For me a pressure washer immediately conjures images of a cumbersome unwieldy machine sat in some 40 year old man’s garage. It gets an outing every 3 months or so when football season is over, where it’ll blast away dirt from a station wagon sat on the driveway.

But I’m wrong. So wrong. The Nilfisk Compact Powergrip pressure washer promises so much more than that. Resembling a small gardening trolley, this is lightweight and easy to pull from chore to chore, and its revolutionary feather-touch pressure settings take care of so much more than cars and caravans.

In fact, before undertaking this review I checked out a few reviews online and found many of them to be written by women. They’d found the Nilfisk a game-changer for so many “softer” yet no less dirty and time-consuming jobs - everything from hosing down wellies, to blasting dog poo from pushchair wheels.

It was a no-brainer for me. Craig has (albeit minor) OCD and will spend hours scrubbing things at the weekend - whether that’s removing hand-prints from the conservatory doors, or buffing the BBQ ready for sunnier days - if this pressure washer works as well as the hype suggests, this could become a real time-saver for us.

The spec

The New Nilfisk Powergrip 130 Pressure Washer with PowerGrip technology that enables you to control water flow and power usage at your fingertips. You can now adjust the cleaning power to suit the surface you’re cleaning directly from the spray gun handle. Making it easy not to use much power when a gentler cleaning action would be enough. The Nilfisk PowerGrip high-pressure washer puts 7 levels of cleaning power at your fingertips.

The website will tell you this model is used for low intensity routine cleaning tasks. Yet we’re not talking a quick burst of water pressure here, this bad boy is capable of big things. Their latest campaign #LoveYourStuffAgain has seen people blasting all manner of things home, garden and beyond, and I couldn’t wait to get in on the action.

So how did we get on?

I left Craig and his dad to put this together. Most of it was self-explantory, requiring little more than slotting or screwing things into place. However, sat in the kitchen with a glass of wine, I did hear a little huffing and puffing before they located the picture instructions on the hefty manual. This brings me to my first niggle with the machine - as the model we were sent is manufactured in Denmark, the hose adaptor wasn’t suitable for our outside tap - although the correct adaptor cost us just £2.29 from Clas Ohlson, it’s worth mentioning in case you’re in a hurry to use it straight out of the box. On this point, you can simply use a water butt for quick tasks rather than attaching to a tap, but be aware that a deep clean of anything bigger than a hiking boot will need a fair old bit of water.

It’s a mobile cold-water system so is fully portable with a 10m steel-reinforced hose. This means you can trail it away from your water source for quite some distance - to your front driveaway for example. When you have it where you need it, it’ll stand unsupported so you’re hands-free to operate it.

So, as soon as the boys had built it, I took it for a quick tour of my garden to test just how easy it was for women to pull into position (this isn’t intended to be disparaging to women, I know that most women are equal to men in every way - I just usually defer more strenuous tasks to Craigy). In short, I was struck by how lightweight and unwieldy it was and found it easy to pop into position. I will point out I wasn’t such a fan of the reel however. This will keep the 10m steel reinforced hose tidy, and allow you to feed out the exact length so the excess doesn’t become a trip hazard. I’d have prefered a reel you can just pull to release more hose, but this required manually unreeling using a handle. I found this a little temperamental and fussy.

Yet, let’s face it, all of this isn’t important. It’s all about how well it cleans. And this is a pleasure to use. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s quite therapeutic to swing this bad boy around and watch all that muckiness disappear before your very eyes. Water power alone can revive most gardens, sheds and decking, without the need for nasty chemicals, although you can add a little detergent to an integrated bottle and press a button to add a squirt into the mix.

We’ve found ourselves using our Nilfisk for everything. From hosing down the kids Little Tikes hoard in the garden (from cars, to summer houses, to sandpits), to blasting away moss from inbetween patio slabs, to de-muddying wellies and pushchair wheels. Owing to the wealth of settings on the Powergrip, you can adjust the water compact with ease. Water pressure setting are located on the hose itself, and you can twist the squirty bit of the Powergrip for a wider spray. This means you don’t have to go back to the unit and can simply dash from task to task without fussing over complicated settings.

It does however get a little more technical. It comes with a number of accessories - some of which we were left scratching our heads at. Some of these look like broom heads, others like shower heads etc. We’re yet to fully explore these and prefer the traditional point and shoot head. It is good to have this flexibility however as I imagine some jobs require a more delicate head - especially if you have an super expensive car.

In summary, we’d be lost without this bit of kit. I can’t quite think how we ever coped without it. A post BBQ scrub would usually take half an hour with a few expletives thrown in for good measure, now it’s a five minute blast. Dog poo on my pushchair wheels would have ordinarily sent me flying into some kind of Facebook rage and seen me dry heaving into the nearest plant pot - now it’s a thirty second squirt with a tiny bit of washing up liquid. Although I used this tentatively at first, over time it’s become pretty apparent you can crank up the pressure without worrying about chipped paint and piercing tyres.

The average dirt-conscious parent will find a multitude of uses for this pressure washer, and find it an absolute breeze to use. That’s not to mention the £10 per fortnight saving you’ll make by swerving the car wash. With Father’s Day around the corner, I’m backing the #LoveYourStuffAgain campaign and would encourage everyone to invest in a Nilfisk Compact Powergrip.

Find out more at on the Nilfisk consumer website, and buy from retailers such as Argos (RRP for our Compact system is £229.99 although other lines are available) . To check out what others are saying, head over to social media:

Facebook: @NilfiskHomeGardenUK / Twitter: @NilfiskHomeUK / YouTube: @NilfiskConsumerUK