[blackasta]

Originally Posted by veyron_head

But when I clean my car I use exactly 1 liter of water!

Originally Posted by prithm

I read your comment at least 4 times before writing this. Don't get me wrong, but I really am lost in cloud of assumptions.

Can you please elucidate how you are able to clean your car with 1 Ltr of water ? Leave the degree of dust aside.

For my benefit and fellows here, kindly give us more details of this process.

For a full wash, ideally you should have a flowing supply of water from a tap. Full wash is required in / after / during monsoon - no second thoughts about the same.

For a rinseless wash, commonly termed as a 2 bucket wash, you should have 2 bucketful of water - one having shampoo and one clear water. Ideally both the buckets should have grit guards. Rinseless was works for minor splashes, maybe in a dry season when you have driven through patches of water to leave splash marks. Do not try this on a very dirty car, you would achieve nothing other than messing up your paint.

For a waterless wash, a liter (or two, maybe three) is enough, because you use it as a quick detailer to spray panels and then wipe them down. Try and dust the car before attempting this. Ideal for dry seasons in places which have less amount of dust / smoke.

[prithm]

Originally Posted by veyron_head

Not sure if you are being sarcastic, but I am not faking it I use 3M car wash shampoo in a 1 ltr foam gun. Step 1 is to dust the car thoroughly with Jopasu. It takes some effort to do a thorough job but at the end its some 65% of work done. Now its only the muddy parts that Jopasu cant clean. I spray the foam-like liquid all over the car. And wipe it clean. Some areas that are too dirty may need some more cleaning. But sometimes I dont even get to exhaust the 1 ltr that I have in the gun!

You got me all wrong. I did not doubt you or your process, but rather was assuming several things (like using a underdog product which has better potential and which we are not aware of etc.) in my mind and needed clarity. Kindly don't mind my grammar.

So, if I understand your process.

1. You Jopasu dust your car.
2. You fill your foam bottle with 1 Ltr of water, 5 mL of 3M soap solution.
3. Use pressure washer to spray it across all panels until body is covered with foam.
4. Take microfibre cloth and wipe foam off entire body.

So, there is no rinsing with fresh water. Just wipe the foam off.

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by blackasta

For a rinseless wash, commonly termed as a 2 bucket wash, you should have 2 bucketful of water - one having shampoo and one clear water.

For me, it is one bucket daily, no shampoo, not real fresh water but from our STP plant. Ideally complete water recycling theory. Daily cleaning helps to avoid real heavy cleaning.

[mchandra13]

I park my car besides a tree and dont use it that often as I use the office provided transport for the best part of the week. Now parking next to trees have their own issues with all the dry leaves and particles, not to mention the bird droppings. I live in an area where it doesnt gather much dust but the bird droppings and tree droppings make the car look very dirty and sometimes if not cleaned sooner, they stick and become very difficult to remove later. I used to have neighborhood student who used to do part time cleaning till a month ago. He used 2 small buckets per cleaning and does it twice a week. Now that he is gone, I have been looking for a new guy for once in a week cleaning.

But after going through this thread, I am having second thoughts about hiring a new guy. Given my situation, I just wanted to check with the folks in the forum on effective ways of removing hard stuck marks of bird droppings(of course with as little water as possible) and taking it a little further, is there a way of scaring the birds away from dropping on the car.

[ajayclicks]

Originally Posted by veyron_head

5 ml of 3M solution in a gun that holds 1 liter of water. I first dust off the car with jopasu and then spray the solution and clean the car with a cloth.

Can you post more details about this gun? Does it need electricity? or can we use one of those agricultural sprays at roadside nurseries- those 1 or 2 liter bottles with a pump at the top to create pressure.

[Sridhar K]

Originally Posted by mchandra13

Given my situation, I just wanted to check with the folks in the forum on effective ways of removing hard stuck marks of bird droppings(of course with as little water as possible) and taking it a little further, is there a way of scaring the birds away from dropping on the car.

Buy some rinseless wash concentrate. The other option is Amway LoC. Take a empty colin bottle or a spray can, 5 ml of these solution and rest with RO water. Spray on the bird poo and allow it for 2 minutes. With a wet microfibre cloth, mildly wipe (very light wipe) , the bird poo will come off with no major effort. I do it all the time.

