Car wash
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the automobile cleaning facilities. For other uses see Car Wash
A car wash is a facility used to clean the exterior, and sometimes the interior, of automobiles. While there are many different types of car washes, most fall into three main groups: Self-Service Facilities that are generally coin-operated, In-Bay Automatics consist of an automatic machine that rolls back and forth over a stationary vehicle while washing it, and Conveyors which, with the vehicle in neutral, push or pull the vehicle through a series of fixed cleaning mechanisms.
Mechanized car washes, especially those with brushes, were once avoided by some meticulous car owners because of the risk of damaging the finish. This perception of vehicle damage was the motivation behind the rise of the touch-free car wash facility. Touch-free car washing however, proved to be an extremely difficult endeavor. With many types of touch-free machines, extremely harsh and even dangerous chemicals are used in order to get a vehicle clean. Many of these chemicals have the potential to cause more damage than the brush type washes they replaced. Today, buffered chemicals, improved hydro-dynamic cleaning systems and modern foam based materials for friction washes have greatly reduced the chance of vehicle damage in car wash facilities.
In a modern car wash facility, whether conveyorized, in-bay automatic or self-serve, soaps and other chemicals used are based on milder acids and alkalies designed to loosen and eliminate dirt and grime. This is in constrast to earlier times, when hydrofluoric acid, a hazardous chemical, was the most common cleaning agent used in the industry. Today, there is a strong move in the industry to shift to safer products and rely more on friction to clean a vehicles finish. Many car wash facilities are now required by law to treat and reuse their water, while driveway wash water simply ends up in the storm drain and eventually into rivers and lakes.
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[edit] Manual car washes
The simplest type of car wash is a coin-operated or token-operated self-service system. The vehicle is parked inside a large bay that is equipped with a soap/water sprayer and a scrub brush. When customers insert coins or tokens into the controller, they can choose to have soap or water dispensed from the sprayer, or to scrub the vehicle with the brush. The number of coins or tokens inserted determines the amount of time customers have to operate the equipment, however in most instances, a minimum number of coins are necessary to start the equipment. These facilities are often equipped with separate vacuum stations that allow customers to clean the upholstery and rugs inside their cars.
[edit] Automatic car washes
Mechanized car washes consist of tunnel-like bays that customers drive their cars into. Drivers remain inside the parked car while machinery inside the bay alternately sprays water, soap, and sometimes wax on the vehicle. This style of equipment is referred to as an "in-bay automatic". Some car washes guide the vehicle onto a track (known in the industry as a "conveyor") and then shift the transmission into neutral. The vehicle is then pushed or pulled past stationary cleaning machines. While soap is being sprayed on the vehicle, rotating brushes and sometimes hanging strips (from a device known as a "Mitter") clean the dirt from the vehicle through friction. Both conveyorized car washes and in-bay automatic car washes may provide an "underbody wash" in which streams of water are directed at the bottom of the car from below. This removes mud and harmful salt residue. Often wax is applied during this process, which can provide some protection and helps with the drying process.
Old-style automatic washes used rotating brushes with soft nylon bristles, but these tended to put faint scratches in the vehicle's paint. Some brushes are made of soft felt, but these can pick up dirt and debris over time, which tends to cause scratches. The most current technology is a foam based brush (called a "Wrap"),which is resistant to this when properly lubricated with water, one such product is Ryko's Foambrite material used on some of their rollover and conveyor car wash systems. In order to avoid scratching issues, "touchless" or "no-touch" car washes were developed. They use high pressure water and strong chemical detergents (higher or lower on the pH scale), particularly hydrofluoric acid, a very dangerous acid, to clean the car. [1] If a car is heavily dirty, the car will never be fully cleaned with a touchless car wash. It is very similar to washing your hands, but never scrubbing them together.
At "full-service" car washes, the exterior of the car is washed mechanically with conveyorized equipment, but attendants are available to dry the car manually, clean any spots the equipment has missed, and to clean the interior.
For areas where water conservation has been implemented, it may not be possible to wash the car with water, and hence a method of washing the car without water (or dry wash) has become popular.
The first automatic car washes appeared in the mid 1950s.
[edit] Bikini car wash
Bikini car wash is a Summer tradition in the United States, and increasingly in Canada. There are two main kinds of bikini car wash.
The first one is generally a fund raiser for a school, a sport association or any other youth organization or charity. Typically, some pretty college/high school girls in bikinis attract donors by standing on a roadside with colorful cardboard signs, and the cars are washed by their male and female classmates in a nearby parking lot.
The second one is a commercial bikini car wash, where bikini clad girls actually wash the cars for a fee and the entertainment of the drivers. Hooters restaurants usually have bikini car washes in the summer to attract customers.
There are frequent references to bikini car wash in pop culture, for instance in the movie The Bikini Carwash Company or in the Jessica Simpson music video These Boots Are Made for Walkin'.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Car Washes at howstuffworks
- International Carwash Association
- Learn about Car Wash Operations, Management and Investing
