swanicyouth
New member
- Mar 3, 2011
- 9,388
- 0
So for the last 3 months I've been considering getting a blow dyer to dry my cars. I never considered this until the local DIY quarter wash added one to their bays and I tried it. I like blow drying for a few reasons:
1. You can easily and completely dry wheels and tires without bending down.
2. You do much less "paint touching" to dry your car. To me, this is always a good thing as the less you touch your paint, the less likely you are to mar it.
3. You use much less towels to dry, that's less to wash.
4. Water can be blown out of crevices so it won't keep dripping for hours.
****So, first I got an 18V Black and Decker cordless leaf blower. This was just not very good for me. A leaf blower whole design is to blow towards the ground. I found trying to dry a vehicle with one just awkward. Plus the cordless one just isn't powerful enough. I needed a better blower. The obvious choice was the Master Blaster. I tried one of these at Detail Fest. I was just awesome. However, with that awesome performance came an awesome price. I just didn't want to spend that much for one tool I basically was going to use for one task. I decided on the Metro Air Force Blaster. Basically, it's a 4 HP blower (no vac) that's a step down from the top of the line Master Blaster. I decided on this model apposed to the 4 HP Vac N Blo because I just didn't want to dry my clean car with the same hose and nozzles I use to vacuum up dirt. For a vacuum I went with a separate 2.5 HP Shop Vac from Lowes that also has a blower port. So, today, as if on cue, my Air Force Blaster came from UPS while I was pouring shampoo in a bucket to wash my car. I just ordered it 2 days ago and the status still said "hasn't shipped yet". So, it's arrival was a complete surprise.
The Package Unpacked:
As any true Auto Geek would do, first thing I did was apply a coat of FMJ to it:
Let me give you my initial impressions. First, we've all read Metro products are built like a tank. I can't stress enough how well built this thing feels. Metro advertises how light their vacs are. But in person, this thing seems heavier and more solid than one would expect. But I don't mean that in a bad way. It's smaller than pictures do it justice, and heavier than one would expect for its small size. It just seems solid and well built, like the iron your Grandma used for 40 years. It's made of much thicker and heavier duty steel than I expected. It comes with an assortment of vacuum cleaner type nozzles, a mini blower nozzle, a smaller blower nozzle, and a standard size blower nozzle already attached to the hose.
The Regular and Smaller Nozzles (both rubber):
The next thing I noticed was the hose. The blower hose is both much thicker, longer, wider, and more heavy duty than I expected. I expected a Shop Vac style hose. This hose is a much higher quality than the hose you get with a regular wet dry Vac. Also, I know they advertise the length, but in person, the hose was much much longer than I expected.
Look How Long the Hose Is:
Now, on to how it works. I was really
hoping I was going to be happy with this purchase, and not wish I purchased the Master Blaster instead. And... Yes, I am. While, I'm sure the MB is more powerful, the Air Force is just great. First off, let me say, it's almost impossible to sit this unit on the ground and not have it flip over like a dog "rolling over" while doing anything with the hose at all, even just hanging up the hose. This is due to the small footprint of the unit and it's legs; and the heavy duty nature of the hose. The hose is rather stiff, but not in a bad way. However, this does cause the unit to want to roll over when you move around the hose. As any movement of the hose is not "absorbed" by the hose; it's transmitted to the blower unit. For me, I'll be ordering the little wheeled dolly Metro makes for it. Once you go to use it, you realize it's essential to either have the dolly, hold the unit in one hand and nozzle in the other, or have it fastened down to some type of flat surface. In fact, this is my only gripe. Metro should have either made wider legs or made the dolly standard ( or built into the unit). This fact becomes so obvious when you go to use it in person, it leaves you asking why they didn't pick one of these options. You may think because it's meant to be hand held, but as you can see, the hose is so long, that when you operate it as a hand held, you have many feet of extra hose just in your way. This is the only criticism I have of the whole product, and many others have commented similarly. The only controls are a single chrome on / off toggle switch. When I started it up, it was much smoother and quieter than. I predicted. How's it work? It's just awesome! The blower was powerful enough for me to dry 95% of my car without a towel. Usually I dry inside, but today I dried outside. Does it save time? Overall, yes. Because when it's dry, it's dry. No more drips out of mirrors, door handles, lug nut recesses, wheel crevices, body lines, etc... It takes about a minute to completely dry a wheel and tire. That means, completely dry. While initially it may take a little longer to go around the car, you are able to knock out more water each trip. The air from the blower gets warm not hot, and you are able to evaporate small isolated trails of water. When I was done, there where some water spots, but there always are for me when washing my black car in the sun. No matter how hard I try to keep the whole car wet, I always end up with some easily removed water trails on the flat surfaces. These are easily removed with ONR at QD strength, Optimum OC, Ultima WW, or a new to me product I've been using; Duragloss Water Spot Remover. I was able to get the whole car totally dry and all the water spots removed using only the Air Force Blaster, DG WSR, and 1 330 gsm microfiber towel. I was pretty impressed. Also,
I was able to blow dry my black convertible top without having to pick towel lint off when I was done, which is normal procedure for me regardless of towel used. So, the Metro Air Force Blaster is a winner to me!
