Car wash: by hand or automatic?

[zinger1457]

I've been using no rinse car wash (Optimum Wash and Shine) for the last couple years and it works great. Just takes about 1 gallon of water to wash my truck and can easily do it in the garage without making a mess. Just need a good applicator/sponge to wipe on and microfiber towels to wipe off. Does a real good job cleaning and gives a nice shine.

 

[Just_Steve]

Automated, especially in the winter because they have high pressure undercarriage wash that gets rid of the accumulated salt.

 

[MacsNMore]

All cars hand washed by me with the 3 bucket method (1 for wheels only) with a foaming rinse before the wash.

+1 Also use an industrial dryer/blower to minimize abrasion swirls.

 

[Scuba]

I take it to a hand wash place. We keep our cars for a long time and I want the paint to keep looking good. Plus they do a good job cleaning out the interior. I drive a 2007 and people are always thinking I have a late model car.

 

[kitesurfer2]

hand wash only for me. i dry it with a leaf blower. i wax it all over once a month and the front only after i scrub off highway bugs. I also clay bar once a year. i have a bottle of stuff i use when it's raining and i want to wash my car in the garage.

 

[Bamaman]

We have a Wednesday special at the automatic car wash--$3.00. It is good.enough for a Camry or Explorer.

Hand washing is reserved for my Jaguar convertible that stays garaged. And I can hand wash a car in 5 minutes.

 

[pacergal]

DH does the whole hand wash/wax/detailing thing. He washes the cars 1-2 times a month, does the wax/detailing yearly--takes him all day for both cars
I go through the auto car wash a few times a year, especially in the winter just to get the road stuff off or the de icer that they put down.

 

[Dash man]

We use the local automatic car wash for about $14. Haven’t hand washed in years.

 

[txtig]

Automatic. My favorite is the world’s longest car wash at the Buc-ee’s in Katy TX. https://youtu.be/YWOkpiazPDI

 

[ABQ2015]

I have a beautiful new red car and was advised to hand wash it to preserve the paint. It has been a hassle since I don't want to wash it in my driveway with no shade on hot days (and it is hot and sunny the entire summer and then some) so have been using a self service car wash. I use a mitt for the actual washing but timing everything to use the least amount of water has been a problem since you cannot turn the water on and off. I keep the high pressure hose a distance from the car as I am concerned it will damage the paint and rinse with the low pressure setting. Also the car wash vacuum cleaner can not reach between the seat and console or in other small crevices.

There are a couple of places in town that provide hand washes but these start at about $35. I may try this every other month or so and wash it myself the rest of the time.

 

[SumDay]

I use the self-service wand at the car wash. Spray the soap, and walk around the car with a mitt and give it a quick scrub. DH bought me an auto carwash package for 6 months, and I began to notice the black car luster was fading, even though it's always garaged. A car guy friend gave us the name of a guy who came to the house and "clayed" it and hand waxed it after washing it by hand. He made me promise to never drive through an auto carwash again. It looks great again, but I don't do the drive through thing anymore.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

When I had a car, I always hand washed it to try to preserve the finish.
Now that the missus and I share a car, we just go through an automatic car wash in the neighbourhood. It's the type with rags that whip the car. I can't see that being that great for the finish but now that the car has a few scratches and marks, it's not that big of a concern.

 

[kgtest]

I buy a book of 10 car washes and they give me one free. 2x a year they sell the book for buy one get one...so I get 21 Car washes for about $40.

In the summer I hand wash on nice days. In the winter I use the wash coupons.

Once a year I handwax. The vehicle rusts out no matter what with all the winter road salt, but regular washes seems to delay the rust a few years.

 

[Music Lover]

$4 using a self service wand...$2 to soap it, then I spend a few minutes hand cleaning it with a mitt, then $2 to rinse. I "dry" it by going down the highway at 110 kph

10 minutes start to finish...not counting drying time

 

[Lsbcal]

Interesting that there are so many ways to wash a car. I'm still puzzling over the best for us. After I hand washed the 2004 Honda CRV it looked really nice and the finish to me looks great.

So hand washing is probably just fine but the way I do it is time consuming. The 1 hour I took includes all steps including putting things away. I could cut down on the time by not doing the hubcaps. If I did it more often I could occasionally forgo doing the roof except for a spray off.


So how does Bamaman do it in 5 minutes?

 

[4legsgood]

I took my my car in to have tires rotated. The tire guy said, ahem, really filthy under there. I said how do I get that clean? He said drive through car wash.

I do a fair amount of gravel road driving.

 

[RE2Boys]

Hand wash maybe once a year to get accumulated bugs off the finish in the summer. Maybe 3 or 4 times through the automatic car wash in the winter.

I quit worrying about the finish when clear-coats become common and I started buying only used cars that already had some parking lot dings, circa 1989.

 

[ikonomore]

+1 Also use an industrial dryer/blower to minimize abrasion swirls.

Ayup.

I use a metrovac dryer also, filters the air unlike leaf blowers and heats the air being blown out too.

 

[CDRE]

Hand wash, microfiber, two bucket method. Never automatic because it makes swirl marks.

 

[street]

Hand washed I don't like the 25$ cost in an automatic car wash. I don't wash them often and the ranch outfits only once a year just doesn't pay to do them more often.

For me it is good exercise and really don't mind washing them it doesn't take very long.

 

[davemartin88]

I’m a big fan of rain washes.

 

[aja8888]

I’m a big fan of rain washes.

That works real fine if you are out there soap sponging it down during the downpour.

 

[FIREd]

I wash by hand (nothing special about my car) and usually enjoy the process.