How Much Water Does It Take To Wash Your Own Car At Home?

[rusty bumper]

Maybe this has already been asked, and if it has, you can post a link in this thread.

I'm not talking about something you can Google up, because I believe those numbers are inaccurate and possibly even skewed in favor of environmentalists. I just got a notice with my utility bill saying that the average driveway carwashing uses at least 116 gallons of water. I find that hard to believe if your nozzle has a shutoff valve, and you only dispense water when you need it.

Has anyone ever attached a water meter to their hose to see how much water they are actually using? I'm betting that the number of gallons used are less than 40, but I could be wrong.

[Jarhead0754]

I'm not sure but I agree it's no where near over 100 gallons. But my guess would prob b somewhere around 15-20 max. Again Im just guessing here.

[Blueline]

Re: How Much Water Does It Take To Wash Your Own Car At Home?

116 gallons? 16 maybe. You don't need to attach a meter to your hose, the household meter will tell you. Assuming you do have a household meter, make sure no one uses any water, note the reading, wash the car, and take a reading. Some basic subtraction, and you will have your number. I am going to do it the next time I wash mine, just for interest sake, and if the thread is still active, will post it.

[rusty bumper]

Re: How Much Water Does It Take To Wash Your Own Car At Home?

You don't need to attach a meter to your hose, the household meter will tell you. Assuming you do have a household meter, make sure no one uses any water, note the reading, wash the car, and take a reading. Some basic subtraction, and you will have your number. I am going to do it the next time I wash mine, just for interest sake, and if the thread is still active, will post it.

I was thinking along those lines myself, but it all depends on how the meter display is calibrated. Some of the old meters have analog dials, and it may be difficult to determine a small amount of water usage of 50 gallons or less. I'll check mine and see if it has been modernized to include a digital readout. I know my power meter was changed out last year for a new digital model that also gives off a wireless signal so the meter reader can read it without leaving his truck.

I appreciate all the input here.

[MTLian]

Re: How Much Water Does It Take To Wash Your Own Car At Home?

I use the standard 5 gallon bucket with the two bucket system. I fill the buckets about half full so two half buckets = a full 5 gallons. I turn the hose on to rinse before and after the soap and I spend about 2 minutes rinsing so I'd say that adds another 5 gallons max. So that means I use about 10 gallons total and I think I'm being generous in my estimate.

[Christopher.Brown]

Re: How Much Water Does It Take To Wash Your Own Car At Home?

With a pressure washer I use about 7-8 gallons:

wheel bucket: 2 gallons
soap bucket: 3 gallons
pre rinse: ~ 1 gallon (including wheels)
final rinisng: ~ 1 gallon

i know the pre and final rinse are less than a gallon because with this set up the water doesnt even make it all the way down the driveway now...

When not using one the water makes it down the driveway in a WIDE lane! So i would estimate that a non power washer car wash is within the range of 12-15 gallons and thats using water sparingly... Especially here in So Cal amid one of the worst droughts in history and with many cities that are VERY strict on water usage!

[wifpd4]

Re: How Much Water Does It Take To Wash Your Own Car At Home?

Time how long it takes to fill a 5 gallon bucket. Then time how long you run your garden hose during a full wash. Calculate your gallons from your test.

I use 5 gallons just washing the wheels not including rinsing wheels, so 116 wouldn't be abnormal for my efforts on the whole car .

[Jarhead0754]

Hey rusty bumper. Do some research on that so called smart reader the electric company's trying to force us to have. I can definitely tell u it's not good!

[Michael Stoops]

Re: How Much Water Does It Take To Wash Your Own Car At Home?

Some of those statistics for water usage probably involve people running an open hose the whole time. As has been said, if you've got a nozzle on the hose and can stop the water flow, it just seems crazy that 100+ gallons are being used. David's suggestion to time how long it takes to fill a 5 gallon bucket and then time how long you run the hose for pre and post rinse should give a pretty good indication. I've always meant to do that but haven't ever actually timed it with a stopwatch. I have, however, "paid close attention" while doing this and even rinsing every section after washing just runs the hose for maybe 20 seconds at a time, and even then it's not with as open a flow as used to fill the bucket. I doubt that doing it this way there is more than 15-20 gallons of water being used, and that's most likely on the very high end. No doubt, though, that just leaving a hose to run wide open is just silly.

Now, having said all that, with the weather we have here in SoCal, it's not uncommon for me personally to go several months without using a hose and bucket. With the advent of products like D114, D115 and UWWA coupled with this weather, there's no need. In fact, I think last weekend was only the second time in 2014 that I used a hose and bucket to wash a car at home, even with the rain we had earlier in the spring.