Car washing frowned upon by neighbor

[Who's on first]

Left coast problems.

[F83]

Originally Posted by I hate picking user names

Left coast problems.

No such problem in Seattle (yet)

[Neil McRae]

Originally Posted by chillindrdude

if what you are doing is legal, i'd tell your neighbor to fuck off and not trespass on your property.

pardon my french.

+1 irritating fcukwits.

regards,
Neil.

[Demxsr]

Most power washers don't use much water as it. Some are only 3 gallons a minute or less, and you're probably not spraying that thing for more than a few minutes total. Like some have said, an efficient wet wash can use less water than 1-2 flushes of the toilet. Then taking into account that all residential water usage in California accounts for less than 10% of total usage in the state, a car wash here and there is really a non-issue. I'm totaling in the camp that we should conserve water, but making an issue over someone who washes their car efficiently and not very frequently is an argument from ignorance.

There is a car wash (non-DIY) down my street and it's always packed with cars and I guarantee that I use a very small fraction of the water to do my car, in my own driveway, compared to what their using on any given car.

I use a CR spotless, which needs flow control, and a low flow nozzle and the car comes out perfect every time with just a few gallons of water. Soap it up, rinse it off, let it dry in the wind and sun.

[SpaceGhost]

ONR works very well and is quick and mess free. I have used it for years. Texas just came out of a long drought (5 years?) and the water restrictions are what turned me on to ONR. I will still use it even though our aquifers are fat and happy again. BTW, a few of our high end detailers here use it almost exclusively. If you have caked on mud or debris it may not be the best choice....that level of filth usually requires a bucket and hose.

[black335i]

I would of sprayed him with the Water Hose

[kdphan]

this is hilarious

I live in a complex and haven't had anyone complain yet

You should tell that whale to drink less water.

[nathanm4]

Originally Posted by chillindrdude

if what you are doing is legal, i'd tell your neighbor to fuck off and not trespass on your property.

pardon my french.

Yes!

I was not there so I don't know the situation but! One day morning I parked my car at the side of the road. There was no separation lines for cars so I just parked there(no need to purchase parking tickets/ only a green sign says:'2 hour parking'). One guy came up to me and said:"you are using two parking spaces." I looked at my car again and I was 100% sure that there was no separation lines then I said to his face with my voice up:"I don't think so!" He looked down then left the scene. Some people need to focus on their own business.

[nathanm4]

Originally Posted by kdphan

this is hilarious

I live in a complex and haven't had anyone complain yet

You should tell that whale to drink less water.

[theomega]

I generally hate managing the optics of situations like this. People judge without knowing all the facts and its miserable having to explain yourself when you might even be doing a better job.

With that said, it wouldn't hurt to do what you can to show that you are conserving and that you have put thought into it. Not so much about appeasing others as it is keeping them out of your business.

I let my lawn go brown as the most obvious visual indicator that I'm conserving, and if I'm ever confronted I'd probably ask my own set of questions as a sort of "mental flexing".

How much water have you used today? Give me some numbers. Whats the GPM on your shower head? How many minutes was your shower today? Do you take navy showers? If you took a 15 minute shower with an old shower head you've probably used 80 gallons of water in a single shower.

I use less than 10 gallons per shower, if that. Thats potentially 2000 gallons less than you or half the people on this block per month. So yah, I don't see a problem with using 10 gallons to wash my car every now and then.

[nicknaz]

Originally Posted by SpaceGhost

ONR works very well and is quick and mess free. I have used it for years. Texas just came out of a long drought (5 years?) and the water restrictions are what turned me on to ONR. I will still use it even though our aquifers are fat and happy again. BTW, a few of our high end detailers here use it almost exclusively. If you have caked on mud or debris it may not be the best choice....that level of filth usually requires a bucket and hose.

+1

I just finished using ONR on my M3 last night. Even though I am complying with SoCal laws by using bucket, I tend to wash early morning or late night to minimize the chance of issues with neighbors

I took the car through a commercial touchless wash first since I did have some mud/debris then I used 10 gallons since the car was extremely dirty, and I rinsed the car with 8 gallons of ONR mixture before using 2 gallons to rinse and dry as per the instructions on the bottle.

For a weekly touch up, I use 2-3 gallons of water

[khanyam4]

Originally Posted by Yessir

Hey everyone, I want to get your opinions on what caught me by surprise today. I'd like to know what you guys would consider "often" for washing your car.
While I was out today cleaning my car, my neighbor approaches me and politely tells me that I clean my car too much and that I should put in effort to save water like everyone else in the neighborhood and water my lawn less and stop cleaning my car. I was shocked to hear this as I didn't even notice my neighbor walk up to me. To give you guys a little back story, I live in San Francisco where I know there is a mandatory 10% water cut back. I use two bucket method to wash my car and have a pressure washer as well. I wash my car every two or three weeks.

What do you guys think? I feel like my neighbor is trying to be a little whistle blower in the area and put a little fear in me and prevent me from washing my car. I know I am not breaking any laws but the way this guy came at me was kind of a shock and he even had the nerve to say "I notice you wash your car very often" before trying to guilt trip me about using too much water. I understand that there is a drought and washing cars can waste a lot of water but I like to keep my car clean and I do my best not to use excess water while cleaning.

that's more then reasonable once every 2 or 3 week. F that fool. He's obviously mad.

[Aaaaaaaaa]

Originally Posted by nicknaz

+1

I just finished using ONR on my M3 last night. Even though I am complying with SoCal laws by using bucket, I tend to wash early morning or late night to minimize the chance of issues with neighbors

I took the car through a commercial touchless wash first since I did have some mud/debris then I used 10 gallons since the car was extremely dirty, and I rinsed the car with 8 gallons of ONR mixture before using 2 gallons to rinse and dry as per the instructions on the bottle.

For a weekly touch up, I use 2-3 gallons of water

8 gallons of ONR for a pre-soak seems really excessive and wasteful especially since you already went through a car wash. I put ONR at QD strength in a gallon sized pressure sprayer and use 32 oz at most for a presoak.