How Many Gallons Per Car

T

the_GUNN_man

New member
I was just wondering from the car lot guys who do only a DI or RO rinse how much water you use per car? People who don't use DI or RO water probably don't pay attention since their water doesn't really cost them anything. The car lots in my town only want the spot free rinse.
 
It all depends, but about 3-5 gallons of water per car.

Scott Stone
 
This is a very old thread but I use 4 gallons per car. It doesn't seem to matter if its a 4gpm machine or a 8gpm machine. The only difference with the 8gpm pressure washer is I can go twice as fast with the same results.
 
I would agree 3-5 gpm is about right. That 8 gpm has to be wearing you out, going in and out of all those cars... whew makes me tired just thinking about it.
 
Yeah, we ran faster with the 8gpm. Last lot we washed, we split the 8gpm to two guns. We found 4gpm applys water at a rate we could move around a car.
Also, when spraying 8gpm with a trigger gun and now wand, you get some goofy looking popeye forearms!
 
If you guys are using 3-5 gallons per car then there is something wrong. You must be spending way to much time per car. You sould do a car in 30 seconds 1.5-2 gallons per car. Your dryer will pick up anything that is left. We wash cars all day every day. 100 cars per hour is avg. If yours spending more time on a car then that you are wasting money. Don;t get me wrong yes we do spend a few mins on cars that have a lot of bird droppings on them, but 30 seconds per car is avg
 
I live in a valley. The cars tend to have more dirt, pollen, and sawdust on them than i am sure most others have to deal with. I used to do one car lot that would actually have road grime on the cars after 2 days of not being washed. This lot couldn't be hand dried because you would just make a mess out of all the road grime. We usually don't dry. I use either a r/o system or di.
 
I agree with the bear. if you did a car around here in 30 seconds it would be half done and look like shit. I never touch a car only my water. Im a pressure washer not a chamois boy. I can run with the best of them and can do 60 cars anhour including moving my truck and tugging on my hose. I use that to calculate my gallons per car. have you ever seen a half assed car wash that has been dried it looks like wiped crap.
 
Most of the lots we do we do twice a week. We hand wash every car in the beginning and rinse and dry from that point. Oklahoma is much different then most other states our summers are hot and dry not to much humidity to help the dirt bake on the car when the sun comes up.

Just using water won't work around here the wind blows to hard we have to dry the cars or the dirt will settle in the water drops. You might not have that problem. But what works for us might not work for everyone else. But we have developed a system that allows us to work more efficient with the results in a car being washed on avg every 30 seconds. Seperating us from our competition.

We have developed a business model that has moved us into the 2nd largest company washing dealerships. Which the largest company washes roughly 2000 more cars then us per month. We will take over the number 1 slot by early spring. ( Locally Oklahoma Metro ).
 
There are a few locations here that require drying for the same reason also.
 
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