First Conventional Wash This Year

S

Setec Astronomy

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I've been doing rinseless washes since the QEW days (before ONR), but back then it was strictly for winter washing when you wanted to do it in the garage or outside when it was 34 degrees. But although I almost always use conventional for wheels/tires, I've been gravitating to more and more rinseless for the paint.

For whatever reason, I hadn't even done any conventional washes this year, but I decided I needed to use up some car wash, so over the past couple of weeks I've done 5 conventional washes, and all I can say is....what a drag! I use a foam gun, but the washing, the rinsing, the blowing, the drying, the spotting...I think I officially hate regular washing now!

Although I will continue to use conventional for wheels (mostly because I have so much shampoo, but also, because of that, I haven't developed a rinseless wheel technique), really the only scenarios I see where I would want to do a conventional wash again is during pollen season, where foaming the car actually floats some of the pollen off instead of mucking up your bucket...and maybe leaf season when you get all those leaf particles thrown up on the lower section of the car. The foam doesn't really help during salt season, but I do try to blast some of the salt off the panels with the hose while I'm doing the wheels, in preparation for the rinseless.

I know for most of you guys I'm preaching to the choir, but I guess I surprised myself at how much I disliked going back to conventional. And the depressing part of this is, and I'm not exaggerating, I think I have enough conventional wash for wheels-only to last 10 years, maybe more.
 
The only time in the last two years I have even drug the hose out was to was of big gobs of mud or to wash an engine. Rinsless is defeniatly the way to go. So easy to pull into the shop out of the sun or cold and put the cars back into shape.
 
The timing of this is interesting for me.

I finally got access to my wife's SUV yesterday for long enough to do a proper wash last night. While only a mid-size, the vehicle is large and since my neighborhood has no shade, water spotting is going to happen. I spent all evening thinking, "There has got to be a better way..." Maybe rinseless is the way to go. A good grout sponge and a couple of extra MF drying towels and I should be in business. I could save conventional washes for when vehicles are seriously dirty.

The ease of washing without filling the buckets, dragging out the hose etc is really appealing.

Of course I start this line of thinking AFTER I just bought a new bottle of car shampoo!
 
Amen brother!

I have not been doing them as long as you, but I just love how quick and easy rinseless is.

And I get the added bonus of the wife not seeing a big wet spot in the drive and saying "did you wash your car again".
 
I always perform a conventional wash in the winter. I (personally) would never use a water-less wash by itself to remove dried on salt. I will always rinse and foam the car first to remove the heavy layers of salt, and then perhaps proceed to a water-less (or rinse-less) as step #2. I also find conventional far superior for washing out wheel wells, bumper corners and other places where dirt likes to accumulate.

But for 9 months a year in NJ, water-less is indeed very appealing.

ScottH
 
ScottH said:
I always perform a conventional wash in the winter. I (personally) would never use a water-less wash by itself to remove dried on salt. I will always rinse and foam the car first to remove the heavy layers of salt, and then perhaps proceed to a water-less (or rinse-less) as step #2. But for 9 months a year in NJ, water-less is indeed very appealing.
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I personally dislike waterless and would never do a waterless on salty car unless you had one of those electric pump sprayers that lays down a ton of solution. That being said, short of a pressure washer I find that even a sharp stream from a hose nozzle doesn't really knock down whatever they are using on the roads in winter these days...or maybe I'm just not keeping my LSP up enough. So anyway, waterless isn't nearly as appealing to me as rinseless.

ScottH said:
I also find conventional far superior for washing out wheel wells, bumper corners and other places where dirt likes to accumulate.
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I agree, wheels and wheel wells are a place that just seems more suited to a hose.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
I personally dislike waterless and would never do a waterless on salty car unless you had one of those electric pump sprayers that lays down a ton of solution.
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Agree on all counts. I learned this lesson the hard with my black car two winters ago. Ever since, I simply go through a touchless car wash and suppress any emotions that come from driving only a partially clean car.
 
I dislike all the extra time I spend on traditional vs rinseless washes as well. I only do regular ones when the car is really filthy. Like you I often still stick to the traditional way of wheel washing. I do rinseless wash the wheels and wells sometimes using a pump-up sprayer, but only when they're relatively clean in the first place.
 
I still do far more conventional than rinseless.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
I personally dislike waterless
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Well, my car had accumulated some dust and then got sprinkled on, so it had dirty spots all over it. Last night I had intended to do a quick rinseless wash but it was getting dark and I didn't feel like mixing up a bucket...so I wiped down the top surfaces of the car with Optimum Opti-Clean. Hopefully (with Dr. G's help) I didn't mar the crap out of it. I know the back window wound up all smeary which I saw later when I took the car out. We'll see this morning how I did...did I mention I don't really like waterless washing?
 
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