Alright, let me tell you about my little adventure with these power washing machines. My patio, seriously, it looked like it hadn't seen sunlight in years. Just layers of green muck and dirt caked on. Tried scrubbing it by hand last spring – waste of a Saturday, barely made a dent.

So, I finally caved. Went down to the local store, staring at this wall of yellow and grey machines. Didn't want anything too crazy powerful, just enough to sort out the mess at home. Grabbed one that looked straightforward enough, figured how hard could it be?

Getting it Going

Got it home, pulled all the bits out of the box. Hoses, nozzles, the main unit. Felt a bit like putting together kids' Lego, but with more confusing instructions. Hooked up the garden hose to the back, plugged the power cord in. Picked a nozzle that looked like it wouldn't strip paint off the wall – you hear stories, right?

Turned on the tap, then hit the power switch. The machine hummed to life. Grabbed the trigger gun, pointed it at a dirty slab, and squeezed. Whoa. Okay, it had some kick. Not unmanageable, but definitely more oomph than a garden hose.

The Actual Cleaning Part

Started on the worst patch of green slime. Pulled the trigger, and honestly, it was pretty satisfying watching the dirt just peel away. Like magic, almost. Moved the spray lance back and forth, slow and steady. You have to overlap your passes, otherwise, you get these weird clean stripes that look ridiculous.

Did the whole patio first. Took a while, maybe an hour or so? Made a right mess, splashing dirty water everywhere. Definitely wear old clothes and boots you don't care about. Learned that pretty quick.

Then I thought, why stop there? So I tackled:

• The lower part of the garden fence, where all that green algae stuff grows.
• The plastic garden chairs – they came up looking almost new.
• Even gave the wheelie bins a quick blast.

Careful though, it's easy to get carried away. You point that thing too close or use the wrong nozzle, and you can chew up wood or blast the grout out from between paving stones. Found that out the hard way on a loose bit near the edge. Oops.

Was It Worth It?

Yeah, absolutely. The patio looks brilliant now, like it's just been laid. Took way less effort than scrubbing, even with the setup and cleanup time. It's not something you use every weekend, but for that deep clean once or twice a year? Perfect.

Just gotta remember to drain it properly before putting it away, especially before winter. Don't want frozen water cracking anything inside. But yeah, pretty happy with how it turned out. Simple tools for simple jobs, sometimes they just work.