How to Wash Your Car and Still Save Water

Super Terry blog save water while washing your car | Pittsburgh

How to Wash Your Car and Still Save Water

It’s the season of mud. There’s also leaves, petals and pollen from the blossoming trees in the air. The world is currently full of things that want to stick to the outside of your car. Let’s wash it all while allowing you to still save water! Keep reading for a few tips.

You Can Save Money and Water

Washing your car at home as opposed to a professional car wash is cheaper, but you can waste a lot of water if you’re not careful. In fact, you can use up to 100 gallons of water with just a 10 minute car wash. That can be particularly damaging in times of drought, and gets really expensive when that utility bill comes.

Using the Right Hose Nozzle

The quickest way to waste water is just letting the hose run. Of course no one wants to go back and forth to the house turning it on and off either. To save water, make sure to use an automatic shut off nozzle. This allows you to regulate your water flow to just when you need it. You can spray down your car and keep the hose off while you scrub. It also enables you to increase and decrease pressure. These can be found at most home and garden stores as well as department stores. They can be relatively inexpensive as well, making it a cheap and easy way to reduce your water use.

Spray water only when you need it, and only on one section of car at a time. This way you can wash, rinse and dry each section individually. You don’t want the soap spray to dry before you scrub it, causing you to wet it down again. Plus, you don’t want the water to dry and leave spots on your clean car.

Save Water by Using a Bucket Instead of a Hose

If you don’t have an automatic shut off hose and want to wash your care right away, try using a bucket instead of an open hose. Only put between one and two gallons of water in each bucket. Have one bucket for soapy water and one for clear water, that will help prevent you from changing out the water over and over again.

Use the bucket and a sponge to wash your car in sections, and only empty out the water after it gets dirty. You’ll go through fewer buckets then you might expect with this approach and your car will get just as clean.