There is a lot of wisdom in that statement .. without getting drug down into the discussion of whether or not anything other than a hand wash is acceptable, the quality of the euipment, chemicals and maintainance has a lot to do with how good a job the car wash does, and how little it damages your finish.

Some of the factors that can have an effect:

- Chemicals - are they all mixed at the correct ratios?
- Spray nozzles - are the all set correctly? right angle, right flow pattern, unplugged?
- Brushes/Curtains/Etc - are they clean and well maintained? Is there grease contaimination, or hydraulic fluid contamination on any of the equipment?
- Wash water - is the reclaim pit clean, or is there a contaimination issue? (all the oil, etc from older cars has to go somewhere, especially with an undercarrige wash)
- Rinse water .. are they using fresh water , or reclaim ? if reclaim, are they filtering it at all ?
- In a cold climate, are they using heated water? if so, how hot ? (fine line to walk between keeping the things in the tunnel from freezing, and causing issue by throwing hot water on a 20 degree windshield.

General maintainance - just the over all upkeep of the equipment plays a big difference in how well it functions, and how safe it is to use.

 

Less filling ! Tastes great!.....Less filling! Tastes great!.....Gents, each viewpoint sounds credible to me. I will say, that even if my touchless car wash removes some, most, or all of the wax, I won't leave the salt and crud from winter driving on my truck. I get it off as soon as their is a break in the weather that will last a week. (and that would be anything above 15 degrees during the day). I would like to know the answer to this debate though. Very interesting.

 

Yes they do. The cleaners are very alkaline and will strip most waxes right off. Some synthetics like NXT or Zaino will last longer.
How do you think they get the dirt off without touching your truck?

 

rub it in....rub it in. I will have to say that we are at least 15-20 degree warmer here than normal. Today it is in the upper 40's.

 

Hey, at least the rainbow stuff smells good. As far as wax removal, just wash your truck with Dawn or some other dishwashing liquid (as WAY too many people do). Stuff's cheap, suds's like crazy, cleans great........and strips the wax right off!

The touchless washes do a really good job of washing/cleaning - actually WAY too good. For a water jet to clean as much crap off as they do without brushes, rubbing, etc., the stuff has to be aggressive. For 90% of the lazy-*** public, they do exactly what they're designed for.....clean the crud off and put a decent shine on, and there's nothing wrong with that. Remember, we're the freaks of the vehicle-washing/waxing world. Hell, I got a couple-hundred dollars of wax sitting on a shelf because it just didn't "do it" for me.

Joe Hyundai washes his "transportation" with a bucket of Dawn, some old nasty sponge, and dries it with paper towels, or, he goes to the local car wash and splurges on the Super-Duper $8.00 double-whammy washy-waxy-super-protectant with ionized double-dip spotless secret water. Of course, these are also the guys that have sheets of clear-coat flying off and no recognizable paint above the belt-line on a 4-year-old car.

Bottom line is - if I don't know what's being sprayed on my truck, it don't get sprayed. Doesn't necessarily make the stuff bad, but I don't know what it is.

 

I don't think it's fair to lump EVERY tunnel washer into one category... not by a long shot.

There are good, there are bad. There are QUALITY tunnel washes/chemicals and there are ULTRA cheap.

It's like anything else guys... there are good, and bad. They have a nitch in the market and serve a very legitimate purpose.

We should proably let it go at that...

 

Ya i find that hard to believe that people spend hundreds of dollars to get their cars clayed then polished and then sealed with a carnuba wax of some sort, to only have the wax stripped right off. My dad owns a full service car wash/ Detail center. i will wax my car then like a week later i will run it through the wash and just get a basic wash that consists of spraying it down with a spray gun then applying wheel cleaner. Then i will send it down and only pre soak will be applied first then when it hits the wraps, a soapy water is sprayed on to lubricate the brushes on the car. then a cheater wax is applied right before the rinse goes on, then it hits the blowers and i dry it off by hand. There is now way that my wax that i spent some time puttin on just got stripped off by that. Sorry Im just not buyin it

 

oh ya. and we use a rainbow stuff like that at our car wash and it is a Triple Coat Sealant. I belive it is made by Blue Coral, but im not sure. All i know is that it is a type of foam wax. We also use this spray on Rain-X foam. This stuff works the best. My truck is black and when i put this stuff on it gives it such a deep shine, and it smells great.

 

Aside from the debate of laser washes vs wax...that's a horrible idea to wash it THEN drive home to dry it off. Not sure how far you are from the wash, but just a little dirt from the ride home and then a drying implement to spread it around the truck can create horrible results. Dry it before driving it.

 

I know what ur saying, but I'm only 2 blocks away from the wash, not even a 2 min drive on a side street, so I'm okay on that part.