If you’re here on a detailing blog, you may already know that tunnel car washes are generally frowned upon for taking proper car of your vehicle.
What about touchless car washes though? They don’t use brushes that can damage your paint so they must be better, right?
In this article I will discuss the pros and cons of touchless car washes.
Pro: It is true that touchless washes are better than tunnel washes because they do not have high-speed brushes rubbing against the vehicle’s paint.
Con: However, in order to clean the paint without brushes, these touchless washes have to use much stronger chemicals and soaps to break down the dirt and grime on the paint. These chemicals over time can also degrade your vehicle’s trim pieces and paint if it is not waxed or protected regularly.
Pro: Nothing is touching the paint so therefore it cannot be damaged like in a tunnel wash.
Con: Yes, there is less chance of antennas or mirrors being broken off since there is no agitation against the vehicle; however, this means the use of high-powered pressure washing jets are needed. These jets can be anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 psi (10-20x stronger than your garden hose). If you have any damaged, weak, or chipped areas of paint on your vehicle, they can potentially be damaged worse by these high powered jets.
Con: Agitation is actually needed to remove certain types of contamination from the paint, [eg. bug guts, tar, sap] therefore only leaving your paint partially cleaned. It is also virtually impossible to clean wheels without some form of agitation.
Pro: Only soap and water is used to clean the paint.
Con: Again, these “soaps” are actually high and low pH cleaners that can reduce the durability of your wax, sealant, or coating. By removing the protection from your vehicle, you are exposing the clear coat to UV, sap, tar, bird droppings, etc that can cause premature failure of the paintwork.
Con: These cleaners are used to remove only basic dirt and grime; therefore, they cannot remove contaminants like tree sap, tar, or paint overspray.
So are touch-less washes better for your vehicle?
Yes, but the benefits are very minimal.
The best option is still a quality hand-wash.
If you are looking for a proper hand-wash detail, please send a request through Boss Auto Detailing