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!

 

Good idea. I have also seen outdoor faucets that have a hot and cold valve as well, so for a new home being built, you can have the plumber put one of those in.

 

Or you could just move to Dallas... It was 76 degrees on the day after Christmas this year! I went for a nice long drive with the Metroplex MINI group and had the windows and sunroof open for a while.

 

I hope your interior fades and all your vinyl splits. And you get sunburned.

 

i second that!

its -4 celcius up here, and snow's gonna be falling for about a week! and to think i was about to do a full zaino job!

 

yeah.... Its a @#$%^ here when it drops into the low 70's and the car needs washing......
(Just Kidding!)

 

I'm seriously frustrated...received my first shipment of Zaino products a few days before Christmas and even here in Southern California our completely icky weather has prevented me from venturing outside to do anything with it! The temp in HB has been hovering around/just under 60F with increasing humidity! Grr Add on top of this the fact that I have a single car garage (lower level of a townhouse) and a driveway that is not large enough to have a feasible carwash....and two storms about to bear down on Southern California. All I want to do is make the MINI look pretty, damnit!

 

Thanks for the tip, BradB. I have easy access to a valve in my garage which controls the water to the outside faucet. It's for when temps are below 32 degrees but the main thing is that it has easy access to do what you mentioned.

Until I can do something like this. I'll just keep using my other cold water washing method. A hot bucket of water filled from the tub. It keeps the hands warm.

Oh. It's not a cold wash until you can slide your way around the car on ice instead of walking. Makes for a careful drive into the garage.

 

Something else I have done in the past is if you have your water heater close by you can hook up a hose to the hose connection on the bottom to a "Y" valve and connect cold water to the other side and then run a single hose to the washing area.

It would look a little like this.......


wtr htr ---\
mmmmmmm ---- MINI
cold water-/

I just cut an old hose to length for the first part and then hooked it up to the hose reel.

 

Always wondered about the danger of hot water on cold glass. CRACK!

My windshield cracked on a hot summer day when I washed it with cold water/


Paul

 

Okay so we all know Mr. Sissy Hands is a detailing god (bows respectfully), and once again he has graced us w/ sage advise, but my tip for the cold weather is......do not fall asleep. Seriously, once your hands and feet become numb the whole washing thing goes much, much easier. And drying becomes such a relief. Just do not fall asleep!!

 

Yea, this is a very true concern. Always use "warm" water just to keep your hands from freezing. Never hot!

 

I have a friend who did the same type of mod to an outdoor faucet in his new house. (BTW, he also put in a garage drain and nice epoxy floor like yours, Brad ). He however got a little too fancy. He put a shower valve in to mix the hot and cold on the line to the spigot. Since they moved in the second bathroom would never get above about an 80 degree water temp if you were taking a shower. Finally he woke up and realized he had the outdoor faucet's shower valve turned halfway and open, and he had cold water backflowing into the hot water pipe, so the downstream bath was always getting lukewarm 'hot' water. So, remember to close the hot water valve when you're done!

 

BradB - What kind of little mini lift is that in your garage?
I need one for mine...

 

This is what I have. LIFT LINK.

I was at a Jaguar car club meeting a few years ago and one member had the lift and wanted to upgrade. He offered the lift to anyone for $50 delivered. Well I yelled "I'll take it!" the loudest. The best bargain I ever bought!

You're right, you NEED one. I can't imagine garage life without it!

 

Lucky. Thats an awesome deal.

 

Right on.... Thanks for the link.

 

I'm with you, BradB...there is no excuse for a dirty MINI. I, unfortunately, have been limited to the manual process for winter washing. Yesterday, it warmed to 28 degrees and I had just finished the interior while parked in the garage. Then, of course, I had to at least do the wheels (15" white holies), because you just can't have dirty white wheels. Our driveway has an incline, so I backed the MINI up and used a 2 bucket method to scrub the wheels & tires. There's a utility sink just inside the laundry room, off the garage. Then I had to get the wheel wells and black trim....well, you get the picture. Soon I was washing with one bucket and rinsing with the other until I had the whole body clean. Pulled back into the garage to dry.

Had to re-salt the driveway to keep the run-off from freezing...but other than that-no problem. Motor on.

 

Quick related question to Suzannne.... Is there a minimum temp when you want to apply Zaino? Up here in the Alaskan temperate rainforest, I have to time many of my outdoor projects to the weatehr forecast because it is often too cool (not cold). I was planning to get some Zaino this spring, but I may need to wait until summer.