Alright, so I’ve been meaning to really tackle the grime on my patio and the car, which, let's be honest, was looking a bit sad. Just blasting it with water from the pressure washer wasn't quite cutting it for the stubborn stuff. I'd seen those soap attachments for pressure washers, and I had one – I think it came with the washer, or maybe I picked it up cheap somewhere, can't exactly recall. Anyway, it was time to actually use the darn thing.

Figuring it Out

So, I dragged out the pressure washer. First step was actually attaching the soap dispenser. Mine is one of those little bottles that clips right onto the wand, or sometimes near the machine itself. This one was a wand type. Seemed simple enough. I unscrewed the little reservoir, poured in some car wash soap. The bottle said "concentrate" so I just eyeballed it, maybe a bit more than I should have, thinking more soap equals more clean, right? We'll see about that.

Then I connected it to the pressure washer wand. A little twist, a click, and it felt secure. So far, so good. I hadn't bothered with instructions at this point, because how hard could it be?

The First Blast - And a Learning Curve

I fired up the pressure washer. I pulled the trigger, expecting a glorious foamy spray. What I got was... mostly water. A tiny bit of suds, but nothing like you see in the videos. Hmm.

Okay, so clearly I missed something. I remembered my pressure washer came with different nozzle tips. I was using a fairly high-pressure one. A bit of fiddling later, I realized my mistake. Most of these soap attachments need you to use a specific low-pressure soap nozzle, or sometimes they work when you've got the nozzle set to a wider, lower pressure fan. My machine has a special black nozzle for soap. Swapped that on.

Bingo! This time, when I pulled the trigger, it started sucking up the soap from the little bottle and spraying out a decent foamy mixture. Not super thick foam like a dedicated foam cannon, mind you, but definitely soapy water that clung a bit.

Putting it to Work

I started with the car. Sprayed it all down with the soapy mix. It was actually pretty quick to cover the whole thing. The attachment just lets you keep spraying without having to stop and soap up a sponge. I let it sit for a few minutes, just to let the soap do its thing, break down the dirt and grime.

Then, I switched back to a regular medium-pressure nozzle to rinse it all off. This is key, you gotta rinse thoroughly. The difference was pretty noticeable. The dirt came off much easier than with just water alone. Still needed a bit of a hand wash for some really baked-on spots, but for a general clean, it was a big improvement.

• Covered the car pretty evenly.
• Definitely helped lift the surface dirt.
• Made rinsing easier too, felt like the dirt just slid off.

Next up, the patio. I used a different, stronger cleaning solution for this, something meant for concrete. Poured that into the attachment's reservoir. Same process: spray on the soapy solution with the low-pressure nozzle, let it sit, then blast it off with a higher pressure rinse nozzle. It did a good job on the green algae stuff that builds up over winter. Saved me a lot of scrubbing, that's for sure.

What I Reckon Now

So, this pressure washer soap attachment thing? Yeah, it’s pretty handy. It’s not going to give you that super thick, shaving cream type foam you see with expensive foam cannons, not with the basic attachment I've got anyway. But for just getting a good layer of soap on something quickly before you rinse, it definitely works.

The main things I learned:

• You absolutely need to use the right nozzle – usually a low-pressure or dedicated soap nozzle. Otherwise, you're just spraying water.
• Don't expect miracles in terms of foam thickness with the basic attachments, but it’s still effective.
• It can go through soap fairly quickly, especially if your mixture is rich or the reservoir is small. So have enough soap on hand.
• Rinsing properly afterwards is super important to avoid streaks or soap residue.

Overall, I'm glad I finally bothered to use it. Makes cleaning big areas a lot less tedious. It’s a simple bit of kit, but it does make a difference. I'll definitely be using it more often. Beats the old bucket and sponge for speed, that's for sure, especially for initial cleaning passes.