Washing cars. Garden hose v pressure washer?

PunkRoquefort

I have always washed my cars with my garden hose, with an adjustable spray nozzle or gun and also taken them to a local hand car wash company.

Is there a major benefit to using a pressure washer over a hose and do you use a hose?

Also, with my previous cars, I have simply topped the well up with plain water, rather than screen wash. Am I at risk of damaging anything?

WellKnownSid

Washer bottle can freeze and split in cold weather using just plain water - and some can be super awkward to replace.

400ixl

Garden hose will not remove enough dirt than when you start washing it you aren't just spreading the remaining dirt and scratching the paint work.

Really depends on how much you care about your car. If you don't care about the paint and swirl marks then carry on as you are, its been working for you. If you do then there is a whole world of detailing out there to make your head spin.

Mildly_Miffed

WellKnownSid said:

Washer bottle can freeze and split in cold weather using just plain water - and some can be super awkward to replace.

I've had a lot of frozen washer bottles (and even more jets and pipes) from inadequate screenwash mixes... but never ever split a bottle.

Even if it was brim-full, it'd just pop the cap off the top.
Anyway, most pumps are push-fit into the bottle, so would pop out before the bottle deformed, let alone split.

QrizB

Mildly_Miffed said:

WellKnownSid said:

Washer bottle can freeze and split in cold weather using just plain water - and some can be super awkward to replace.

I've had a lot of frozen washer bottles (and even more jets and pipes) from inadequate screenwash mixes... but never ever split a bottle.

I had a split screen wash bottle, once. And a couple of split hoses, one of which cost me £25 when my garage helpfully fixed it when my car was in for a service!

WellKnownSid

Mildly_Miffed said:

WellKnownSid said:

Washer bottle can freeze and split in cold weather using just plain water - and some can be super awkward to replace.

I've had a lot of frozen washer bottles (and even more jets and pipes) from inadequate screenwash mixes... but never ever split a bottle.

Even if it was brim-full, it'd just pop the cap off the top.
Anyway, most pumps are push-fit into the bottle, so would pop out before the bottle deformed, let alone split.

Had it split on a Mondeo 30 years ago - probably very unlucky and it was a bumper off job if I recall.

facade

Modern "paint" is such low quality that a pressure washer will easily remove it. Doubly true if the car has had any paintwork done.

I do get the pressure washer out, but only to dispense the Magic Fluid- in this case snowfoam from the snowfoam lance.

Then I scuff the snowfoam in with a gritty sponge as directed, and switch to just the hosepipe to rinse.

I suspect that the people who reckon that snowfoam magically lifts the dirt off prior to washing don't actually let their car get dirty before they wash it.

A good tip is to have a bucket of plain water as well as the one with your shampoo in, and keep rinsing the sponge out in the clean water rather than dipping it straight back into the shampoo bucket.

Lorian

Notwithstanding the issue if freezing you can get bacterial growth in the water if it dies not have screenwash in it, I've seen it or more noticeably smelt it. Not pleasant.

Northern_Wanderer

I used my pressure washer once a very long time ago, noticed some paint got taken off along an edge, never again, rather go to jet wash which isn't quite so powerful.

400ixl

facade said:

Modern "paint" is such low quality that a pressure washer will easily remove it. Doubly true if the car has had any paintwork done.

I do get the pressure washer out, but only to dispense the Magic Fluid- in this case snowfoam from the snowfoam lance.

Then I scuff the snowfoam in with a gritty sponge as directed, and switch to just the hosepipe to rinse.

I suspect that the people who reckon that snowfoam magically lifts the dirt off prior to washing don't actually let their car get dirty before they wash it.

A good tip is to have a bucket of plain water as well as the one with your shampoo in, and keep rinsing the sponge out in the clean water rather than dipping it straight back into the shampoo bucket.

You would have to be using a very high power pressure washer (industrial not retail) and at about a cm away to do take paintwork off of a modern car unless there was a fault with the paint in the first place.

Two bucket method is a bit old school now. And most people use sponges that are not suitable (e.g. the yellow ones from Halfords) as well when do as much damage as the grit in the first place.

Use a pre-wash, snow foam (don't put a sponge on snow foam) and then a rinseless wash with a proper sponge if you want to do a decent job.

400ixl

Northern_Wanderer said:

I used my pressure washer once a very long time ago, noticed some paint got taken off along an edge, never again, rather go to jet wash which isn't quite so powerful.

A jet wash is as powerful, if not more than most retail ones. If you damaged paint with a how jet wash then the problem was likely with the paint already or you were using it too closely and it would have happened at a jet wash as well.

The local jet was brushes also have more dirt and sand in them than your local beach. The are worse in many ways that your local polish wash and scratch.