How fast can you wash an "average" size car?

[damonb10]

That's why I said 2 hours. 30 minutes is how long it takes me to do wheels alone I think. Probably half hour to set up and later to put things away / clean up brushes and buckets. The washing the car part is the fastest. Drying also takes a while as I first use a blow dryer and then go around the whole car with quick detailer and a towel. Then windows and tires. Usually between 1.5 and 2 hours, mostly closer to the 2 hour mark.

I'm pretty much the same for timing. 2 hours or a little under is what it takes me.

I think a lot of people undersell setup and cleanup....

[Breese147]

I'm pretty much the same for timing. 2 hours or a little under is what it takes me.

I think a lot of people undersell setup and cleanup....

+1on setup and cleanup. That alone used to account for 20 mins of work for me. I’ve been using self serve bays recently and I’m about 1hr and 30 mins for the same process. Now that these cars are getting at least some form of protection though im hoping to get it down to 1hr and 5 mins


Sent from my iPhone using Autogeekonline mobile app

[Breese147]

I'm pretty much the same for timing. 2 hours or a little under is what it takes me.

I think a lot of people undersell setup and cleanup....

+1on setup and cleanup. That alone used to account for 20 mins of work for me. I’ve been using self serve bays recently and I’m about 1hr and 30 mins for the same process. Now that these cars are getting at least some form of protection though im hoping to get it down to 1hr and 5 mins


Sent from my iPhone using Autogeekonline mobile app

[JMak97008]

5 minutes to get hose setup;
10 minutes to get brushes and bucket ready for wheels;
10-15 to wash wheels. incl barrels and inside of wheel wells;
15 minutes to get power washer out and set up and fill up 2 buckets;
30 minutes to foam; dwell; rinse; foam again (I like the foam); 2 bucket wash; rinse;
10 minutes to blow out seams, wheels, wells, etc.;
10 minutes to do a QD wipe; and
20 minutes to put everything away.

So, just under 2 hours...for either my wife's Pacifica or my 300C.

[UncleDavy]

It depends on how dirty the vehicle is and what type of treatment it requires. Just a basic bucket wash on the exterior only including tires, wheels, wheel wells and dressing will take me about an hour. I can do it 45 minutes if I don't have to scrub the tires multiple times. Just a rinseless wash in the garage on the wife's Buick will take 30-45 minutes. Many times those sessions turn in 2 or 3 hour operations because I usually can't stop at a basic wash. I see a spot on the glass so then all of windows inside and out need cleaning. Then the floor mats need scrubbing, then the interior needs dusting and a coat of 303. While the doors are open I notice that the door jambs need a wipe down. While I am at it, I may as well scrub the seats with Optimum Shampoo Gel and treat them with 303. Then if I decide to break out the polisher, it turns into a 9 hour event.
I like the comment that Oz made about it being therapeutic. I really enjoy the activity of cleaning and polishing the metal, plastic, leather and rubber on a car. If I was detailing for a living, then I would find ways to speed through all of the processes.

[Finick]

It definitely depends on a lot of things.

This time of year, my rinseless washes can take quite a while. Between needing to presoak and have a little more caution because of the roads being treated here, and just going longer between washes in general, I'd say I could spend like 45 minutes to an hour doing a rinseless wash on my car. That's not including the wheels and tires (I do these far less often in the winter, it's just too freakin cold and windy sometimes.)

I guess it's also worth noting that I generally don't wash my wheels/tires everytime I wash my car, but usually like every other 2nd or 3rd time. It just depends how they're looking. When it gets warmer and I can finally go in there and apply the new Optimum tire coating, hopefully I'll be even less inclined to get in there and scrub them. I'll normally just wipe down the face of my wheels if I'm not in the mood to deal with them. Granted, I drive an Altima so it's not like I'm rocking some 20" wide open wheel design. You can barely even see in the barrel, but I notice that it gets dirty so I still clean it sort of regularly.

In the warmer months though? If I go out there and rinseless wash my car once or twice a week, I can get that done in like 15-20 minutes. Maybe 20-25 if you count filling up the bucket and lugging everything downstairs/back upstairs. It really doesn't take long if I do it often enough. The biggest time saver is doing it often enough that I don't feel the need to presoak the panels, and I can just take a towel from the bucket and get to it.

A bucket wash isn't something I could really give a time estimate for because I do them so infrequently.

Waterless washing takes me a bit longer than rinseless washing because I'm still not fully comfortable with the process yet.

[Oz_TCH]

I just washed wife's car. an hour and a half. Its the wheel and tires that took more time.

Alexa said it wasn’t going to rain. Ofcourse, as soon as I finished. It started to rain.

Grrrrr.

[Calendyr]

[Bill D]

It takes me an hour fastest to wash something the size of a Honda Accord or Mercedes E class. This is with simply foaming the car with a foam gun and rinsing. No agitating. The majority of that hour includes washing the wheels, the insides and the faces. If I were washing with multiple mitts on a more filthy car, I would say it would take me two and half hours and that’s rushing it. Rushing is one thing I never want to do while washing a car though.

[Eldorado2k]

Waterless washing takes me a bit longer than rinseless washing because I'm still not fully comfortable with the process yet.

You outta find someones vehicle to practice on. A company car or your sister in law... Somebodys car that nobody really cares about and have at it going as carefree as you can and then you will find out what can or can’t happen. Personally I’m not as careful as some people make it out to be and I’m not creating a swirl fest on any car I waterless wash. The key is spraying plenty of solution.