Eco friendly waterless car wash products/services

[Ceilidh]

ONR is fantastic IMHO.

I have not had issues with scratches. I also think that if you properly seal your paint job when you have a new car, then any fine scratches can be into the sealant (thus easily fixed) rather than the true clearcoat or paint itself. I personally would recommend Klasse sealant layered a bunch of times (relatively easy to find) or Liquid Glass (next to impossible to find, must jump through hoops to get it to California due to CARB restrictions) which I like better. If you layer them a bunch of times when you first get your car and think of them as a paint protection scheme rather than a wax replacement when you later wash with ONR any fine swirls will be in the sealant and come right off the next time you seal it 6-12 months later depending on your taste.

I have never had issues using this sequence. As a side note, if you are inclined to use an outdoor car cover when you leave the car outside to charge for a bunch of days in bad weather, a concern frequently brought up is trapping road grit/grime under the cover and then the wind grinding it into the paint while the cover is over it. IF you follow this sealant process and carry a Kozak dry wash cloth in your car, you can use the Kozak with no water at all to wipe the grime off THEN put the cover on and remove the concern... thus protecting your paint, if you are anal like that. I sometimes resemble that comment

Hope that helps some. Just MHO.

I will second the opinion that if you are going to use ONR, you will need a crap ton of microfiber cloths and you need to switch cloths frequently as you go around the car.

Cheers.

 

[Brian H]

ONR is fantastic IMHO.

I have not had issues with scratches. I also think that if you properly seal your paint job when you have a new car, then any fine scratches can be into the sealant (thus easily fixed) rather than the true clearcoat or paint itself. I personally would recommend Klasse sealant layered a bunch of times (relatively easy to find) or Liquid Glass (next to impossible to find, must jump through hoops to get it to California due to CARB restrictions) which I like better. If you layer them a bunch of times when you first get your car and think of them as a paint protection scheme rather than a wax replacement when you later wash with ONR any fine swirls will be in the sealant and come right off the next time you seal it 6-12 months later depending on your taste.

I have never had issues using this sequence. As a side note, if you are inclined to use an outdoor car cover when you leave the car outside to charge for a bunch of days in bad weather, a concern frequently brought up is trapping road grit/grime under the cover and then the wind grinding it into the paint while the cover is over it. IF you follow this sealant process and carry a Kozak dry wash cloth in your car, you can use the Kozak with no water at all to wipe the grime off THEN put the cover on and remove the concern... thus protecting your paint, if you are anal like that. I sometimes resemble that comment

Hope that helps some. Just MHO.

I will second the opinion that if you are going to use ONR, you will need a crap ton of microfiber cloths and you need to switch cloths frequently as you go around the car.

Cheers.

How 'bout tossing a few folded clean microfibre cloths onto the top, hood etc. before putting the cover on? Kind of a buffer and buffer, if YKWIM.

 

[shokunin]

Just to clear up on terminology. Optimum No-Rinse (ONR) or their new Optinum No-Rinse w/Wax (ONRWW) are Rinseless products and not waterless. ONR still uses a 2 buckets. One bucket with 2 gallons of water with 1 to 2 ounces of ONR and another bucket with just water to rinse off your dirty sponge/mitt/towel etc. I also use a sprayer to presoak panels using a more concentrated solution of ONR in a spray bottle.

Optimum has Optimum Opti-Clean which is their waterless product (Spray on, wipe off).

My Model S can with a crap load of swirls and holograms, whoever did the detail did a crappy job. Spent a whole day polishing out the imperfections then coated with opti-coat for protection.

 

[FalconNinetyD]

Not directly related but has anyone noticed that the model S is a dust magnet? There must be some sort is static charge with the car that attracts dust more than normal.

Was just thinking of this yesterday. Washed and waxed the car, and 30 miles later there was a good layer of dust on it. The back of the car was especially bad, with a thick layer of black dust on the rear bumper and on the back where the license plate mounts.

I've been using detailer spray (the stuff you use when clay baring the car) and microfiber cloths to keep the car clean between washes.

 

[mknox]

Noticed most of the comments are from folks in California. I just went out to lunch and noticed my black car is almost grey with the caked on salt and mud from the winter roads here. Plus, it's below freezing outside. I can't imagine how that stuff would ever work here. If nothing else, I'd go through cases of wiping cloths. Just brushing my pant leg getting out of the car left a big salt-stain.

