Touch free car washes

deerefan · Aug 2, 2011

As my responsibilities have grown at work and home with the new baby, I just do not have the time to hand wash my 3 vehicles. They opened a new and very nice touch free car wash in town. The prices range from $4-$8 and it does a nice job. I usually grab the 5 dollar wash as my vehicles do not go long between baths. Do you guys use these things? Any damage to your vehicle or vehicles finish?

Bird · Aug 2, 2011

Maybe you've got a good one, but I've never seen a touch free car wash that cleaned the car worth a hoot. However, I used to hand wash our vehicles in the driveway myself, but I quit doing that almost 4 years ago. I use a car wash that actually has it all; gasoline, quick lube, detailing, engine cleaning, etc. But the only thing I use is the "Express Wash" for $5, drive through, don't even get out of the vehicle or turn off the key. But there are lots of revolving brushes, as well as the detergent and rinse sprays, a powerful blower that blows off most of the water, and then they towel dry it by hand. Just too quick and easy for me to get it done there. So I use the place frequently for both vehicles.

Either my wife or I do still vacuum and clean the interior ourselves at home.

And I'd never thought about them having a website until just now, so the place I use is Star Car Wash.

timswi · Aug 2, 2011

deerefan said:
As my responsibilities have grown at work and home with the new baby, I just do not have the time to hand wash my 3 vehicles. They opened a new and very nice touch free car wash in town. The prices range from $4-$8 and it does a nice job. I usually grab the 5 dollar wash as my vehicles do not go long between baths. Do you guys use these things? Any damage to your vehicle or vehicles finish?

No damage, but if there is salt or anything sticky on the vehicle, it does an OK job..I use one from time to time, but hand washing is the best.

With the touchless you can see the pressure marks in the dirt if you're **** about appearance, and I am.

Nice in the winter to blow the salt off, but that's about it.

CowboyRon · Aug 3, 2011

I use one by my house that I pay 35 per month for. It does everything it even put some shine on the tires. I really like it because when I leave the ranch my truck is filthy, and she leaves nice and clean.

Diamondpilot · Aug 3, 2011

I do in the winter and when on road trips but around home I wash by hand.

Chris

irvingj · Aug 3, 2011

Likewise... in the winter I'll go through one every so often and add the "undercarriage wash" just to get salt off, but doing it myself at home is far better. I, too, have seen minute scratches from the brush types so I stay away from them.

deerefan · Aug 3, 2011

irvingj said:
Likewise... in the winter I'll go through one every so often and add the "undercarriage wash" just to get salt off, but doing it myself at home is far better. I, too, have seen minute scratches from the brush types so I stay away from them.

The brush washes scare me. I worked at one my sophmore year in high school and it seemed 1 out 10 cars had some type of damage done to them. The worst was a fellow went thru in a pickup and the brushes snagged a short piece of chain in his bed and beat the tar out of his truck. Amazingly, he took responsibility stating he should have known better than to leave that in his bed and go thru the wash. We saw a lot of broken mirrors, bent antennas, a few broken windows and scratches. After a couple years, the owner shut it down and converted it into an oil change shop.

2manyrocks · Aug 6, 2011

A friend of mine owns several of these touch free car washes. Whether you get a good wash depends on a lot of factors including the various chemicals used to break down the dirt and carry it off your car. Every time we start talking about this, it turns into a 30 minute discourse on many technical issues. His car washes will clean your car.

Not everybody uses the same stuff.

Brush washes--asking for trouble.

clemsonfor · Aug 6, 2011

I must be lazy as we just pay $15-25 and go to the places that wash it and minor detail including armorall and vacume about once a month or 2.

Many guys talk about how much their time is worth, and mine is not worth that much but i hate washing cars and the same thing would take be close to 2 hours to do.