1. You can easily and completely dry wheels and tires without bending down.
2. You do much less "paint touching" to dry your car. To me, this is always a good thing as the less you touch your paint, the less likely you are to mar it.
3. You use much less towels to dry, that's less to wash.
4. Water can be blown out of crevices so it won't keep dripping for hours.
****So, first I got an 18V Black and Decker cordless leaf blower. This was just not very good for me. A leaf blower whole design is to blow towards the ground. I found trying to dry a vehicle with one just awkward. Plus the cordless one just isn't powerful enough. I needed a better blower. The obvious choice was the Master Blaster. I tried one of these at Detail Fest. I was just awesome. However, with that awesome performance came an awesome price. I just didn't want to spend that much for one tool I basically was going to use for one task. I decided on the Metro Air Force Blaster. Basically, it's a 4 HP blower (no vac) that's a step down from the top of the line Master Blaster. I decided on this model apposed to the 4 HP Vac N Blo because I just didn't want to dry my clean car with the same hose and nozzles I use to vacuum up dirt. For a vacuum I went with a separate 2.5 HP Shop Vac from Lowes that also has a blower port. So, today, as if on cue, my Air Force Blaster came from UPS while I was pouring shampoo in a bucket to wash my car. I just ordered it 2 days ago and the status still said "hasn't shipped yet". So, it's arrival was a complete surprise.
The Package Unpacked:
As any true Auto Geek would do, first thing I did was apply a coat of FMJ to it:
Let me give you my initial impressions. First, we've all read Metro products are built like a tank. I can't stress enough how well built this thing feels. Metro advertises how light their vacs are. But in person, this thing seems heavier and more solid than one would expect. But I don't mean that in a bad way. It's smaller than pictures do it justice, and heavier than one would expect for its small size. It just seems solid and well built, like the iron your Grandma used for 40 years. It's made of much thicker and heavier duty steel than I expected. It comes with an assortment of vacuum cleaner type nozzles, a mini blower nozzle, a smaller blower nozzle, and a standard size blower nozzle already attached to the hose.
The Regular and Smaller Nozzles (both rubber):
The next thing I noticed was the hose. The blower hose is both much thicker, longer, wider, and more heavy duty than I expected. I expected a Shop Vac style hose. This hose is a much higher quality than the hose you get with a regular wet dry Vac. Also, I know they advertise the length, but in person, the hose was much much longer than I expected.
Look How Long the Hose Is:
Now, on to how it works. I was really
hoping I was going to be happy with this purchase, and not wish I purchased the Master Blaster instead. And... Yes, I am. While, I'm sure the MB is more powerful, the Air Force is just great. First off, let me say, it's almost impossible to sit this unit on the ground and not have it flip over like a dog "rolling over" while doing anything with the hose at all, even just hanging up the hose. This is due to the small footprint of the unit and it's legs; and the heavy duty nature of the hose. The hose is rather stiff, but not in a bad way. However, this does cause the unit to want to roll over when you move around the hose. As any movement of the hose is not "absorbed" by the hose; it's transmitted to the blower unit. For me, I'll be ordering the little wheeled dolly Metro makes for it. Once you go to use it, you realize it's essential to either have the dolly, hold the unit in one hand and nozzle in the other, or have it fastened down to some type of flat surface. In fact, this is my only gripe. Metro should have either made wider legs or made the dolly standard ( or built into the unit). This fact becomes so obvious when you go to use it in person, it leaves you asking why they didn't pick one of these options. You may think because it's meant to be hand held, but as you can see, the hose is so long, that when you operate it as a hand held, you have many feet of extra hose just in your way. This is the only criticism I have of the whole product, and many others have commented similarly. The only controls are a single chrome on / off toggle switch. When I started it up, it was much smoother and quieter than. I predicted. How's it work? It's just awesome! The blower was powerful enough for me to dry 95% of my car without a towel. Usually I dry inside, but today I dried outside. Does it save time? Overall, yes. Because when it's dry, it's dry. No more drips out of mirrors, door handles, lug nut recesses, wheel crevices, body lines, etc... It takes about a minute to completely dry a wheel and tire. That means, completely dry. While initially it may take a little longer to go around the car, you are able to knock out more water each trip. The air from the blower gets warm not hot, and you are able to evaporate small isolated trails of water. When I was done, there where some water spots, but there always are for me when washing my black car in the sun. No matter how hard I try to keep the whole car wet, I always end up with some easily removed water trails on the flat surfaces. These are easily removed with ONR at QD strength, Optimum OC, Ultima WW, or a new to me product I've been using; Duragloss Water Spot Remover. I was able to get the whole car totally dry and all the water spots removed using only the Air Force Blaster, DG WSR, and 1 330 gsm microfiber towel. I was pretty impressed. Also,
I was able to blow dry my black convertible top without having to pick towel lint off when I was done, which is normal procedure for me regardless of towel used. So, the Metro Air Force Blaster is a winner to me!
rops:
