Car washes?

[jeromedawg]

Hey all,

We just moved to a new apartment complex and there are no hookups/spigots available for washing down stuff or washing cars :(

Any suggestions/ideas? There is an $8 Costco Car wash (drive-thru) not too far - I've heard of ppls cars getting damaged (probably dirty brushed) going through that... although I haven't experienced anything like that going through any drive-thru car wash that's a pretty disturbing though. I also heard about an app called "Everwash" where you can pay $14/mo for unlimited car washes at a partner location (usually a gas station drive-thru wash) from their list. Supposedly this is one car per membership but a caveat I just read with the app is that you can switch vehicle information ONCE per month. Which means the first half of the month you can get as many car washes as you want on one car, then switch vehicle info and bring the other car in the latter half of the month lol. Has anyone tried this service?

Otherwise, I'd think the self-service washes (where you pull in and put coins to operate the sprayer/hose) would be another option.

Unfortunately, we don't have any family or close friends in the immediate area where I would feel comfortable asking to wash our cars in front of their homes hahahaha

[ixtap]

This may sound like blasphemy, but you live in SoCal, unless you are right on the beach, cleaning the outside of your car isn't a maintenance issue. Clean it once every few months and give it a high quality hand waxing.

Also, look at their water recapture (this is why you aren't supposed to be washing your car at home, even if you do have a hose). Some are better than others.

[jeromedawg]

This may sound like blasphemy, but you live in SoCal, unless you are right on the beach, cleaning the outside of your car isn't a maintenance issue. Clean it once every few months and give it a high quality hand waxing.

Also, look at their water recapture (this is why you aren't supposed to be washing your car at home, even if you do have a hose). Some are better than others.

Haha, we don't even clean our cars once every few months! There's a self-serve wash down the street so I'll likely just do that. Never knew about water recapture but the # of times we washed our cars in a year probably would have zero impact on that LOL. Of course, our cars were mostly parked inside the garage, and since I'm WFH and my wife is SAHM, there was much less justification/necessity to wash our cars. Now that we're parking our cars outside all the time, between the dust and bird crap, there's definitely a bit more justification to get them washed and waxed even on a semi-regular basis.

[Simpli-Fi]

do you have a washer on the ground floor?  run a hose out the door...I've seen people do that where I used to live

[Ecky]

When I lived in an apartment, I used the two bucket method. I'd typically wash around every 2 months or so.

Lately I've been busy with other things, so the cars get washed a couple of times in winter to knock the salt off, but are otherwise just let to get dusty. It isn't like anyone is looking but me, anyway.

[jeromedawg]

do you have a washer on the ground floor?  run a hose out the door...I've seen people do that where I used to live

We do have a washing machine in our unit but it's on the 2nd floor - that's a great idea! Although, I'm 99.9% sure I'd get chewed out or reprimanded if the maintenance guys/office staff drove by and caught me in the act - our unit is facing a main straightaway in the community so lots of pass-thru traffic. It would look pretty bad having a long hose coming out our door, down the stair case, and me hosing down my cars while a bunch of people are driving by (when nobody else in the community is doing anything like this hahaha). That said, I have a couple 50' hoses I could couple up and probably try it out.

When I lived in an apartment, I used the two bucket method. I'd typically wash around every 2 months or so.

Lately I've been busy with other things, so the cars get washed a couple of times in winter to knock the salt off, but are otherwise just let to get dusty. It isn't like anyone is looking but me, anyway.

Good idea - maybe we'll just do this. I have a few buckets where I totally could pull it off. Just need to pick up some new sponges/mitts and squeegees.

[ChickenStash]

I used to use rinseless wash products when I lived in an apartment - Optimum No Rinse Wash and Wax was a personal favorite. They're meant for low water consumption areas but also handy for those situations where it's just inconvenient to use a hose. Nowadays I have access to a hose from the house but I still use the rinseless wash in early winter through spring so I don't have to deal with the turning the outside faucet on.