Mine gets washed 3 or 4 times a year. It gets driven daily, but lives in the garage.

 

Make up your mind, does it get driven daily or does it live in a garage.

Can't do both.

 

Well for those rationing water, use Distilled Water from the grocery store. That stuff has no other purpose. 10 gallons is plenty for two 3.5 gallon buckets and to fill a Nomad Pressure washer with 3 gallons of water, enough to prerinse, and final rinse the soap off.

It's great for washing the car..no water spots, just let the wet car dry in the sun.

I haven't washed my Jet Black MCS in 2 months and it's stuck under a huge layer of dust/dirt from the gardener. I'm not ashamed...I'm not driving it..it's parked. I'll wash it at some point and cover it to protect from the cats..which I wasn't aware of until I left it dirty and saw cat prints all over it..which I never saw before when it was always clean!

For those of you that are Quick Detailing your paint, a product like ONR from Detailers Domain might be a good way to reduce the amount of water use since you don't want to rinse it off, but I wouldn't use it on a very dirty car.

I don't use QD on my Jet Black...it scratches the paint too easily and I hate seeing swirls on my paint!

When my car was garaged, I'd wash once every 2 weeks.

Richard

 

so you dont flush your toilet after each crappage/peeage at home?
cause that's quite a bit of wasted water if you asked me.

you should dig a hole in your backyard and go there.

 

I wash in the garage frequently because, the garage faces southwest with three stalls worth of blacktop. I'm on a well so unless you wash before 10AM or so in the summer, you have to wash in the garage for the shade. The well spots bad enough without the sun helping.

My garage has a drain but the floor wasn't floated so good. All of the water doesn't make it there and starts pooling up so I make a conscious effort to use as little as possible simply because it's less to squeegee out the door. If you think about how much time the hose is actually running, it's not more than a couple of minutes. Enough to fill a couple of five gallon buckets.

In the winter, I'll use a bit more because the crud can really build up with all the salt they use around here.

Even if I use a couple gallons more than the commercial place uses, what about all the power their using to pull the car through the wash, spin all those brushes, power the heated blowers, etc. I'm doing a much, much better job, by hand. That's a lot of motors and pumps running on 220, my guess.

 

And hey... those new-fangled washing machines sure use a lot of water.

So I'm sure some of the environmental conscious folks here still drag the clothes down to the creek and beat it with a rock.

 

I try to wash once a week, during the spring/summer/fall, always at home in my driveway, full detail once a month (wax/polish before and after winter). In the winter it's when weather permits, or when the salt build-up gets to be to much.

Global warming is a bunch of BS, and we haven't had a drought here in NY in over 10 years, so I'm not worrying, or about to change my habits.

 

CR&PW&JB - yah kinda like those ignorant "Hybrid for the environment" folks.

Where the hell are they going to throw away all those batteries? Better yet, you guys know how much fuel is wasted to make that battery? LOL.

Good point about the wasted energy to run those automated washes. And the darn carwash places with their lights on all frikken night long. What a waste of energy.

 

With my 06, I'm ashamed to say I think I hand washed it maybe 4 times in the nearly 3 years I owned it. With my 09...just did the first wash today, and we'll see how it goes from here.

 

2 gallons in the soapy bucket, 3-4 gallons in the rinse bucket, maybe 1/2 gallon to pre-soak, then a gallon to rinse. Looks like I use about 6-7 gallons a week to wash 2 MINIs. I spill more beer a day

Mark

 

Screw you all. Ask a simple question and get flamed. Waste all your water. I'm off this site for good.

 

Flamed... what the hell does a guy expect when he comes on a car enthusiast forum and tells people they are wasting water by taking care of their cars ?



ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssEE ya.

 

so this is where you spend all the time... you and OG.

http://www.motoringalliance.com/forums/11/14/

 

So sensitive??? I bet Browser has never used a nozzle on the end of a hose to keep it from flowing when he isn't washing. That sure would waste a lot of water.

I think we are all pretty aware of what the car washes do to our cars..especially the hand wash ones...recycled water?? Hmm...take the water from your buckets and pour it on the lawn. There it's recycled!

If we really want to nitpick about the environment..what happens when the owner of a car decides after a couple years to repaint his car because it's all scratched up from the car wash? Uhm..he's going to take it to a body shop, and get it painted...or maybe he will dump the car because it's a lease to somebody else...

Washing your own car is as much of a problem as is California's new proposed regulation about banning black cars because they require more energy to keep them cool over white and silver cars!

Richard

 

yah, but OG, i find myself with hell of a lot more MF towels to wash when i use my Griot's SprayOn CarWash vs using my standard bucket wash with a blow drier (shopvac in reverse mode)...and one waffle weave to dry.

so amn't i still "wasting" water anyway? just because the lid is closed and
can't see water going down the driveway doesn't necessarily mean im
saving water...(?)

 

now this makes sense!

 

and a whole bunch more of us. You should join up too!!!

Mark

 

I always do this. One bucket for each planting bed on either side of my garage entrance. I often wash the car on the lawn. I use a nozzle on my hose (Mr.Clean auto dry) and I would estimate my total water usage to be about that of a long(ish) shower....minus the hot water.

I live in an area that has prolonged droughts, an over-taxed water supply and nearly constant watering restrictions. I don't think we have ever had a car washing ban but they have been talked about. There is no way I would use any automated car wash and the self-serve washes, the ones with the paint-peeling power nozzles, have signs up forbidding any hand washing (which I ignore on the few occasions I have brought my travel trailer there).

 

Mine is weekend toy. So basically I wash it every Sunday if it came out to play.

 

You didn't just ask you, you lectured on what you think is right, even though there's very little proof to support your position, did you not expect people to disagree. If you get offended when people disagree with your opinions so easy I'd advise you stay off internet forums in general.