For pure cleaning power Proklear RaW is very good. if you need some shine on your car + cleaning, Proklear Raw CX is a good VFM alternative. Costlier and premium options like Optimum no rinse (ONR) or Ultima Waterless wash (UWW) are also available. The other option is to use Amway LoC. Have tried all and sticking to Proklear Raw CX for general cleaning and Proklear Raw where I just need the cleaning power.

[ashokrajagopal]

Originally Posted by mchandra13

I park my car besides a tree and dont use it that often as I use the office provided transport for the best part of the week. Now parking next to trees have their own issues with all the dry leaves and particles, not to mention the bird droppings. I live in an area where it doesnt gather much dust but the bird droppings and tree droppings make the car look very dirty and sometimes if not cleaned sooner, they stick and become very difficult to remove later. I used to have neighborhood student who used to do part time cleaning till a month ago. He used 2 small buckets per cleaning and does it twice a week. Now that he is gone, I have been looking for a new guy for once in a week cleaning.

But after going through this thread, I am having second thoughts about hiring a new guy. Given my situation, I just wanted to check with the folks in the forum on effective ways of removing hard stuck marks of bird droppings(of course with as little water as possible) and taking it a little further, is there a way of scaring the birds away from dropping on the car.

My parking lot is open, and under a tree, and bird droppings are a problem for me too.
Car used only in weekend.
I use an all weather cover from TPH Covers (no particular preference to this brand) for 1.5 years now. Pretty okay.
I use waterless wash once in about 4 weeks ie. 1 litre water and 2 microfibre clothes.

In my opinion, everybody should think about buying a good car cover. It takes about 3 minutes to put on and off and saves a lot of dust accumulating.
Especially for open air parking.

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by ashokrajagopal

In my opinion, everybody should think about buying a good car cover. It takes about 3 minutes to put on and off and saves a lot of dust accumulating.
Especially for open air parking.

The biggest problem with car cover is rats! I have one open parking and my tiny Kwid gets awfully dirty. I used cover for about week, rats ended up cutting horn wire. Now I drive a dirty car and wash it almost once in 2 week with max 1 bucket of water.

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

The biggest problem with car cover is rats! I have one open parking and my tiny Kwid gets awfully dirty. I used cover for about week, rats ended up cutting horn wire. Now I drive a dirty car and wash it almost once in 2 week with max 1 bucket of water.

To wipe off the accumalated dust, you can alternatively use a good branded duster.

Though off topic, rats are a menace in many locations. I would suggest that you go through this thread with feedbacks by the rat-affected car owners. Tobacco leaves are a good deterrent :

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...-car-rats.html

[vinodvayyat]

Originally Posted by avisidhu

Although it must also be said that most car wash guys don't use 30-40 liters per car, they probably would wash 5 cars with that much water on an average day. My point being, if I stop using the daily car wash and rather take my car for a proper wash twice a month, am I really saving any water? For a large number of people, this issue needs to be understood at a deeper level in order to have any meaningful impact.

I have a different opinion here. I have stayed in about 4-5 residential areas in Bangalore and observed this same thing everywhere - the car washing chotus/bhais have this general tendency to splash 1-2 cups of water on each tyre of the cars - just to convince the owners that their car is washed!!! Wouldn't that summed together be more than 20 liters of water per 2-3 days?

Two funny incidents that happened to which I was a witness:

• A car owner scolded our security bhai (cum car washing guy) because the tyres weren't wet and asked him never to repeat it!
• One of my neighbour's car washing guy was telling his friend who accompanied him that he is busy and no time to wash. But he came with half bucket of water and splashed it on all the tyres. They both laughed their heart out while they ran out.

So I don't buy this fact that the chotus/bhais are an efficient lot and save a lot of water available. They use water as they wish provided the fact that there is a tap with running water available . I would rather trust my Bosch pressure washer to save water when I wash my car once or twice (rarely) a month - my one car wash session won't use more than 20-30 liters of water.

