Car wash or hand wash. Which is better for the environment?

[SSimon]

I used to never wash my cars until I got my Prius. Now I wash my car every month or two. Except for winter, I've made it a practice to hand wash my car on my driveway thinking that I'm conserving a lot of water doing so. Now I see the contents of the below link and have to wonder of the validity of my thinking. They say that commercial car washes use much less water than hand washing?!?! I never would've figured this to be the case.

Probably more importantly, they say that residuals of gas, oil and exhaust fumes enter our local watersheds when handwashing on your driveway. Commercially operated car washes are required by law to dispose of their water through the wastewater treatment system so that at least this water gets treated before being sent back to our watersheds.

http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivin.../a/car_wash.htm

Thoughts?

[Tideland Prius]

I don't know if they use less water drenching your car but in terms of consuming the water... (crap.. I forgot the terminology from my sustainable class... the different between consuming and some other "c" word). Anyway, in terms of getting the water the pipe, it might actually be less than hand washing because some stations do recycle and re-use their water (of course not the grey water.. after filtering the crud out from the last car).

If you wash by hand, technically the best way is to wash it on the lawn so that the lawn filters the water rather than having the oils and sand and what-have-you drain into the.. well drain.


Or you can use Optimum No Rinse. One bucket (preferably two.. a wash and a rinse bucket) of water is all you need. No need to wet the car, no need to rinse the car. It's like a Swiffer Wet for your car.

[Boo]

That article is both useful and a little suspect.

In terms of water usage, it's the car wash association (a vested interest) that claims they only use 45 gallons of water per car, while people at home use between 80 and 140 gallons. It's the home use figure they cite that seems suspect on its face. When I handwash with access to a hose, I submit that there's no way that I use 80 to 140 gallons of water. I don't have a meter attached to the hose, but I can estimate based on how long it takes to fill my typical 2 gallon bucket of wash water.

When I don't have access to a hose, I only use 2 or 4 gallons of water, depending if I use the one bucket or two bucket method Tideland Prius mentions.

In any event, based on Tideland Prius' referral on another thread, I tried the Optimum No-Rinse, and it's terrific. It has a lot of lubricity. Its slippery polymer formulation bonds with the paint/clear coat to protect it from scratches while you're washing the car. And it leaves the car looking like new (shiney --- but not that super glossey temporary shine that spray on quick detailers can give you). It's also supposed to be biodegradable and environmentally friendly. When you're finished, just dump the one or two buckets of water on the street/sewer. Or, as I heard Australia requires or recommends, and as the article suggests, dump them out on a lawn.

Optimum No-Rinse is not cheap, however. You can get a gallon of the stuff from Amazon.com for about $41 delivered. For car washing, you use one capful per gallon of water.

[Tideland Prius]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Boo @ Oct 11 2007, 03:34 PM) [snapback]524267[/snapback]</div>

Optimum No-Rinse is not cheap, however. You can get a gallon of the stuff from Amazon.com for about $41 delivered. For car washing, you use one capful per gallon of water.
[/b]

So technically it could last longer than a regular 1 gallon bottle of car wash?

[priusmaybe]

We now have a total water ban in Atlanta - lawns and cars.

I don't use commercial car washes, large or small, because the screw up the car, especially black paint. They get the inside dirty, with grease and oil. They use dirty, gritty, rags, and they don't care about marking up your plastic interior and floor mats.

I like to do it myself.

My car is dirty, the ban came with no warning. I want to wash it and finish waxing it for winter.

I want to sneak and give it a quick wash, but I don't want to violate the ban.

The local city and counties are responsible for 38% of water usage from leaks in the system, but we citizens get the ban, while the water workers take naps in their cars, between looking for violators and long lunches. They are the sorriest group of employees. It takes 19 of them in 5 city trucks and vans, to read meters.

[Boo]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Oct 11 2007, 07:28 PM) [snapback]524283[/snapback]</div>

So technically it could last longer than a regular 1 gallon bottle of car wash?
[/b]

I don't know for sure. There are a lot of car wash soaps out there. But here's what the labels of the two car wash soaps I have on hand say: Simonize says to use 1 ounce per gallon of water, and Optimum No Rinse says use 1 ounce per 2 gallons of water. So as compared to Simonize, Optimum No Rinse uses half the car wash soap. The gallon of Optimum No Rinse should be sufficient for 128 washes. At the frequency I wash my car, the gallon of Optimum No Rinse should last about 10 years.

