[sudeepg]

12000 for that Kit?

That is ridiculous if the kit includes what is in that pic. If you purchase them separately, it should come cheaper! As Parag said, this works well when the body is not heavily soiled. For heavily soiled body panels like the underbody and running board, there is really no good alternative other than using water with compressed air. The other thing is that the cleaning folks at service stations will start from the top, move to close to the underbody, carry all the dirt in the towel to other areas. Nice easy way to get swirl marks all over in one wash.

I am not at all convinced with this, but we have no choice!

But then how about this?

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...ing-paint.html

[Leoshashi]

Originally Posted by sudeepg

12000 for that Kit?

That is ridiculous if the kit includes what is in that pic.

I have asked my MGP store for a demo. They told me currently these kits are coming only for distribution to dealerships and MASS. Later the kits will be available for common public to purchase. From what I know, the kit alone won't be sufficient, it also needs a source of compressed air.

Parag Sir and others who have seen this process can kindly confirm.

If you purchase them separately, it should come cheaper! As Parag said, this works well when the body is not heavily soiled. For heavily soiled body panels like the underbody and running board, there is really no good alternative other than using water with compressed air.

This waterless wash is good enough only for dirty cars which come from yard/transit. They don't have mud, only superficial dust, and this can be handy.

For other cars, underbody will require a hose down for proper cleaning.

Regards,
Shashi

[sudeepg]

Originally Posted by Leoshashi

Later the kits will be available for common public to purchase. From what I know, the kit alone won't be sufficient, it also needs a source of compressed air.

Thank you for the information. For 9000 bucks, we can get a decent BOSCH pressure washer and use it ourselves for pressure washing. It also uses less water. I for sure will never buy it for that price and as you said, what's the point without an air compressor?

I've never been satisfied with the end result of water washing at MASS. Further, the interiors are coated with some oil like thingy for the shine. It smell awful as well. I usually ask them not to clean the interiors and maintain it myself. Once a year, the car hits 3M for GermKleen treatment. That keeps it fresh and nice with regular cleaning.

Anyone considering purchasing that kit for 12000 bucks, I'd say its better to invest in some good detailing. A sealant applied will greatly help protect paint and keep a lot of dirt away from the paint surface.

[navrddy]

Hi All,

Recently for my service for Wagon R @ Suraksha E.City, They had done waterless Wash. End result: is Pathetic, is only good for covering Door Panels, Bonnet , Roof etc.

But for underbody, they are not even bothered to touch it - some lame excuse saying that now BBMP has made it mandatory now not to use water.

Worst part is mud-guard area's and wheel wells. They are not even bothered to wipe it with cloth. . End result - vehicle looks dirty when somebody looks at the wheels.

[anand.shankar]

An app based startup used to do this at door step, but the results were quite lousy! Couple of times, car looked messy and I ended up washing and waxing after their pathetic attempt at cleaning it.

It could have been a workmanship issue in my case, anyways some water saved at the end of the day!

May be they could do this selectively for cars which aren't too dirty.

[dark.knight]

This is from personal experience, if the quality of paint is important then there is no such thing as a great waterless wash - it'll almost always leave very, very minute swirls on the panels, I'm talking of personal experience.

Man seems to always go extremes > fuels are harmful? Fine lets all jump to totally electric. Water shortage? Fine lets all cut water out of every procedure in life possible.

Now I may appear like the usual, selfish stereotype individual who wants to maximize one's own life rather than consider the weight on the ecology, rest assured I'm not. Hyundai has stated that they need 120 litres to wash one car, I'm very sure they can cut it down to about a third of that when cleaning.. all that is needed is a precision pressure-washer and a highly-trained person to regulate its movement to areas that need to be blasted for dust/grime/mud, perhaps they could consider this.

As for how I get it done via the cleaning guy, its simple.. 2 days a week and usually all it takes is about 20 litres of clean water (20 might seem like a lot but its 3/4th of a normal plastic bucket), 2 microfibre towels and some technique.. its best to start from the top with the water and move down, leave some water in the bucket, dip one towel into them and then start off with the excess water removal, follow it up with full dry using the other towel. For mud I've a special hose add-on and it takes hardly a litre or two to blast the loose mud off the wheel-wells. Contrast this with another owner who has an absolutely tiny car that is washed daily with a full bucket and yet looks horrible since its washed by one of those raggy cloth, usually the thought is that it gets the job done.

Lastly remember that swirls and small scratches are part of the game, its how the car ages and that should be fine, lets not lose our heads for a mere car. Whether its stored inside a garage, or is protected by a cover or even washed with microfibre.. swirls will come and that's why cars have a thick coat of paint, a two-yearly detailing job should cure most of it. I'm sure not OCD about it anymore, I spray-wax the car myself once every two months after a thorough clean, that's about it. The need now is to indeed conserve, and water is much more of a precious resource than a lowly car, clean it and maintain it well, but do not use bucket-loads of water when its totally unnecessary, even when using hose keep a microfibre ready and move the cloth gently in the direction of water spray, that'll remove the stubborn dust and can cut-short the spray job by less than half.

Appreciate that companies are trying to cut down use of water during service, the goal should be to reduce the use drastically, not cut it out completely. I'm sure they have experts at their disposal to come up with solutions.

