Hotwheels

I live in GA and our water restrictions regarding washing yourself are still in place. The restrictions protect businesses in business for the purpose of washing cars. I have had no choice but to use the automatic wash from time to time or my car wouldn't have been washed in more than two years. I want to find out how many gallons it actually takes to pre-wash, fill bucket and then rinse so I can contact local leaders about this issue. Other than driving a combustion engine everything I do is green. We've been using reclaimed water since before the drought. I am ready to challenge the local leaders on this. They protect the business interest, but not the investment of the individual. They have no idea that taking my luxury car through an automatic wash jeopardizes the integrity of the paint. Does anyone know approximately how many gallons it takes to wash a car? I doubt it is more than the amount we are allowed to use each week to water flowers. We can hand water with a hose with a nozzle up to 25 minutes three times a week. How is it that flowers are necessary, but washing my car to protect it is not?

I tried doing a search for this, but came up empty handed. I did however find some great information on Optimum No Rinse and plan to check it out.

Big Mack

iTrader: (1)

Water restrictions or not, I'm hoping this doesn't mean a bunch of stinky people walking around in GA. It's hot and humid there.

ONR is a good alternative. I can't imagine I use more than maybe 8-10 gallons of water when I wash my car. I do it at night to reduce evaporation and spotting (and the subsequent re-rinse required to remove it), and try to rinse from the top down so the water is used all over the car. Since I have no lawn (I refuse to mow when it's 118°, I don't care!!), I don't think my water usage is even close to that of those who do have grass. It's the desert. There should be no grass, IMO, but that's here.

Big Mack

eyezack87

iTrader: (4)

For ONR, I use no more than 4 gallons total (2gal wash bucket, 2 gal rinse bucket) but you can easily get away with just 2 gallons if you are relatively neat at keeping your car clean

Chris@GlimmerGlass

iTrader: (3)

I'm not really sure exactly how many gallons it takes. I would guess it has to be 12+ though, especially when you take in to consideration filling a bucket (or two).

ONR is definitely a great route to go though. Once you try it, you'll love it... such a great alternative to standard washing.

UDel

Maybe 2-4 gallons to fill the two buckets(one wash/one rinse). I seriously doubt I use anymore then 4-5 gallons to wet/rinse off the car. There have certainly been times when I only used no more then maybe 4 to 6 gallons total to wash a car for a quick wash. I am sure most people use more water taking a shower then I normally tend to do when washing a car. With ONR I use around 3 gallons and try to do it when the sun goes down after a rain storm so the car is already wet/damp and most of the bigger stuff is washed off.

Allen K

iTrader: (4)

4 for the buckets and maybe 4 more for the wash for me. I do the 2 bucket with ONR, but since I got my pressure washer (only 1.5 GPM here ) and CR Spotless, I've been giving it a quick rinse. On the plus side it only takes me an hour to wash both cars now

eyezack87

iTrader: (4)

AHH, you have the CR!!!! I'm comin over next time Allen!

Allen K

iTrader: (4)

CR was the best purchase I've made in a long time