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by vinodvayyat

• A car owner scolded our security bhai (cum car washing guy) because the tyres weren't wet and asked him never to repeat it!
• One of my neighbour's car washing guy was telling his friend who accompanied him that he is busy and no time to wash. But he came with half bucket of water and splashed it on all the tyres. They both laughed their heart out while they ran out.

I was told exactly the opposite at a service center, not to put unnecessary water on front disks. They tend to get rusted if car does not move for a while. Infact I had to get the front disks of my Santro replaced during last service (reasons being plenty but this could be one of them). Surely tyres are not parts of car that always need a wash . Another technique used by these cleaners is to keep the wipers lifted as an indication, your car is attended. In any case one glance will tell if car is cleaned or not.

[mchandra13]

Originally Posted by Sridhar K

Buy some rinseless wash concentrate. The other option is Amway LoC. Take a empty colin bottle or a spray can, 5 ml of these solution and rest with RO water. Spray on the bird poo and allow it for 2 minutes. With a wet microfibre cloth, mildly wipe (very light wipe) , the bird poo will come off with no major effort. I do it all the time.

For pure cleaning power Proklear RaW is very good. if you need some shine on your car + cleaning, Proklear Raw CX is a good VFM alternative. Costlier and premium options like Optimum no rinse (ONR) or Ultima Waterless wash (UWW) are also available. The other option is to use Amway LoC. Have tried all and sticking to Proklear Raw CX for general cleaning and Proklear Raw where I just need the cleaning power.

Thanks. I have ordered a Proklear Raw CX on Amazon. Will try and see. With self cleaning the only problem I faced is with tall boy cars or SUVs, where its a little difficult to reach all parts of the top of the car effectively. This is where I feel the local service centers come handy once in while

Originally Posted by ashokrajagopal

My parking lot is open, and under a tree, and bird droppings are a problem for me too.
Car used only in weekend.
I use an all weather cover from TPH Covers (no particular preference to this brand) for 1.5 years now. Pretty okay.
I use waterless wash once in about 4 weeks ie. 1 litre water and 2 microfibre clothes.

In my opinion, everybody should think about buying a good car cover. It takes about 3 minutes to put on and off and saves a lot of dust accumulating.
Especially for open air parking.

I have tried car covers with my previous cars. The issues I noticed are
1. As others have mentioned, rats are a problem in most parts of Blr
2. When it rains, it becomes messy. The water somehow seeps in beneath the cover and leaves dirt marks on the car which needs additional cleaning when we remove the cover. I would rather leave the car without cover and let it have natural bath from rain
3. The covers in their as-is forms cant withstand the winds(atleast the ones I have tried so far). So we have to tie the knots connecting the ends by an extended string most of the time.

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

To wipe off the accumalated dust, you can alternatively use a good branded duster.

Though off topic, rats are a menace in many locations. I would suggest that you go through this thread with feedbacks by the rat-affected car owners. Tobacco leaves are a good deterrent :

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...-car-rats.html

I use Jopasu duster to clean my Crysta which is parked inside. The car parked outside cannot be cleaned with a duster. The car gets awfully dirty, thanks to trees, Bangalore drizzle, birds etc. I think I need to use cover and come up with a solution for Rat menace.

[vinodvayyat]

Originally Posted by rajivtelang

Another technique used by these cleaners is to keep the wipers lifted as an indication, your car is attended. In any case one glance will tell if car is cleaned or not.

Hilarious. Anyways, I don't give to these guys to wash my car. Would rather spend that money monthly in the nearby car washing station and they charge 300/- for my SUV's external body foam wash.

[lurker]

pressure washing at times can be inevitable, but water consumption can be reduced significantly if:

1. you position the hose and wires in such a way that in one sweeping continuous movement your pressure washer can clean all around the car. You don't have to stop and reposition the hoses and cables to clean the other side. And initial cleaning is swift, quick and effective.

2. using a blower to remove standing water. Saves energy on mopping up water residue with microfibre towels.

3. use wash&wax, ONR and other convenient products that use less water.

4. try to get ceramic coating done as this will repel dust and dirt easily for atleast 6 months. And then even 2 mugs of water and microfibre can maintain your car looks for 6 months.