[sagarpadaki]

Waterless wash can never give satisfactory results for a car that has been through rain and muck. This technique will damage the paint than cleaning the muck.

Rather than waterless wash, they can adopt the rinseless wash technique which can use used on lightly mucked cars. Although it requires bit more water, it will work better on mucky surface.

Meguiars has a pretty efficient and versatile product that can be used as a waterless and rinseless wash.

http://www.meguiars.com/en/professio...-express-wash/

However, knowing how stingy and profit oriented the service centers are they would not go for such a system.

[Cooltronics]

My personal experience about prohibition of water wash in car washing centres by respective authority is a Myopic view.
On one hand, such Himalayan wastage of water is now controlled, there are bore wells in the properties adjacent to the service centres which keep sucking water from the ground and even are selling it. I am slightly digressing from the topic but I feel the following actions should be taken:

a) Metered water connection for all such service centres - Pay as you use

b) Mandatory water filtration plant - This would ensure nearly complete re-use of water as this is not really sewage water and STP is not necessarily required

c) If using bore-well, bore-well recharge using the water used should be mandatory. We have personally seen amazing difference in water levels by using RWH methods rigorously.

The problem with the agencies is strict enforcement and hence prohibition of everything is the simplest option.

[aravind.anand]

While I have never been a fan of Maruti, just because of their monopoly on our market, I am really touched by this new initiative from their side... I really, really appreciate this move from the country's largest car maker!

Water conservation and pollution control are the need of the hour, and I really hope the other car makers follow suit soon.

[Waspune]

I use proklear waterless solution to clean my car on a weekly basis and do proper 2 buckets wash on a monthly basis. I apply wax at least once a month. I feel that waterless wash is effective only for moderately dirty car and if not done right can cause swirls and scratches as well.

So I have my doubts with the OEM workshops doing waterless wash as it requires a lot of microfiber cloths, around 3-4 MFs for cleaning just one car to prove its worth. So, would the workshops have so many MF cloths? And would they ensure that they use the clean ones? Or rather would they have that much patience?

A normal pressure jet wash uses around 40-50 ltrs of water . Waterless wash uses around 400-500 ml of water. I feel the best compromise would be a steam wash that uses around 1/10th of water and is equally effective and practical.

[ACM]

1) Service Centres already have a pressure wash system. So they could tweak this to how we use the Portable Bosch system at home and use just 2 buckets of water per car. Or maybe even just 1.

2) They should use a combination of water-free Foam wash and pressurised water wash.

3) This initiative from Maruti and Hyundai will help them match the service levels of brands known for lower levels of service.

4) It may be the need of the hour in certain months but round the year usage is not very smart. (Can't they collect enough water during the monsoon at the service centres through rain water harvesting to deal with monsoon muck covered cars?

5) Good initiative but half basked thought and approach.

[AkhileshY]

Some recent development I observed in Bangalore where Tafe Skoda Service center is closed along with few more (Bimal at Bannerghatta road for example) as per a notice from pollution board related to the car wash and processing of water which has oil mixed in it. I was told the famous Belandur lake pollution is the reason behind it. This makes me think that the service centers will be forced to move towards water less wash.

[Leoshashi]

A Video about the same process:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R4ldATMOzE

Regards,
Shashi

[abijithmenon]

Originally Posted by ACM

1) Service Centres already have a pressure wash system. So they could tweak this to how we use the Portable Bosch system at home and use just 2 buckets of water per car. Or maybe even just 1.

2) They should use a combination of water-free Foam wash and pressurised water wash.

3) This initiative from Maruti and Hyundai will help them match the service levels of brands known for lower levels of service.

4) It may be the need of the hour in certain months but round the year usage is not very smart. (Can't they collect enough water during the monsoon at the service centres through rain water harvesting to deal with monsoon muck covered cars?

5) Good initiative but half basked thought and approach.

Totally agree. Like many initiatives, this seems to be a knee jerk reaction and it may even end up in increasing the usage of water as people might opt to go for a normal wash over and above the one done at the service center for a cleaner underbody.

A better option would be to classify cars that come in for wash according to the level of dirtiness and use waterless wash for the "just-dusty" car and water wash for the off road junkie. We can look to minimize wherever possible rather than a blanket. I believe REDUCE-REUSE-RECYCLE is always the apt solution in such cases.

[GTO]

@ Leoshashi - looks like you inspired a press release from Nissan. This just came in:

Nissan’s innovative car foam wash saves 6.1 million litres of water in India

• Advanced Foam Wash Technique reduces water consumption by 45%
• Water saved by Nissan is equal to the consumption of 25,000 houses

NEW DELHI, India (June 9, 2017)— Nissan in India has conserved 6.1 million litres of water over the past three years by using an innovative car wash technique. The substantial water savings were achieved thanks to Nissan’s advanced Foam Wash technique to clean cars at its service centres across India, and underlines the company’s commitment to deliver sustainable mobility to customers and society.

Car washes at service centres are a major component of after sales and servicing of customers’ vehicles which require a large amount of water. Traditional car washes generally require around 160 litres of water to clean one car. The Foam Wash technique, introduced in 2014 at Nissan service centres, uses only 90 litres of water per car which reduces water consumption by 45 percent. The amount of water saved by the company is equivalent to the water consumption of around 25,000 households in India for one day.