Car Wash or Hand Wash?

[CBlack0]

Hi Everyone,

I have always used car washes because I am a busy woman. A friend recently told me that she prefers hand washing because it's better for her car? We are not entirely sure which one is better, because for both methods we use car wash chemicals. The only difference is that my method involves a car wash system and hers involves her self doing the washing her car by hand and a lot of manual labour...lol. Can someone help us with this never-ending debate we keep having?

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Car Wash or Hand Wash?

Welcome to MOL!

We took out your live links because we don't allow those during a new member's initial 30 posts and, well, the brand of car wash system isn't all that important to this discussion.


Now then, about the debate you and your friend keep having..................


Plenty of people will tell you that an automatic car wash is never a good idea, and plenty more will tell you that it's always a terrible idea. In reality, however, there are actually very good automatic car wash systems on the market as well as many that can and will damage your paint pretty quickly. And for those who argue that hand washing is always better, well, that also depends on your own "system". Just as with anything in this world, there are "good" and "not so good" versions of equipment and processes.

If you insist on washing your car yourself, it is critical that you do it correctly or you're not going to be any safer than if you took the car to a poor quality automatic wash. We've seen too many people making too many major mistakes when hand washing.

The biggest problem with automatic washes isn't necessarily the wash equipment itself, but how it's maintained. Some car wash businesses are really good at keeping things clean, while others aren't. It's kind of like the guy who insists on hand washing at home because it's safer, but then he uses an old sponge and old beach towels.

When everything is said and done, however, the big question is "what are you really looking for with your paint finish?". The vast majority of the population wouldn't know a swirl mark if it bit them on the nose. To them, clean and shiny is just that - clean, as in dirt free; shiny, as in "I can see my clear reflection in the paint". They aren't going to stress over a few swirl marks and they would never even think of buffing out the car themselves. But detailing enthusiasts, like the members of this forum, will obsess over the slightest little defect in their paint. They actually prefer doing everything themselves and take pride in the results they achieve with their own skills. And their cars look better than 95% of the cars on the road. Heck, their cars look better than 90+% of the cars we see at car shows as many of those have plenty of swirls in them, and we're willing to bet none of those have ever seen the inside of an automatic car wash. The owners of those cars are just doing it wrong. Just like the owner of the automatic car wash who isn't maintaining his equipment is doing his part wrong. The big difference there? You can control how you do things at home. You can educate yourself and improve your technique. You can't tell the guy who owns the automatic car wash how to run his business, and it can be hard to seek out one that is doing it right.