Advice
How to actually do it
Procedures rather than opinions. Each page covers one thing end to end, says which step matters most, and links to the gear it assumes rather than the gear we would like to sell you.
Getting started
First machine, first pass, and the order to learn things in.
- Setting up a new pressure washer Ten minutes of setup prevents the three faults that account for most first-week complaints: air in the pump, a blocked inlet filter and a kinked hose.
- Feeding a machine from a tank Most domestic machines can draw their own water, and most pump failures on tank-fed machines come from the same two causes: debris and running dry.
- The order to clean a property Every surface you clean sends dirt somewhere. Working top-down means it always lands on something you have not done yet.
Technique
Distance, angle, overlap and the order of passes — where an even result comes from.
- Distance and angle The machine has one pressure. You have a range of distances and angles, and that is what decides whether a surface is cleaned or damaged.
- Cleaning a driveway Half the work on a drive is dry work, and doing it with water turns loose grit into slurry that has to go somewhere.
- Removing moss and lichen Moss and lichen are living things with roots into the surface. Pressure removes the visible part; only chemistry deals with what is left behind.
- Cleaning decking On decking, the machine that cleans in ten minutes and the machine that ruins the boards in ten minutes are the same machine at different settings.
- Fences and garden furniture Garden furniture is the place where people discover their machine is more powerful than they thought, usually on the arm of a chair.
- Unblocking a drain A drain hose is the accessory that saves the most money on this site, and the one with the clearest way of going wrong.
- Cleaning solar panels The most useful advice about cleaning solar panels is that most domestic arrays do not need it, and the second most useful is never to use a pressure washer.
- Steam cleaning a bathroom A bathroom is the room where steam is genuinely better than chemistry, provided you work top down and finish with a dry cloth.
- Grout that has gone grey Before choosing a method, work out which of three problems you have — because two of them cannot be cleaned at all.
- Cleaning a terrace without stripes A striped terrace is not a machine problem. It is what happens when the distance between the nozzle and the stone changes with every sweep of your arm.
- Vacuuming plaster dust A pleated filter can be blinded by fine dust in a single session, and the machine will feel as though its motor has failed.
- Cleaning a caravan or motorhome The whole risk on a caravan is the sealant. Every seam, light, vent and window on the vehicle is bedded in it, and pressure finds it.
- Cleaning render without damage Water forced behind a render finish does not evaporate. It freezes, and the following winter takes the surface off.
- Steam technique: soften, then wipe People point a steam nozzle at a mark and move it about like a spray. Two seconds still, then a cloth, is the whole method.
- Upholstery: the dry pass Everyone stops when the stain disappears. That is exactly when the fabric is holding the most water.
Maintenance
Filters, seals, pumps and pads — the routines that decide whether a machine reaches year ten.
- Water hardness, and what it costs Every steam machine on this site has the same eventual failure mode, and you can look up how fast it will happen where you live.
- When the pressure pulses Pulsing is the most common complaint about pressure washers and it is a symptom of air in the pump, not of a failing motor.
- When a machine will not start A large share of machines returned as faulty have tripped a protection device that is doing exactly what it was designed to do.
- Emptying and drying a floor washer The dirty tank and the roller are where these machines die. Neither failure is mechanical and both are entirely preventable.
- Keeping the filter clear Filters, not motors, are what end most workshop vacuums' useful sessions — and everything that fixes it is cheap.
- Descaling before it dies Steam machines rarely wear out. They fur up, and the decline is slow enough that almost nobody connects it to the water.
- Looking after the pump Hoses, guns and lances are consumables. The pump is the machine, and it is destroyed by four avoidable things.
- Pads, rollers and microfibre Microfibre works by having an enormous surface area of fine, uncoated fibers. Softener coats them, which is precisely the end of that.
Buying
How to spend a budget so the money lands where it changes the result.
- Detergents that will not strip Detergent choice is a chemistry decision that people make on price, and the mistakes are more expensive than any of the products.
- Reading a specification sheet Every category on this site has one number that is printed large and means little, and one that is printed small or omitted and decides everything.
- Choose the fitting first A pressure washer is a pump with a connector on it. The connector is what you are actually committing to.
- The running cost nobody quotes On several categories here, the consumables over three years come to a meaningful fraction of the machine — and they never appear in the price.
Seasonal
Frost, winter storage and the spring restart — the month that kills most pumps.
- Storing machines in an unheated garage A garage that goes below freezing damages three different things in three different ways, and all three are avoidable in an hour.
- Winterizing, before the first frost It is not a warranty repair, it is not repairable at domestic prices, and it happens on the first hard night.
- Autumn: leaves, gutters and wet surfaces Autumn is the season that defeats mechanical sweepers and the one where a gutter kit earns its price.
- The spring restart Most machines that 'will not work in April' are blocked, airlocked or holding old fuel — not broken.
Safety
Pressure, steam, electricity and water — the parts nobody photographs.
- Steam and wood floors Steam mop damage to a wood floor is slow, invisible for months and permanent when it appears — which is why the advice here is more cautious than the packaging.
- Wet vacuuming safely Wet and dry vacuums are tolerant machines with three absolute limits, and two of them are safety limits rather than durability ones.
- Noise, and what to do about it Sound power figures are required on much of this equipment and printed on very little of it, which leaves you judging noise by category rather than by number.
- Why a jet is not a hose This is the page on the site that matters most, and it takes two minutes to read.
- Ash and embers: the twenty-four hour rule No domestic ash vacuum is rated for live embers, whatever the packaging implies. The rule is the fire out and the ash cold through.
- Electricity and water Every machine on this site combines mains electricity with several hundred liters of water an hour. The precautions are simple and non-negotiable.