I enjoyed Joel™s post on self serve car washes. He described bucket washing and his techniques.
I like his quote on bucket washing signs Normally, car wash bays have signs that say, No hand washing. Ignore these.; Sounds familiar? He instructs to stay away from soaps at the washes, I guess to save money in the bay? He also says Don™t use the hot wax or Triple conditioner or any of that other upsold crap. Not sure if he has ever used these products, it would save him some time and money on the other products he purchases. I think he would be quite impressed with the chemicals. But it is definitely not a hand wax which he recommends.
I also enjoyed the comment about the brushes: If you don™t have an extra sponge, you can consider using that brush on the wall to shine up your wheels and tires. This being the only time you should ever use that brush, unless you™re attacked in the car wash bay. It is then permitted to use it as a weapon.
Not sure how a $5 mitt is better than a $50 hogs hair brush? I have to try and convince everyone that believes they are poor quality. I had a guy use his own nylon brush because my brush was bad. They should talk to the Erie brush people maybe they could change their mind?
What is funny is his superstitions about self serve chemicals but used the spot-free rinse? I guess this is the only good stuff worth paying for? Which is good because ro equipment is expensive and I am glad someone appraises it.
You should read his post it is informative about how customers perceive the self serve industry.
Hey there! I say this with no mocking or malice: I think it surprisingly and awesome that there is a blog out there for car wash owners. Cool!
I didn’t actually write that one, although I did publish it. (It was written by my friend and “expert car washer,” Michael Schulte. I’ll try to address your questions, although feel free to tell me our preconceptions are invalid!
Hand washing is usually more than just “better” than power washing – it’s often necessary to get off all the grime in my experience. And if there’s no line for the bay, who cares if we use a bucket? Trust me, the people who are going to sponge-and-bucket wash their cars are customers you want to keep happy.
Personally I like the hot soap wash just fine for quick clean-ups, but I think the idea here is that when hand washing, you might as well use your own soap, because it is cheaper than filling up bucket from the timed sprayer.
The wax is pretty junky, at least in every car bay I’ve ever used. You just can’t “spray on” a wax that’s worth a damn. I avoid it even in fully automatic washes, if only because I don’t want wax on top of dirt. And the only time you really know you’ve gotten all the dirt off is with a hand wash.
As for the brushes, I don’t know about your bays, but in almost every one I’ve ever been to, those things are really dirty and full of tiny rocks and other things that might scratch up the paint. It has nothing to do with the quality of the brushes, but instead knowing exactly how a brush has been used. But if you do a good job to make sure your brushes stay clean, then cool! I’m sure your brushes, when clean, are just fine. I personally avoid the soaping brushes just because I find them unwieldy.
A spot-free rinse, in theory, is mineral-free. (The spots on a freshly-washed car, as I’m sure you probably know, are from the dried-on minerals from the water, not excess soap.) It seems worth the trouble to pay for the use of the filtered water if you’ve already taken all the time to wash your car up right.
Make any more sense? Most of our technique comes from maximizing the utility of the bay car wash without spending $10 each time we give a car a cleaning, which can be as often as two or three times a week. (What can I say? It’s therapy for car nuts.)
Is there a reason for preventing hand washing besides taking up a bay for too long?