 

[Ceilidh]

You can wash the wiping cloths in your regular washer if you don't put fabric softener in the wash or drying cycle and then reuse them. So initially you do buy a big box, then you just toss it into a garage laundry hamper and occasionally wash them all. Eventually they wear out, but it's not that bad. I used to do this from time to time in PA with salt caked all over my car, and it still worked there, FWIW.

Cheers

 

[MikeK]

I have also noticed that the back of the car, near the license plate location, is extremely dirty -- more than the rest of the car. It must be an aerodynamic thing that causes an accumulation to form in that area.

 

[mknox]

You can wash the wiping cloths in your regular washer if you don't put fabric softener in the wash or drying cycle and then reuse them. So initially you do buy a big box, then you just toss it into a garage laundry hamper and occasionally wash them all. Eventually they wear out, but it's not that bad. I used to do this from time to time in PA with salt caked all over my car, and it still worked there, FWIW.

I'll take your word for it, but remain skeptical. Just running my finger along the edge of the windshield where the wiper doesn't reach left considerable "grit" from the road sand and salt they use here. Like very fine beach sand. I would not normally be wanting to wipe that stuff off my car without first rinsing all the sand and grit off.

 

[Ceilidh]

I'll take your word for it, but remain skeptical. Just running my finger along the edge of the windshield where the wiper doesn't reach left considerable "grit" from the road sand and salt they use here. Like very fine beach sand. I would not normally be wanting to wipe that stuff off my car without first rinsing all the sand and grit off.

That's the beauty of this funky polymer stuff it's made out of. It seems to grab the grit like a magnet and pull it away form the paint as you wipe. It's really cool IMHO. In PA we had road salt and sand too, and I didn't get scratches using it. You just have to rinse the cloth a lot and then change cloths liberally as the one you are using gets dirty, and if the car is as you are describing, you can dilute a bit of it in water and put it in a spray bottle. You spray the panel you are going to wipe before you wipe it, and the stuff has already separated the grime from the paint, then it just wipes off.

Cheers.

 

[Robert.Boston]

I have also noticed that the back of the car, near the license plate location, is extremely dirty -- more than the rest of the car. It must be an aerodynamic thing that causes an accumulation to form in that area.

And this area is, inconveniently, precisely where the rear-view camera is located. I've been less than diligent in cleaning the car of its wintry grime, but I do give the lens a wipe with a microfibre cloth frequently.

 

[olanmills]

Used Griot's this weekend on our lovely. Hadn't been washed in two months and over 2000 miles.

Went pretty fast, used a couple of beach towels and didn't bother cleaning the pano. Threw the towels in the wash after was done and line dried them.

Hey Jason, this might seem like a dumb question, but I just wanted to confirm. Are you referring specifically to the Griot's Waterless Spray-On Car Wash that logan linked to? I'm interested in that for washing my car during the winter.

 

[bbmertz]

Optimum has Optimum Opti-Clean which is their waterless product (Spray on, wipe off).

@shokunin, thanks for the clarification. i used this OOC waterless spray product on my MS with the plush 16x16" Gold Plus Jr. microfiber towels, both ordered from Autogeek. It did a great job cleaning up the minor dirt spray marks appearing on the lower panels after driving on wet roads the previous week, and made the car look like new again. I probably wouldn't use a waterless product on an extremely dirty car in order to avoid scratches or needing a hundred clean towels, but for occasional clean-ups this is a great option.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

My S got its first hand wash (after having gone through brushless automatic washes for the past 3 months) at Eco Green Auto Clean in Redwood City. They did a wonderful job in about 40 min! Just as my car was getting done this morning, a gray Perf Model S pulled in. Their waiting area has pics of several (semi-)exotics getting washed here including a brown Model S and a Karma.

I'd highly recommend them for folks in and around the Peninsula in the Bay Area. Their prices are very reasonable and are in the ballpark of most other hand-wash services. Getting there early, at around 8:30 am, on weekdays maybe a good idea as they are not that busy at that time.

Am now trying to get my company to engage them to come on-site on a weekly basis; they already offer such a service at Google and also work with Tesla Menlo Park (as mentioned earlier on this thread).