For those homeowners looking to "warm" things up a bit while washing their cars in winter I will let you in on an trick I have used for several years that has worked really well. It requires some basic plumbing in the basement but the effort will reap major rewards.
I will wash my car no matter how cold the weather. As long as it doesn't leave a frozen lake on the driveway I am game. Heck, even then I don't care! I hate dirty cars! But I dread have ice-water pouring out the spigot, through the hose on my hands. It gets painful.
In the past I have jury-rigged two sections of hose, with connections and made a "Y" between the HOT and COLD water connections in my basement. Then I run the hose out the basement door, modulate the HOT and COLD to make bearable luke warm water (never hot-hot) and wash the car that way. It works quite nice but the basement door is open and it takes a REALLY long hose, etc. Pretty big waste of energy.
Here's a better way I have found. In the basement I ran an extension of the hot water line (in my case all my plumbing is 1/2" copper) and tied it directly into the cold water line that goes to the outside spigot on the outside of the house nearest the driveway and garage. Right before I made the connection I added an adjustable shutoff valve so the hot water could be modulated. The outside spigot, btw, is one of those anti freeze types. When I want to wash the car I simply walk into the basement and open up the hot water valve a few turns so hot water can mix with the cold and flow to the outside spigot. After some practice I know how many turns it takes to get the temperature I like. I keep a Sears rubber hose on a hose cart in my garage (so it never freezes) and roll it out and snap it on (quick connects) and I am ready to go. When finished, I turn the hot water valve back off and roll the hose away. The permanent inside plumbing setup is a joy. Easy to do and not expensive.
Now my garage is heated and has a drain but I still need water out out there so I still hook up the hose and roll it out there at LEAST once a week. It just takes a minute or two. It's so comfortable having warm wash water, makes the car much easier to dry, and you actually WANT to wash the cars more often!
RapidReel, the best hose reel money can buy. It's detachable also so the reel-only can mount on a bracket on your wall or house.
I NEED warm water to wash the MINI in winter, even inside. OK, call me sissy hands!
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