Winter Maintenance and Washing with Hot Water

[Northwoods]

I live in the upper Midwest where we can have 6 months of hard winter. They use a ton of salt on the roads. I don’t mind winter, all the snow, the below zero temps, etc… but I HATE all the salt. I have access to a garage with about a 45 degree inside temp where I can wash and/or rinse my car. I can use either cold or warm/hot water. A lot of times, I don’t even wash it or apply anything, I just spray it off with water to dissolve all the salt from the paint surface and the undercarriage, everywhere I can get water to go because salt gets everywhere. I just use a normal hose and nozzle, not a pressure washer.

I treated my paint for the winter with BF One Step followed by Sonax PNS followed by Collinite 476 here about a month ago. My question is, is there any concern to removing or compromising product if I use warm/hot water for my winter salt rinses? By hot I mean I can set it to a 120 degree max temp. It’s a common temp setting on many home water heaters. It’s still comfortable to touch but is more than just warm. My thinking is that hot water will more readily dissolve salt and grime and get it off my car as compared to cold water. Will it also take product off? Any other concerns to rinsing and or washing using hot water during the winter months? Thank you!!

[UncleDavy]

I wouldn’t think that the hot water would affect the Collinite or any other sealant you have on the surface. Just imagine how hot the surface of the paint gets in the summertime when ambient is 95 or 100 degrees.

[FUNX650]

My school of thought:

•Salt being dissolved is a chemical process (reaction).

•This becomes a “Salt slurry”, and contains:
-the “ions” of de-icers/melters/dissolvers/salts
(ex: Ca/Mg Chloride);
-water;
-atmospheric air/oxygen.

•All chemical reactions are temperature dependent:
-The warmer one or more of the above ingredients
gets, the faster the salt slurry’s molecules move
around; and this rapidly spreading slurry winds up
depositing ions/etc. further and further into the
often unreachable nether-regions of the vehicle.

-Once the dissolving process is started: Got to find
a way to get rid of all of those watered down ions...
or this chemical reaction continues until its sources
are “dried-up”.


In a nutshell:
It’s not just the degradation of the LSP
that would be the focus of my concern.


Bob

[oneheadlite]

I’d be leery about hitting cold glass with hot water for fear of cracking/blowing a window out. Haven’t had it happen to me, but I’ve heard it’s happened to others.

[Darrell L]

I’d be leery about hitting cold glass with hot water for fear of cracking/blowing a window out. Haven’t had it happen to me, but I’ve heard it’s happened to others.

Hot water on a cold windshield can break it. Melting snow off a windshield with hot water is a no-no.

Extreme, rapid changes to temperature on glass is not a good thing. I would limit the water temp to warm enough so my hand's didn't freeze.

[SWETM]

If you want to get some help with getting the road film off too which usually is more stubborn than the road salt. I would recommend you to try out the Gtechnic W4 Citrus Foam. You can apply with a foamcannon with 1:10 in the foamcannon bottle. Or you can put it in a pump pressure spray bottle or spray bottle or foam pump pressure spray bottle with 1:25 dilution. You get a better cleaning if you use the water pressure from the PW to clean with. But you can use a strong water pressure from the hose but you won't get it as clean until you you do a contact wash and the dirt releases much easier. With a PW I often do these touchless washes. Prewash foam and PW clean rinsing it off and blowdry. With a great LSP this can be effective to do. You can foam or spray it on the undercarriage too if you want to and get a stronger yet gentle extra cleaning ability from your wash.

GTechniq W4 Citrus Foam (https://www.autogeek.net/gtechniq-citrus-foam.html)

/ Tony