Rinseless Wash - how dirty will you go?

If there is visible caked on mud it's too dirty. Sometimes I feel if it's too dirty I'll hose down the car first. Yea I know kinda defeats the purpose of Rinseless washing but still saves water and I can pull in to the garage and do the Rinseless any time of day.

I did a waterless wash on this black Mercedes last week with D115@6:1
4 microfiber towels on the whole car, squeegie on the windows. I'm kind of fearless. Lol.

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Only 4 towels for the whole car? That is brave.

I didn't clean the wheels.

If you question whether you should, then just pre rinse. The rinseless term only refers to not needing to rinse the soap away.

lane5515 said:

How dirty is too dirty when using a rinseless wash? Please share before pictures of how dirty you'll go and offer any rinseless wash advice you think is beneficial. Thanks!

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Unless the car is caked with dried and visible mud or dirt I have no problem doing a rinseless. I did so on my Audi all winter and have yet to hit it with a traditional bucket/hose wash. I have and will take it to a DIY pressure wash place to blast off the yucky stuff if needed. Overall though, it's really not that big of a deal so long as you use good solution, towels and proper technique.

Here's an example of our van that I have washed even this dirty with the below technique. In this case I used my power sprayer for the solution to help drive off some of the caked on dirt.




My Technique:

I use about 2-3 gals of solution in total. I use The key thing about a no-rinse is the solution is extra slick and really does encapsulate the dirt. You can really feel the lubricity when washing or if you were to dry an clean portion of the car with a microfiber towel. I also use a de-ionized / distilled water which really helps reduce any streaks and/spots and insures the solution encapsulates dirt and isn't having to deal with the natural hardness found in tap water. Solution wise, I’ve fallen in love with Wolfgang Uber Rinseless. It’s far better than ONR in my opinion and is well worth trying if you’ve not done so. ONR is still very good mind you but I've moved away from it since I can see and feel a difference.

1. Fill a garden or powered Sprayer of your choice with No Rinse Solution
2. Fill a 3 gal bucket with about 1 gal. of No Rinse Solution
3. Insure I have a stack of 16" x 16" Eagle Edgeless Professional Super Plush 480gsm Microfiber Detailing Towels.

On my 4 door sedan the large plush towels go quite far. I use anywhere between 4-8 for the entire car depending on how dirty it is. Key is to fold them into four then make one more fold so that you can get a total of 16 completely clean/fresh passes out of a single towel. These hold lots of solution and are VERY Plush.

Both hose/buck and No-Rinse involve a pre-rinse and soak. In the case of a no-rinse system I use a garden sprayer to pre-soak the car with a fine to medium spray pattern being sure to cover every bit of dirt/panel. If you have the room in a garage and don’t mind a mist, you can even use a gravity fed system to feed an electric pressure sprayer and do the same thing. I pre-soak then wash in 5 stages; essentially the same as I do with a hose/bucket in the summer.

1. Wheels – Prevents splashing of nasty dirt up on a clean car
2. Front clip/nose and trunk/tail next as rinsing them tends to splash the hood/trunk
3. Hood-roof-trunk, windows. I do windows last in this case since they don’t scratch.
4. Side 1; one panel at a time top to bottom
5. Side 2; same

On the sides of the vehicle I tend to do all the top surfaces first then the bottoms being sure to put the lower portion dirty rags in the to-clean bucket quickly.

 
Steps.

1. Pre-soak, waiting a few minutes for the dirt to be encapsulated, oils and dirt to be broken up and solution to really work.
2. Quick spray down once more just prior to washing the panel to wash away as much as I can and to get the dirt to flow DOWN/OFF the car. Spray top to bottom
2. Wipe from top down using only a single pass per clean side or section of a towel. Each towel can be folded to a clean section allowing 16 passes per towel. More than enough for the entire panel or section. Keep the rage sopping wet and splash more solution on the rage if needed.
3. Last thing after each panel is washed is I give it another quick spray down top to bottom in order to push/wash away as much debris as I can. My powered sprayer is awesome for this as when combined with a good fan style spray tip it really works well at rinsing off any remaining aftermath.

I personally do not dry the panels one at a time as I go. Many do, but I don’t. Since I use distilled water, the clean panels blot dry easily and don’t tend to leave any drips or spots but if they do, a final wipe off with a clean dry MF Towel is all that’s needed.

Drying is the key IMO to keeping a car scratch/swirl free. IMO it causes more damage than a poor wash technique as when washing at least there’s more lubricity involved. When I do use a towel, I use a waffle weave towel and I NEVER drag it across the paint. I lay it out and blot it with pressure from my arm, pick up and move it and repeat. ANY wiping is only done with a clean, damp mf and No-rinse treated towel.

