To Wash or Not to Wash

[notsaV8V]

All the advice on here from the experts is that foaming the car before the 2 bucket method of washing is the best way to avoid problems. But with many of us now in areas where there is a hosepipe ban, is washing without the benefit of rinsing all the grime off first likely to cause more problems than not?

What is the consensus?

[JaseB]

I saw an ad for a Karcher over the weekend that works from a waterbutt?! Might warrant further investigation...

[mikey k]

How about somewhere in between

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/washing-and-drying/o...

I use this to "wash" mine when it's not too dirty.
There are some great youtube vids of how best to use it!

[MichaelV8V]

I've just attached a short length of hosepipe to a water butt and connected it to my normal Karcher jetwasher. Works fine unless you use over about 4m of hosepipe, if it gets too long the suction from the jetwasher compresses the hosepipe and cuts off the water supply. Means I can use the snowfoam then two-bucket wash, all from the waterbutts.

[peterr96]

MichaelV8V said:

I've just attached a short length of hosepipe to a water butt and connected it to my normal Karcher jetwasher. Works fine unless you use over about 4m of hosepipe, if it gets too long the suction from the jetwasher compresses the hosepipe and cuts off the water supply. Means I can use the snowfoam then two-bucket wash, all from the waterbutts.

Our water butts are all empty. We've had to resort to Spanish white wine. It has the added advantage of never freezing although the blue colour may not be to everyone's taste.

[MichaelV8V]

Won't that stip the paint off?

[anonymous-user]

MichaelV8V said:

I've just attached a short length of hosepipe to a water butt and connected it to my normal Karcher jetwasher. Works fine unless you use over about 4m of hosepipe, if it gets too long the suction from the jetwasher compresses the hosepipe and cuts off the water supply. Means I can use the snowfoam then two-bucket wash, all from the waterbutts.

Same here with the added benefit that our water supplier (Southern Water) say its fine to fill the water butt from the hose during the ban! You can't make it up!

[RIB27]

Thankfully Southern Water haven't extended the ban into Hampshire yet. What will I do with all those spare hours every weekend if I can't have fun being trigger happy on the snow foam???

[MichaelV8V]

Do you find that snow foam strips off the polish / wax? Something about having all that detergent sitting directly on the polish seems to mean it doesn't last long.

Professional detailers always go on to do the full clay bar / polich / wax job, so its not a problem for them, but I'm starting to skip the snow foaming because there are days when I just have time for a quick wash and don't want to repolish or wax it again

[RIB27]

MichaelV8V said:

Do you find that snow foam strips off the polish / wax? Something about having all that detergent sitting directly on the polish seems to mean it doesn't last long.

Professional detailers always go on to do the full clay bar / polich / wax job, so its not a problem for them, but I'm starting to skip the snow foaming because there are days when I just have time for a quick wash and don't want to repolish or wax it again

Yes I'd definitely say that foaming reduces the lifespan of the wax coating, so if the car is just a bit dusty I also skip the foaming and just do a thorough pressure-wash. Since buying the Aston I've been using Autoglym HD wax and have found that if applied correctly and given decent amount of time to cure it's quite resilient. I love that 'just waxed' look on black cars so I usually wash weekly and wax monthly.

[RIB27]

RIB27 said:

so I usually wash weekly and wax monthly

Having read back my post I thought it wise to clarify that I am strictly talking about the car here!

[Slarti]

RIB27 said:

Having read back my post I thought it wise to clarify that I am strictly talking about the car here!

Thank goodness. I was starting to think you were the guy writing these reviews!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B000KKNQBK

[RIB27]

Slarti said:

Thank goodness. I was starting to think you were the guy writing these reviews!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B000KKNQBK

"DO NOT PUT ON KNOB AND bkS" ... poor guy