Car wash

Washing your car at home

Washing your car at home doesn't require any special equipment. Below, we list the supplies needed for a normal car wash.

Among the supplies listed above, we consider the pressure washer to be the most important. The water pressure produced by a pressure washer greatly facilitates the removal of dirt and can be conveniently used to clean wheel arches and the car's undercarriage, for example.

Remember to check your city's regulations regarding washing cars at home.

Washing your car in winter

Simply put, washing your car in winter won't be successful if there's a significant frost outside. There's no magic trick for this. You might manage with hot water and quick movements in a few degrees of frost, but the joy of washing your car will be far from it!

The problem with washing your car in winter is precisely that running water and severe frost are not a good combination. Water gets into the car door gaps and under door handles, causing them to freeze shut. The car might be clean, but if you can't get inside, there's not much joy in that!

But how do you wash your car when winter is long, dark, and cold? There are a few options, depending on the available washing facilities and warm spaces that can accommodate a car. If you don't have a place to wash your car or a warm garage to let it dry, the best solution is to take your car directly to a professional for washing. They have suitable facilities for this and will dry the car thoroughly after washing to prevent the doors from freezing shut. Another option is to use an automatic car wash or a self-service car wash bay and then take it, for example, directly to a warm public underground parking garage where you can dry the car yourself.

Car washing temperature

Now that we've covered washing your car in winter, what's the right temperature for car washing? The ideal temperature is certainly somewhere between +15 and +20 degrees Celsius.

At this temperature, water and detergents will not evaporate and dry out. Also, detergents work best at the temperature mentioned above. Choose a spot that isn't in direct sunlight. Car detergents can damage your car's surfaces if they dry on them.

Washing the car undercarriage

The car's undercarriage and wheel arches collect the most dirt, and in winter, also salt, which easily leads to rusting of metal parts. Washing the car's undercarriage should ideally be done twice a year, in spring and autumn, when changing tires.

However, many of us don't have a fancy car lift that could raise the car several meters high for convenient undercarriage washing, so creativity must be used here. Washing the wheel arches themselves is easy when changing winter or summer tires as the wheel is off, but the undercarriage itself is a bit more challenging.

There are two different approaches to this. If you want to invest a little, you can find undercarriage washers that attach to a pressure washer online. With this, washing the car's undercarriage is effortless without lifting the car and almost standing upright! Another option is to jack up one corner of the car as high as possible at a time and rinse all areas clean with a pressure washer as best as you can.