This tool review is something of a first for me.
When I review a tool, I like to use the tool in most of its hero functions—cutting, drilling, driving, measuring, whatever. But the Hyde PivotJet poses an unusual problem. So after using the Hyde PivotJet pivoting nozzle wand along with my garden hose, it’s increasingly clear that getting to all the hero functions of the tool will take a really, really long time. While I admit that I’ve just scratched the surface, I’m confident that this tool has proved a vast improvement and time saver everywhere I have taken it to task.
The PivotJet is an adjustable, pivoting nozzle that attaches to a standard garden hose and can be used for a vast array of watering and cleaning jobs around the house and on the jobsite. Because the spray pattern is adjustable from mist to power stream you can use the PivotJet just about anywhere you’d use water but easier and faster.
I’ve used Hyde’s PivotJet watering freshly seeded grass in a lawn repair and watering established flowers. I’ve used it cleaning the underside of my lawnmower deck—and to clean the residual grass clumps left over on the sidewalk that I couldn’t scoop up with my shovel. A mangy household trashcan and recycling pail full of all kinds of icky-ness proved no match for the PivotJet nor did spraying clumped leaves from the nooks and crannies of our playset. I even used it spraying porch furniture and cleaning up sidewalk chalk.
One of the design features that makes all this possible is the adjustable spray pattern: I can put as much water—with the right amount of velocity, from a little to a lot—where I need it. Fan-spray for new grass; powerstream for lawnmower deck, and somewhere in-between for trashcans and furniture. And, unlike a typical nozzle with a fixed head, this one pivots 135 degrees. That means, for example, when cleaning the lawnmower (tip: let your lawnmower cool down first if you decide to clean right after mowing, then tip it on its side) is that instead of crouching to get all the areas under the deck—and getting sprayed in the face while doing so—I can just pivot the nozzle-head and keep working. Ditto for the trash can and the recycling pail.
For cleaning cars or patio furniture, the PivotJet has a soap dispenser in which you pour Hyde’s concentrated soaps. What’s also really smart is that if you switch from washing the car to watering flowers near the car, you can operate the unit with or without soap by adjusting the Mix Lever. Awesome. Zero down-time.
For the jobsite, the PivotJet is a real go-to—and something you can carry in your truck or van, unlike a full-dress pressure washer which I never keep in my truck. Deck projects, additions, fences, landscaping installs or repairs and other projects that involve site work when, mixed with rain, almost always result in muddy driveways and sidewalks from footprints, wheelbarrows and truck or equipment tires. Putting the PivotJet to work blasting through end-of-day mud is a no-brainer.
Finally, if you need to flood something with, say a firefighter type nozzle, the Hyde spray tip screws off and you can add standard garden hose accessories which can be good for anything from gushing through leaves in a clogged downspout to watering established grass and plants to watering the root balls of new plants. Heck, if you play your cards right, you can even shoot UP a downspout to loosen a clog.
Around the house or on the job, when I run out of uses or time saved using for the PivotJet, I’ll let you know. Note: it might be a long wait.
