XenonES3

I'm thinking about purchasing a water pressurizer for tasks including car washing. I've seen some at Home Depot and Pep Boys for around $100.

I was wondering if any of you have experience with such devices? Are they effective at removing fine dirt? I'd like to use the water pressurizer as an alternative to paying big $$$ for car washes.

Finally, approximately what PSI would be optimum for removing dirt without causing paint damage?

Any help would be much appreciated,

thanks

FaceUT

Nothing beats a hand wash and a gentle rinse. Pressure washers leave a LOT of dirt on cars.

mooretorque

Don't pay the big bucks for carwashes, period, unless you like scratched paint and frequent waxing. I second FaceUT; hand wash, use a car wash soap such as Zaino Z7, and use two buckets (one for soapy water, one for rinse water).

squarehat

This issue of touchless washes damaging paint has come up a lot in the past few weeks, and I'd like to know a little bit more about what exactly causes the damage. The one I go to has a light misting cycle to rinse away the heavy dirt before the high-pressure wash is able to sandblast the dirt into my paint. I guess the pre-soak cycle doesn't remove everything, and thus the high pressure does end up sandblasting a bit. But, like several of the detailing gurus around here have noted, it's better than the alternative of driving around with a salt-caked car in the winter months.

redgs4

A high pressure washer can remove loose paint, damage rubber molding and will easily remove lubricants from your cars "sensitive areas". If you are already going through the trouble of washing the car yourself a low pressure [regular hose] will do you just fine and should not take you any longer.

mooretorque

squarehat, I agree that touchless carwash would be better than salt, but if I lived in an area where that were an issue (there are some advantages to living in the South), I'd still just go for a water rinse only. Solvents are used in the carwashing solutions which are absolute hell on most waxes, leaving you with unprotected paint/clearcoat. Plus they really don't do a very good job (although, again, if you're in the Salt Belt, I guess any job looks better than salt/road grime).

Certainly (back to Xenon's original question), I'd not BUY something that would treat my paint like that, esp knowing that it would do a crappy job compared to a hand wash.