Once done I am a huge believer in a high quality detail spray and sealant. Both not only give the car a final spotless and flawless look but help insure future dirt has a layer of something there to help when pre-soaking the next wash cycle.

Rinseless only means dont rinse the soap off you ninnies..

Re: "Rinseless Wash - how dirty will you go"?

Not quite this dirty:

Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:

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But...Pretty daggone dirty!!


Bob

pdqgp said:

Here's an example of our van that I have washed even this dirty with the below technique. In this case I used my power sprayer for the solution to help drive off some of the caked on dirt.

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Holy smokes... You, sir, are brave! :bowdown:

I've done one that dirty but I used a ton of microfiber and it stained some permanently

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Yeah as mentioned before, caked up dirt needs to be knocked out at the quarter wash, then do your RW or WW. No matter what though, pre-treating is a must, so make more cleaning solution so you can pre-treat as much that makes you comfortable. I also use a little more solution ratio, like WGU is 1 oz for 3 gallons and I go 1.5 oz for 3.5 gallons.

Have fun in your garage...oh wait, is that trademarked, LOL!

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pheerix said:

Only 4 towels for the whole car? That is brave.

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I just use two for my waterless wash:

• a 16x16 800gsm for the paint
• a 16x24 320gsm for windows and plastics/trims

For my rinseless wash:

• 2 towels for the bottom part of the car (these are the dirties ones)
• 6 towels for the rest
• 1 gallon of rinseless wash solution
• presoak the vehicle with waterless wash solution and then use the damped towels

:buffing:

Looking at the pictures here, I am once more inclined to question many 'detailers' in the UK. To be honest, the pictures here look pretty clean compared to some that people in the UK think are safe to wash without anything more than rinseless. I am constantly amazed how many people seem to think that a waterless wash will suddenly make abrasive gritty particles, harmless. The reality is that large, hard particular soils will be abrasive, even if you have a waterless wash. As with comments here, you need to get these off the surface before you start wiping it with a cloth. Waterless wash solution or no, cloth + gritty particulate soil = sandpaper.

This is one of these cases where product marketing has been too good and common sense with some users, has gone out the window!

PiPUK said:

The reality is that large, hard particular soils will be abrasive, even if you have a waterless wash. As with comments here, you need to get these off the surface before you start wiping it with a cloth. Waterless wash solution or no, cloth + gritty particulate soil = sandpaper.

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^^ I agree with your statement, especially the last one. Any dirty car will need to sand and gravel removed via a soaking and high pressure spray first. For me it's $2 at the local DIY Place just prior to me washing it. As to Rinseless (I don't do waterless) I feel it's as safe as the best two or three bucket method if not safer. Gone for me are the days of hitting a van like ours in the photo with any type of sponge and rubbed around on the surface. I would much rather have a bucket of Wolfgange Uber and a sopping wet 480gsm towel carefully used to wipe the dirt with only a single pass per clean surface.

Like you I'm constantly amazed how so many feel a sponge dripping soapy water then being rubbed from top to bottom is any safer. Especially if it's then simply rinsed and re-used. It's never going to be as clean as a virgin surface like what the method I described is going to offer. Especially a surface that is nearly as large and only make a single pass across the surface. To each their own. I consider my Audi the best test case as it's Pure Black and will scratch just looking at it, yet my method works out quite well.

Cliffs: Blast of any car before washing it, especially caked on dirt.

If the dirt is so heavy it is going to damage the paint and clear coat, then traditional wash is necessary.
If the dirt is so heavy, it will destroy every towel used to clean the car, then traditional wash is necessary.

With enough time, product, and throw towels, one can certainly push the envelope without damaging the vehicle.
One must address the question is it worth the time, product, and materials to do it?
I am a big fan of waterless and rinseless wash approaches.
Truthfully, they are just better suited for maintenance details or very lightly dirty vehicles.

I used a waterless wash on my wife's car when it was pretty dirty! I love this stuff! View attachment 46886View attachment 46887View attachment 46888View attachment 46889View attachment 46890

I am going to try ONR soon (or possibly other rinseless brand if cant find ONR over here) but my method is as follows:-

- Pressure wash with filtered tap water, all gaps, lines, etc...
- Air blow water from all gaps to prevent water coming out while driving and causing water spots...
- Spray ONR all over the vehicle before drying, and wiping with a super thick micro fiber, wipe again if needed to remove streaks,

Any other fancy products I need to remove contaminants etc to prevent swirls or is that unnecessary ?...