A question about automatic car washes?

[Bsavulis]

Like many here in the North East and I am sure elsewhere, I visit my local carwash frequently during the year to wash off the road chemicals used to melt snow and ice. I drove by the local wash this morning, which has been completely rebuilt in recent months, and a thought popped up.
Do car washes recycle their water? If they do, I am sure it is heavily filtered, but how would they remove the dissolved chemicals like road salt? Am I just spraying my car with salty water from the person before me?


Brian

 

[Quaffer]

It depends on the market, cost of water, and regulations. The range is from no recycle to sophisticated systems.

If you are worried about residual chemicals, check to see if the wash offers a spot free rinse option. Spot free rinse, to my knowledge, always uses a fresh water supply.

 

[JTKub]

I have read that the big chain car wash in the western NY area do recycle wash water for some of the process, but the final wash/rinse is tap/fresh water. I hate it, but I don't bother going through automatic car washes anymore. By the time I get home, the vehicle is a salty mess again anyway. Another theory I've read is, the spray blast from car washes can also force corrosive materials where they ought not go. Rust belt life is rough. FWIW, I fluid film and/or woolwax my vehicles myself.

 

[MossRoad]

It depends on the market, cost of water, and regulations. The range is from no recycle to sophisticated systems.

If you are worried about residual chemicals, check to see if the wash offers a spot free rinse option. Spot free rinse, to my knowledge, always uses a fresh water supply.

Our local car wash chain uses soft water.

 

[Quaffer]

Our local car wash chain uses soft water.

A lot of car washes tout this as a benefit to the customer, which it is. But the biggest benefit is the washes can use lower titration levels on their chemicals, using less chemicals per wash compared to hard water.

 

[MossRoad]

All I know is our local car wash chain does not play well with our Subaru Outback. We make it all the way past the brushes and sprayers, but the wind tunnel at the end picks up our rear window wiper and rips the blade off the arm fairly consistently. So I've taken to removing the blade before entering.

 

[Carl_NH]

We don't travel in bad weather usually but in the winter I go to the hand wand spray wash once a month to wash the salt and grime off for $3 and it's clean enough until spring to do a proper wash and wax.

It's all fresh water in the hand wash place.

 

[mrmikey]

Many many decades ago I worked at a car wash. The first rinse water was recycled, it went from the pit to a large settling tank where the silt settled out and the water was sprayed at high pressure to wet the care and rinse some of the dirt off.
One Saturday morning there were only three of us on and the rinse water was spitting and sputtering out of the spray nozzles, ended up the silt was up to the level of the suction and was intermittently blocking the intake. The boss in all his infinite wisdom, had forgotten to get the settling tank pumped, a monthly necessity. So we figured ok, we'll swish the silt away from the pickup, that should give us a couple days at least till Monday morning so we swished.
Unfortunately what happened, it ended up putting a crap load of silt in suspension that the pump picked up and sprayed on the car going thru. First one I remember was a fairley new Caddy, tan in color. When it came out the other end it looked like it was camouflaged, ready for the desert, not a shine on it anywhere. Never noticed the windows but they had to be somewhat etched as well I'm sure. Only salvation for us was it was driven by an older gentleman that never noticed it one bit.

 

[dodge man]

I think most do recycle the water. I’m sure there is some change over but yeah it’s a concern. I think waiting a few days after people are hitting the car wash hard would help. Here the soft water is just used on the final rinse.

 

[MossRoad]

Anyone remember that Cadillac Escalade that got totaled in a car wash because the pickup truck in front of them had an in-bed fuel tank with pump, hose and handle that the brushes grabbed off of it, then beat the snot out of the Escalade? It's only on Facebook. Lots O' Damage.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1187833019512055

 

[domin]

it makes sense to recycle in my opinion. Automatic car washes can be convenient, but they do come with some trade-offs. Depending on the type, they might not always be the best for your paint over time. Touchless ones are usually a bit safer, though sometimes not as thorough. Deciding what to use can feel a bit like searching for a First Progress phone number, where you want the right answer without too much hassle. Do you use them regularly or just occasionally? Hand washing still seems to be the safest route.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Here in PA, commercial car washes are not required to recycle water, but there are strict regulations on waste water runoff entering streams & watershed. As a result, most modern car washes recycle 60 to 80%, but use fresh water for the final rinse. The rest is treated to spec before dumping.

Instead of paying $15 for a commercial wash, I bought a pressure washer and do my own.

 

[grsthegreat]

I pay about $45 per month for unlimited brushless car wash in town. Everytime im in town i run the rig thru it. Between mud, dirt and road salt, i want it off the rigs. I generally get in about 8-10 washes a month, so it works out not too bad.

 

[dodge man]

I like to wash my vehicles at home also, I even bought a foam cannon. We have hard water and even running it through the water softener it borderline spots on my black Challenger.