Why not to use touchless car wash?

Having a clean car is important for maintaining its appearance and value. While washing your car by hand at home can be time consuming, many people opt to use automatic touchless car washes for the sake of convenience. However, there are some important reasons why you may want to reconsider using a touchless car wash.

They can damage your car’s paint

One of the biggest downsides of touchless car washes is that they can actually cause damage to your car’s paint. The high-powered jets used to spray soap and water can be too abrasive for the clear coat and paint on your car. This is especially true for newer cars, as the paint jobs tend to be thinner and more delicate. Repeated use of a touchless car wash can lead to swirl marks, scratches, and an overall dulling of the paint over time. Once damage occurs, it is expensive to properly buff and polish out. Your car’s appearance and resale value will suffer as a result.

They do not clean as thoroughly

While touchless car washes use pressurized water jets, the lack of physical contact means they often cannot dislodge some of the tougher dirt and debris on your car. Areas like the wheels, door jambs, mirrors, and trim are difficult for the jets to reach fully. Bugs, tree sap, and bird droppings may remain stuck to the car unless you pre-soak heavily beforehand. A regular full service car wash in which brushes and rags actually touch the car is more thorough in removing stubborn grime. For lightly soiled vehicles, a touchless wash may be fine. But for any considerable buildup, touching the paint is required to lift contamination and prevent scratches while washing.

potential streaking and spotting

Without brushes or towels to wipe and absorb water, touchless car washes can often leave behind streaks and water spots after the rinse cycle. This is because the pressurized water does not sheet off uniformly from the car surface. The result is a spotty appearance once the car has air dried. Using the blow dry feature at the end of a touchless wash can help, but adds time and cost. For the best result, a hand drying is needed after a touchless wash to buff off any remaining water droplets and stains.

They lack pre-soak options

To help loosen up and dissolve heavy dirt, regular car washes offer prep options like engine degreasers, undercarriageflush, wheel cleaner, and sometimes hand pre-washing. Touchless car washes lack extensive pre-soak abilities, since all cleaning must be done by the jets alone. This makes them less capable of tackling vehicles that are considerably dirty from mud, road salts, oil, and grime buildup. Touchless washes work best on cars with only light surface dust that can be quickly rinsed away.

potential for skipped areas

Since you simply drive into a touchless car wash bay and let the automated jets do the work, some areas of your car may be missed in the cleaning process. The jets are lined up to cover the major surfaces, but spots like mirrors, lights, door handles, and wheels can be easily overlooked depending on your car’s shape. A human attendant is more thorough when hand washing to clean every nook and cranny. Expect to find some unchanged dirt when you inspect your car after a touchless wash.

harsh chemical smells

To compensate for the lack of physical scrubbing, most touchless car washes use chemicals and soaps with stronger scents and sudsing properties. This leaves behind a noticeable chemical smell inside and outside the car afterwards. Keeping the windows up during the wash can help avoid getting overpowered interior residual odors. Letting the car air out before driving, and wiping down interior surfaces helps. But the heavy fragrance of chemicals is difficult to entirely avoid with a touchless wash.

potential vehicle damage

Though reputable touchless car washes adjust their jet spray pressures and test on vehicle surfaces, there is still a risk of damage from the intense water pressure. Plastic trim pieces, loose moldings, mirrors, and any aging seals around doors and windows can potentially be dislodged or cracked from the force. Antennas and wipers should be folded in prior to entering. Over time, the repeated intense water pressure can wear down components. A hand wash is gentler overall for fragile vehicle parts.

Environmental impact

Touchless car washes use significantly more water than hand washing. A single touchless wash can use over 100 gallons of water, while a bucket hand wash may only use a few gallons. The water runoff full of soap, chemicals, and contaminants also goes directly into sewers and watersheds, having a greater environmental impact. More eco-friendly options would be waterless car wash products or taking your car to a commercial wash that recycles water. Though quick and convenient, touchless washes have a larger carbon footprint.

Potential frozen door issues

In northern climates during winter, getting your doors frozen and stuck can be an issue with any car wash. But because touchless washes must leave a thin film of water to dry on the car, this can increase chances of doors and locks freezing in cold temperatures. Sitting in sub-freezing conditions right after a wash may cause issues opening doors until de-icing occurs. Going through a wash with heated blow dry at the end may help, but it’s still a risk in extremely cold weather.

Cost can add up over time

While not overwhelmingly expensive per wash, costs of $5-20 per touchless wash do add up if you are a frequent user. For the cost you might pay over a month or year at a touchless wash, you could invest in good wash mitts, buckets, soap, and supplies to hand wash yourself many times over. Consider researching wash memberships, loyalty programs, or unlimited monthly plans if you intend to use touchless washes frequently to help defray the costs somewhat.

Potential damage to accessories

Any accessories, add-ons, or modifications you’ve made to your vehicle can potentially be damaged by a touchless car wash. Spoilers, side skirts, custom trim pieces, graphics, roof racks, antennas, and bike/ski racks should be removed prior to going through a touchless wash to prevent damage from high-pressure jets and tearing. Reputable touchless wash locations will have notices about removing certain add-ons beforehand for this reason.

They use harsh cleaning chemicals

As touched on earlier, touchless car washes rely heavily on harsh detergents and chemicals to help loosen contaminants since physical scrubbing is not used. The high pH cleaners used can potentially damage paint finishes, especially on luxury or vintage cars with delicate surfaces. For cars with clear bra paint protection film, the chemicals can also damage and stain the clear film over time. Hand washing allows you to control the cleaning solutions used to be gentle on all surfaces.

Potential for corrosive water spots

Without hand drying or wipedown after washing, touchless washes often leave mineral deposits behind as water droplets evaporate. These dried on water spots then etch and corrode paint finishes. Undercarriage areas are especially prone to water spotting issues after touchless washing. Road salts and mud accelerate the corrosive effects. Unless you hand dry or wipe down your car after a touchless wash, potential for long term water spotting damage exists.

No cleaning of interior or upholstery

While exterior washing is the main focus, touchless car washes do not offer any interior surface cleaning or vacuuming at all. Your carpets, seats, dash, console, glass, and other interior components get no cleaning benefit from a touchless wash. For light interior dust and dirt, you’ll have to wipe and vacuum yourself afterwards. To deep clean upholstery stains, odor, and imbedded grime, touchless washing lacks those thorough interior cleaning abilities.

No wheel or tire cleaning

Wheels and tires pick up plenty of brake dust and grime from daily driving. But since they are difficult areas for touchless wash jets to reach fully, they receive minimal cleaning. To prevent wheel corrosion and keep shiny new wheels looking their best, thorough regular wheel cleaning is a must. Touchless washing alone will not remove all the built up brake contaminants and road debris from your wheels and tires.

Conclusion

For quick convenience and affordable exterior washing, touchless car washes have their place for light maintenance cleaning. However, for deeper cleaning and protection for your vehicle’s surfaces, paint, accessories, and parts, touchless washing has some definite disadvantages overall. Hand washing or choosing a full service wash are better options to ensure thorough cleaning without risk of damage from intense spraying pressures. Being aware of the potential risks of touchless washing allows you to make the best choice for your specific vehicle’s washing needs.