[Godiva]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Boo @ Oct 11 2007, 05:34 PM) [snapback]524267[/snapback]</div>

That article is both useful and a little suspect.

In terms of water usage, it's the car wash association (a vested interest) that claims they only use 45 gallons of water per car, while people at home use between 80 and 140 gallons. [/b]

For ONE wash? Are they kidding? No way I'm using 80 gallons of water to wash my car.

Each 5 gallon bucket is only filled about half. And I quickly wet the car. Then I wash an large section. Then I quickly rinse it off. No way that wetting and rinseing is taking 75 gallons of water.

Now if they're talking PER YEAR, that's another thing. That would depend on how often I wash my car.

But 80 gallons for one wash? No way.

Now, our local car washes do recycle their water, so they might use less than I do. But I don't swirl and scratch my own paint.

[Tideland Prius]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Boo @ Oct 11 2007, 05:05 PM) [snapback]524305[/snapback]</div>

I don't know for sure. There are a lot of car wash soaps out there. But here's what the labels of the two car wash soaps I have on hand say: Simonize says to use 1 ounce per gallon of water, and Optimum No Rinse says use 1 ounce per 2 gallons of water. So as compared to Simonize, Optimum No Rinse uses half the car wash soap. The gallon of Optimum No Rinse should be sufficient for 128 washes. At the frequency I wash my car, the gallon of Optimum No Rinse should last about 10 years.
[/b]

Ohh... hmm.. I go through a gallon every few years even when we had two cars.

[patsparks]

I wash my car by: -
quick squirt with the hose, it isn't running long enough to fill a 10 litre bucket (9 litres)
Wash half the car with Turtle wash and wax, one cap full in a 10 litre bucket, not full, (8 litres maybe)
Quick squirt, about half as long as the initial squirt (4 litres)
Wash other side of car with wash and water in the bucket (0 litres)
Quick squirt again (4 litres)
Then I chamois the car to get the water off it.
So in total I use about 25 litres of water.
I wash my car once or twice a month at most.

I always park the car on the front lawn to wash it and apart from rain and grey water from my front loading washing machine this is the only water I put on my lawn.

Some car washes have a star rating, this is what they mean here;
5 star
An excellent level of water efficiency

4 star
A very high level of water efficiency

3 star
A high level of water efficiency

2 star
A good level of water efficiency

1 star
A moderate level of water efficiency

Not rated
Water efficiency too low to be rated under the Scheme


4 and 5 star commercial car washes use less water then washing at home. 3 star car washes compare favourably with home washing.
From http://www.carwashwater.com.au/

So shouldn't 3 star be just OK if your too lazy to wash it at home, 2 stars be pretty poor, one star pretty crap and no stars dreadful

[Darwood]

I managed a car wash in college so I have some insight here.
Home washing, provided you don't leave the hose on the whole time uses far less water. Only use as much soap as needed and dump the dirty soap water bucket in your house drain, not the street drain.

Car washes use MASSIVE amounts of water, electricity, chemicals, and gas for heating. They use multiple types of soaps, including rinsing aids (or cheater wax) that allows the car to blow dry, sort of like the jetdry additive for dishwashers. Most of the "wax" they sell, does not end up on the car, but in the drain. "Waxing" has hardly anything to do with adding "stuff", but more to do with polishing the existing surface. There is NO substitute, for a good hand wax in your driveway. ONLY buy regular car washes, not the trumpted up wax/underbody BS.

Here in MN, you must use a carwash in the winter, due to the below zero temps. And it is important to do so, to get the salt off the car.
But as I said, only get the regular wash, and try to use a soft cloth wash, not the unmanned bristle washes or "spray and prays". Touchless ones are OK here and there, but once in a while, you need the actual friction to get the surface clean. BTW, the average car wash in MN, makes ALL of their money in the winter, and either loses or breaks even the rest of the year.