Alright, let me tell you about my weekend project. I finally got around to cleaning my patio furniture and the grime on my fence. Decided to try out using the detergent tank on my power washer this time.

First things first, I grabbed the power washer from the garage. It's a decent one, nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. I usually just use the regular spray nozzles, but I saw this bottle of power washer detergent sitting there and figured, why not?

So, I located the detergent tank on the power washer. It's just a plastic container that snaps onto the side. Pretty straightforward. I unscrewed the cap and got ready to fill it up.

Now, this is where things got a little messy. I poured the detergent in, but I wasn’t paying attention and overflowed it a bit. Ended up with suds all over my hands. Rookie mistake! I wiped it down, screwed the cap back on tight, and made sure the tank was properly attached to the power washer.

Next, I hooked up the water hose to the power washer like usual. Turned on the water and made sure there were no leaks. So far, so good.

Here’s the thing I wasn't sure about: how to actually get the detergent to come out. I read the power washer’s manual (yes, I actually did that!). It said I needed to use a specific nozzle – a black one, specifically designed for detergent application. I guess it lowers the pressure so the detergent can mix properly with the water. I swapped out the regular nozzle for the black one.

I turned the power washer on and aimed it at the fence. Pulled the trigger… nothing but water at first. Okay, gotta be patient. After a few seconds, I started seeing the suds! The detergent was finally mixing in. It wasn't a crazy amount of foam, but definitely noticeable.

I started spraying the fence. The detergent seemed to be doing a decent job loosening up the dirt and algae. I let it sit for a few minutes, as the detergent bottle instructed.

Then, I switched back to a regular nozzle (a 25-degree one) to rinse everything off. Blasted the fence with the high-pressure water. I could see the difference immediately! The fence looked way cleaner. A lot of the green stuff just washed right off. It was pretty satisfying, I gotta say.

I repeated the process on the patio furniture. Soap, wait, rinse. Worked like a charm. Those chairs hadn't looked this good in ages.

I drained the remaining detergent from the tank when I was done and rinsed the tank out with water. Don't want that stuff gunking up the works.

All in all, using the detergent tank on the power washer was a win. It made the cleaning process a lot easier, and the results were definitely better than just using plain water. I'll definitely be doing this again!

• Learned a lesson: Don't overfill the detergent tank!
• Next time: Maybe try a different detergent formula. See if there's something even more effective.