If you have sealed wheel bearings. If not sealed, like a boat trailer, they need to be opened, cleaned with solvent and repacked.
Point to a bicycle hub with sealed bearings that uses “boat trailer” bearings. The ones that resemble boat trailer bearings are cup and cone. Since around the mid90s even those are sealed quite well and I wouldn’t worry about using a power washer around them, especially if you don’t put the nozzle right on the bearing.
On the other hand, even a poor quality sealed cartridge bearing is sealed well enough that the nozzle could be used directly on them. If something goes south on those bearings, they are simply replaced. If the bearing is a poor quality bearing, replace it with a better one.
And, frankly, “boat trailer” bearings are fairly well sealed against water. They are meant to go into the water with a boat on them, aren’t they? I don’t know many boat owners but I don’t think they spend all their time with the boat out of the water rebuilding bearings.