My Pressure Washer Chemical Injector Journey

Man, that soap injector adapter had been collecting dust in my garage for ages. Last summer, I saw it while cleaning up and thought, "I'm tired of spraying cleaner first then water like a chump." Time to actually use this thing.

First off, I dragged the pressure washer out into the driveway. Found the place where the water hose connects. It’s just a little plastic inlet spot on the washer’s side. The chemical injector itself has two ends. One has a small plastic tube sticking out, kinda flimsy looking. The other has a bigger hole. I unscrewed the water hose from the washer and tried screwing the injector’s big hole end onto that washer inlet instead. Barely hand-tightened it.

Then came the tricky part. Attached the water hose back onto the injector’s other inlet. Almost cross-threaded it but caught myself. The little plastic tube part? That’s where the soap comes in. I grabbed the siphon tube from my old, useless foam cannon kit. Jammed one end onto that little injector tube – took a few tries, it was super tight. The other end of the siphon tube went into the soap jug.

Time to test. Turned the garden hose on slowly… praying. Started the pressure washer engine. Pulled the trigger. Just water spraying! Forgot the siphon tube doesn’t magically suck soap unless water is rushing past its intake. That’s where the injector valve comes in. Found a little knob or dial thing right on the injector body. Spun it clockwise like I saw in a quick vid. Not all the way!

Tried again. Pulled the trigger. This time… BAM! Thick white soapy foam shooting out! Awesome! Too much soap though. Looked wasteful. Turned that knob back a tiny bit counter-clockwise. Tested again. Perfect mix now. Enough soap to actually clean the driveway grime, but not so much it covered everything like a snowstorm.

What I finally learned messing around:

• That little valve knob is everything. Start closed, open it slowly.
• Not all detergents foam. My cheap driveway cleaner worked fine, but my "eco" stuff barely bubbled.
• Make sure the siphon tube is submerged! Found that out when it popped out of the jug halfway through cleaning.

Overall? Way better than pouring cleaner down manually. Less work, uses less product surprisingly. That dusty little injector box? Yeah, it earned its keep.