Maintanence wash vs. full wash, How often

[Legumes]

I do rinseless washes weekly and hardly ever do a traditional wash anymore. The lack of water spotting to deal with is one of the major bonuses when doing a rinseless wash for me. My water is extremely hard and will spot a car up in no time.

No matter what method you use, if you do it often, it honestly makes car cleaning much easier. On the rare occasions that I do full details on cars for family members or friends, it often takes forever just to complete a "wash" on their rides because they're so neglected.

[Desertnate]

For me, it depends on the condition of my vehicles. If its been a rainy week or the car is really dirty, then it's a bucket wash. If the car is only has mild dust, I'll do a rinseless.

I tend to be very conservative on the rinseless and will always default to the buckets and hose if I think it's too dirty to safely carry out a rinseless wash.

[PA DETAILER]

Guess i am old school. I do a full wash on the xterra every weekend. Including interior. Now on the better halfs escape, it only bunny hops to work. So i have been using eco touch ww on it. With great results. I do 250/miles a week. The escape maybe 50 if that.

[David Hayward]

I do a standard 2 bucket wash probably every 2 weeks. I typically only have rain and spots from morning dew on my car because I don't drive it much so in between I use DP waterless wash to keep the dust off and water spots. I enjoy the time spent washing cars though so I typically do it to relax.

[glh17]

Hello All,
I just was wondering how often you are doing a full wash (as in rinse, foam, rinse and wash) vs perhaps a waterless or rinse-less type of wash?
I find that by doing the rinse less 2 bucket method with onr every 5-7 days the car has been keeping clean for these last few weeks. I usually finish with the Pinnacle Crystal mist and a micro fiber. Just wondering if I should do a full wash anyway after 3-4 weeks or so?
I used to do a full wash about every 2 weeks or so up until recently and the switched to the above method.
what say the pros?

I wash my truck and wife's car as needed. Her's sits in a garage but is driven more than mine. Mostly town driving and a little interstate. My truck sits outside and is pretty much only driven in town. I've been doing conventional washes every week or two weeks depending on need.

I'm hoping to do as you with the Pinnacle Crystal. I ordered some and it should be here in a couple of days. I hope to only do the conventional wash when the vehicles are real dirty.

[nubaseal]

I do the full monty whenever I properly wax my car--three times per year. Is it really necessary? Probably not. Just a way of being thorough given that I am going to put a mechanical dual action polisher to the finish

I am also not entirely satisfied with what I can do for my wheels with a rinseless. Sure, a rinseless can make them look good, but there is quite a bit of crud right out of sight. You get at that with more conventional means.

Then of course, there are the times I cheat. The car is really too dirty to do a rinseless, so I take it down to the coin-op and then go home and do a rinseless. I try to get after the wheels on those occasions too.

Try the Chemical Guys Hose Free Eco Wash for wheels and you will be pleasantly surprised. Not as versatile as ONR, not a joy to use like Dodo Juice Low on Eau, not the crisp finish like DG Rinse less but boy HFE can CLEAN

[Zelfiris]

Warm temperature (Summer/Spring)
- Rinseless weekly
- 2B Wash monthly (just to knock off all the dirt stuck in the wheel well and anything I could not reach with rinseless)

Cold temperature (Winter/Fall)
- Coin wash weekly
- Rinseless monthly

My DD is coated with Opti-coat and CQUK (different panels).

[Gadgetech]

Glad you brought this topic up. I'm old school myself and usually do a full wash every couple weeks which is usually 1 gas tank worth of driving. We have a bunch of dirt flying in the air around here being near the landing zone of the airport and interstate. I have 1 time used a RW to clean the car. I prefer the RW method, just don't want to scratch the clear coat.