The other day I parked under a tree where a bird crapped all over my X. I needed a quick wash so I took it to a touchless car wash. I remembered it being recommended once on this fourm. I spoke to a friend and they said that touchless car washes uses recycled water and therefore there's grit in the water and essentially you are getting sand blasted. Anybody else heard similar?

bull crap
they do filter the water, before they send it back

Oleg is right.. (never thought I'd say that)
Some of my contracts here are for gas stations and their car washes.. they have quite a system for the water behind the scenes... I can't say "all" of them have it, but 99% of them should.

Filters will remove undissolved material, like dirt. They will not remove anything that dissolves in water. Like road salt. Not much of an issue now, but during 'the season' it's another story.

dave and xtoy - unless you want a salt water wash

I thought most such places did not recycle final "spotless" rinses, which are demineralized by DI cylinders or, I dunno, maybe even RO systems. Even if they do recycle, if done properly salts are about the easiest contaminants to remove. I don't know how you can tell if it's "done properly", though.

The spotless rinse at the one I use is great, not a trace left.

Brent

from what i hear those leave paint swerals thou becase the brushes get really dirty and its like sand paper on you truck.

Touchless?

It's still touched by hand with dirty wash rags. Yes, they make an attempt to clean them as they use them but, it is a really weak effort. There will be lots of grit in those rags. There are some newer high tech places that use soft pad like rollers that are constantly washed during the process. Then comes the drying. Same towels used over and over. Then they even use widow cleaner and use the same towels on that. Several places I have seen use those red shop towels you can get in bulk at the auto parts store. Not to great on the paint. I saw one spray the window cleaner on the paint to touch it up. Real nice! Do it yourself, or expect to get more swirls.

I take mine to a touchless.... Not to one where people dry and and polish. I'll do that myself. A generic touchless is nice between coats of Zaino.

I know a car wash guy near me. They have a super duper "behind the scenes" system and they still recycle the water. It's filtered, but not clean as in clean straight from the faucet. Only time I use a car wash is in the winter to get the road salt off and to get the undercarriage sprayed. Then I go home and hand wash it again with a bucket of hot water. Sucks when it's 10 degrees outside, but at least it's clean.

I was in the car wash business for 9 years. This was a few years ago that I stopped. ALL carwashes recycle their water. The only exception may be the gas station quick washes. The wash cycle uses this recycled water. The final rinse uses fresh water. A car wash could not stay in business if they didnt recycle. Thats how they can keep running even when theres a drought. The towel problem is real. I watch them like a hawk with my own to be sure it's done right. They're always trying to shortcut the customer. What really gets me is when they drop a body drying towel on the ground and just pick it up and continue using it. You just gotta watch 'em.

I own 4 carwashes in AZ, all of which offer a "touch-free" automatic and a number of self service bays.

Water Reclamation is not required at S/S washes only Full Service(tunnels like Danny's).

The equipment to Recycle AND CLEAN your water cost in excess of $50,000 per wash and is used at few if any S/S washes. You are getting good water at these washes. The Spot Free rinse water has gone through an RO system like the stuff you would drink or buy yourself.

Now before anyone starts bashing car washes for the use of fresh water during a drought ask yourself how many gallons you use in your driveway when you wash your X.

You are using much more than if you were using a high pressure gun at my wash.

You are also spilling contaminants into the sewers and groundwater (Phoenix has drywells and retention areas)

These washes filter/seperate/pump this sludge and have it disposed of properly.

There's my 2 cents sorry if its TMI

Haynes (the repair manual people) put out a great do-it-yourself book on auto detailing. They show good ways to do a whole top to bottom full day detail but they also had a quick 30 min wash to do at the DIY car washes. It's definately worth getting if your like me and you get obbsesive about details when cleaning your Xterra.

Off Topic......
Damn nice journal(Soldiers Story) you got going on there Kerensky97....damn nice, if anyone wants an interesting read, click on link under his tag line....
BluRdgX

Thanks.
The whole thing is at 61 pages right now in MS Word so I don't want to upload the whole thing at once and make it too hard to read.