Which is greener: commercial car washes or at-home car washing?

I rarely do a whole car wash.  I tend to wash sections (the front is infinitely dirtier than the back).  Wash in the shade.  Use elbow grease instead of spraying off debris.  Ensure your car is properly maintained so you aren't leaking oil on your driveway.
I view this the same way I view most activities.  If you are willing to put in a little more effort you can be infinitely more conservative with resources.  I simply can't fathom using 80-140 gallons of water.
It also helps to have a smaller vehicle!  :)

I always use a waterless car wash product these days - something the Huddle introduced me to, as a matter of fact.  It takes a bit more effort than just sudsing up and spraying off the car, but not a lot more, and saves buckets of water (literally).  My personal favorite is Eco Touch.  Just spray the stuff on, wipe it off, and a single bottle lasts for about a half dozen car washes.

 

In my town, there's a flat rate for water use (as opposed to water meters).  I've noticed that this leads to a ton of wasted water.  I've walked past homes where people have left the hose running in the driveway, people washing off the sidewalks for no apparent reason, etc.  Car washing is one of the biggest water wasters I've seen.  People use so much water they fill up the gutters on the street.  Very irritating, especially in California, where drought is often a concern.

What is the town's excuse for no meters? It seems to be a real silly way to do business.

In our housing project we have a well and two water connections to each house - one softened and one not treated for garden watering.

I am placing meters in both lines to each house just to save arguements at a later date - you can be sure that at some future date some character will decide to be wasteful.  

I have no idea what the excuse is, but you're right it's a terrible way to do things.  I may look into it further.  Kind of sucks for me, because my household uses relatively very little water, yet we're paying like $35 a month for it.  Same as these people who just leave their hoses running for no reason, water their lawns constantly, etc.

Like Dana above I like waterless car washes best. Eco Touch is really good. You save water, save the chemical runoff, and save money. I'd say time is the only downside - it takes longer. Most of the waterless car wash companies say, it's quick! But it's actually more time intensive I think - that's not a total downside to me, because it's not excessive, just more time than say, using a hose, but not by tons. There are more waterless car washes popping up lately too so consumers have more options. I just got a new one to review actually.

Not to take the discussion off topic, but I contacted my city and was reminded that they did install water meters in my neighborhood a few months back.  They just haven't started using them yet, but there's a law on the books to have everyone in town on water meters by 2013, and since my neighborhood's are already installed, they should go into effect for me by 2012.  Good news, although I don't know why the implementation is so slow.

Good news Dana! I will see if I can find one of the waterless car washes to try. 

Hey, update - I recently tried Lucky Earth Waterless Car Wash, and I thought it was as good as Eco Touch. So there's one more option.

I got Eco Touch this week.  Hopefully I'll have time to try it this weekend.

I tend to drive around in a dirty car most of the time, but I have Eco Touch too!  It's really quite good I think.  I did once try to use it on my car when it was very dusty and it gunked up my microfiber towels but on light dirt, it works very well.  Good luck with it this weekend!

Like some, I tend to try to go as long as possible between washes. Then I do use a Car wash. We have one that uses Biodegradable soap, and then filters and recycles their water.

Would you guys consider a waterless car wash that uses traditional chemical formulations green?  Or do you think to be green, it should be biodegradable/natural/etc as well as waterless?

I wanted to wash my car today because it is DIRTY! My boss even told me to stop conserving water and get my car washed. I was debating about the best way to do this and then I ran into this post.

Does the waterless car wash work well with dirty cars?

Let me just say that when I review tested both Lucky Earth Waterless Car Wash and Eco Touch I hadn't washed my car in oh, about five or six months or so and both worked great. I washed one side in each - because I had to write up reviews. I'm not sure which I liked better, both worked about the same. Although, I do like that EcoTouch offers fabric care and a few other car care products that Lucky doesn't.

The only part of the car I had to use a little water on was the hub caps and they were super oily and gross.

These products will get even a very dirty car clean.

to the original poster: I think that the numbers are similar to the ones the water company gave us regarding the dishwasher, with the average dishwasher using 1/3 of the "up to" amount from the the average hand-washer, which might make once think that automatic dishwashers are far more efficient than handwashing (which I highly doubt).  Then again, the water company forgot to add in the water usage for most people hand-washing their dishes prior to the full dishwasher cycle to "sterilize" the dishes.

The point is that the numbers are like all statistics and most studies, and can be skewed in any direction.

As an experiment, we placed a 35 gallon trash bin under one of our gutters (the day the torrential rains happened to stop).  One night of mild rain filled the can; we have at least 4 other gutters coming off of the roof.  This water is for rinsing our hands, watering the plants, and now that I've read this post, washing the car.  Eventually, we would like to make a proper and raised "waterbutt/barrel" with a spigot from which to attach a hose; we did add a non-toxic mosquito repellent to the tub to prevent mosquito eggs from flourishing.

In the past I've washed the car with a bucket of soapy water and/or a fertilizer-type sprayer with biodegradable soap. Once we get the spigot attached to the waterbutt, I will check how much water I actually use to wash and rinse the car, and report back.

I don't drive, as I don't have a license, but I have studied enough environmental science to say this; Regardless of how well you maintain the car, oil and other chemicals will stick to it when you drive. When you wash it all these nasty stuff get into the streets gullies (is this the right word? English is my third language...), and in the end it will reach the nature, potentially damaging the ecosystem of lakes and rivers. Or, alternatively, it ends up in a sewage treatment plant were oil and chemicals hurt the bacteria culture that break down the sewage...

 

A car wash with an oil filter, were you can clean your car yourself is the best way to do it... But any place were there is a working oil filter is good, and "green" products does help a great deal.

 

Fredrik

I am a sales rep. for Croftgateusa.  We are an earth friendly car care company.  Aquanil-X

will wash and wax a car without using any water. Multi-Clean is approved by US as a safer chemisty. It will remove bird dropping, tar and so much more. I even use it to clean my kitchen floor and stove top.

 

With a waterless car wash product there is no run off of chemicals down the sewer. Saves our water. Check out website www.croftgateusa.com for more information and to watch cars being cleaned by our products.

 

Beth DeVito at BethCroftgateusa@aol.com Picture is old.

 

Try our products.

I use Optimums No Rinse Wash and Shine. When possible, wash your car with an eco friendly product on your front lawn!