What TurboJet cleans around an Australian home

Two rules that keep every surface safe

First, always start further back than you think you need to and move closer only if the grime resists. Second, test an out-of-sight patch before you clean a whole panel, deck or painted wall — exactly as you would with a hired pressure washer.

Read the surface before you pick the setting

Almost every complaint about high-pressure cleaning traces back to one decision: the wrong head at the wrong distance. Hard, porous and unsealed surfaces - concrete, clay pavers, aggregate, bins, trailers, wheels - tolerate the concentrated jet up close, and that is where the jet earns its keep. Anything sealed, painted, soft, coated or fragile - render, timber, travertine, vehicle paint, glass, shade sails - wants the wide fan head from 30cm or more. When you are unsure, start further back than feels necessary and close in gradually.

The order of work that saves you doing it twice

1. Sweep or clear loose debris so you are not firing grit around the yard.
2. Work top to bottom across the property: pergola and walls, then furniture, then the ground.
3. Pre-wet each area and wait two minutes - dwell time does more work than extra pressure.
4. Clean with overlapping passes, always moving, overlapping about a third of the previous strip.
5. Finish with a full fan rinse so loosened grime leaves with the water instead of drying back on.

Jobs that suit a nozzle better than a machine

The short, frequent jobs are where a tool with no setup wins outright: rinsing a bin after collection day, knocking cobwebs off a verandah before visitors, clearing salt film off coastal windows, hosing sand out of a ute tray, washing a bike or a barbecue plate. Nobody unpacks a pressure washer for a three-minute job, which is exactly why those jobs never get done in most households.

Jobs to leave alone

• Roofs, gutters from a ladder, or anything requiring you to be off the ground.
• Flaking old paint - disturbing it creates a health risk rather than a clean wall.
• Electrical fittings, air conditioner internals, meter boxes and cable entries.
• Soft mortar, crumbling render and aging asphalt, where water removes the binder as well as the dirt.
• Anything you have not tested in a hidden spot first.

Water use and local rules

Hosing hard surfaces is regulated by your state water authority and council, and the rules change with seasonal conditions. Check what applies in your area before you start. A trigger-controlled nozzle that shuts off between passes, used on a surface that has been pre-wet, generally means less total water than an open hose left running while you scrub.