I have a real problem washing my car. I don’t have access to a hose where I live and all the local car washes use a brush to clean the car – OUCH! So I have been going to the do-it-yourself car wash lately until my friend – a former auto detailer – told me that they recycle the water at those places and, as a result, the water has grit in it. I have also noticed that the pressure is too high for my liking and I spend $12 in quarters every time I go there. Plus the manager of the place gets on my case for bucket washing. So, to the point. I bought a very good quality three gallon garden sprayer today and I plan to use that to wash my MINI. I will only use it to pre soak and rinse since I will be bucket washing the car. It seems like a good option because I can control the pressure better (although I can’t get super high pressure) and I can also make sure that the water is clean. Since the wand is made of metal, I bought a rubber hose to cover it and got a rubber tip to slip over the end to avoid scratching the car.

So what do you guys think? Will it work well? Have you tried this before?

 

Forget it.

I tried using a garden sprayer just to do a final rinse of the car with distilled water to avoid spotting. It was an utter failure. The problem you'll have is the severe lack of water flow. (if you do a search on "garden sprayer" you might find some related posts -- this idea has been suggested before...)

Stick with the self serve car wash!

 

Ouch - I just spent a good chunk of money on this thing. It is supposed to be a high flow unit so we will see how it works out.

 

You're supposed to investigate before you invest!

Chances are, there are lots of self serve car washes in your area. Just find another one and go there at an off time (like early Sunday morning). Nobody should bother you.

A convenient hose bib really makes a million dollar house in Orange County worth it! :smile:

 

I was actually thinking about getting one of those for cleaning off my wheels. Not worth the hassle of lugging out a hose and hooking it up to clean 4 wheels. I use a bucket of warm water and a sponge to get off the brake dust and then the garden sprayer to rinse off the wheels. Seems like a good idea to me.

However, trying to wash an entire car with one of those doesn't seem like it would work all that well. You don't get too much water volume through it to be able to really saturate the car and rinse off all the soap. You might be better off just using another bucket full of water to pour over the car.