The grumpy thread

[captain_70s]

12 hours ago, maxxo said:

quite a decent sized flat so i'm wondering if it's undersized

People often fit the cheapest they can find, especially in rental properties. The one in my cottage in Moray was nearly brand new but could barely generate enough heat to wash dishes, let alone heat an Edwardian house...

 

We have a 3 bed house and you get a good heat out the radiators despite the boiler's warranty expiring in 2008. Takes about a min to get hot water to the upstairs bathroom, more like 15 secs downstairs.

When we moved in some radiators wouldn't get hot and a plumber came out and found the shield valves had been closed. He didn't know why anybody would do that, but given every multi-bulb light fitting in the house had all but one bulb unscrewed I suspect a previous tenant was just miserly...

[Metal Guru]

45 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

People often fit the cheapest they can find, especially in rental properties. The one in my cottage in Moray was nearly brand new but could barely generate enough heat to wash dishes, let alone heat an Edwardian house...

 

We have a 3 bed house and you get a good heat out the radiators despite the boiler's warranty expiring in 2008. Takes about a min to get hot water to the upstairs bathroom, more like 15 secs downstairs.

When we moved in some radiators wouldn't get hot and a plumber came out and found the shield valves had been closed. He didn't know why anybody would do that, but given every multi-bulb light fitting in the house had all but one bulb unscrewed I suspect a previous tenant was just miserly...

Mine is rated at 31kW in a 3 bed house. You only need that much for instant hot water, I think heating only uses about half of that.

[UltraWomble]

Can honestly say this is rubbish

[myglaren]

^  But what is it?  ^

[horriblemercedes]

On the subject of boilers, I've lived in a house with a combi boiler for about a year now. I had immersion heaters and oil heating and others before this. 

 

I would never go back to them now. The combi boiler is just so much better. Cheaper to run, more user-friendly and effective

[UltraWomble]

1 hour ago, myglaren said:

^  But what is it?  ^

Hydro.co vehicle foam wash. 

Ball ache to find the dilution ratio (fuck all on bottles and really hard to find on website) . Does foam. Doesn't really make much odds with dirt and finish was "meh" 

I'll go back to fairy liquid

[myglaren]

I usually get some foamy stuff from B&M.  Put it on the shelf and let it mature for a year or two.

[Metal Guru]

12 hours ago, UltraWomble said:

Hydro.co vehicle foam wash. 

Ball ache to find the dilution ratio (fuck all on bottles and really hard to find on website) . Does foam. Doesn't really make much odds with dirt and finish was "meh" 

I'll go back to fairy liquid

Fairy liquid contains salt. Not a good idea for car cleaning. 

[Jazoli]

2 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

Fairy liquid contains salt. Not a good idea for car cleaning. 

No it doesn’t, it’s an old trope, fairy liquid is fine if you want to strip old wax and polish off, a proper car shampoo is better though.

from google, other search engines are available 

“Washing up liquid does contain a 'salt' but this is the active ingredient and should not be confused with road salt. There is nothing in a washing-up liquid that will exacerbate corrosion – there's no sodium chloride salt to worry about. The issue regarding corrosion is the 'chloride' bit of the salt.“

[BorniteIdentity]

The degreaser in washing up liquid is really very useful when cleaning a filthy car; it doesn’t seem to streak as much for me either.

I only run old snotters so care little. I find fairy very effective 

[Split_Pin]

Magnum washing up liquid is about 60p a 500ml bottle. But you'll need quite a bit each time to get a decent lather and enough strength to shift dirt so a bottle won't last as long.

So let's compare 5l of Fairy which is £18.99 from ebay or a bit more if you're buying individual 500ml bottles from the supermarket.

5l of Simoniz or Turtle Wax car shampoo is £14.99 free post from ebay. One of those lasts me about 7 months at about 2-3 washes per week for a wrong 'un like me.

So 1) It's nothing more than inverted snobbery saying you just use dish washing liquid to clean your car and 2) it's not actually cheaper...

I love you guys but come on, don't make folk think you've also got plain water in the cooling system, remoulds and 2nd hand engine oil strained through a football sock 😂

If you really do care that little then washing the car is gonna be last on the agenda!

[EyesWeldedShut]

I'm with @UltraWomble - I have some snowfoam type stuff and, frankly, it's shite. After faffing around getting the pressure washer setup and putting the stuff on I can see eff all difference. Bit of GoogleFoo and YouTubeMonkey - still 'meh'.
Emperor's new clothes or does it only 'work' on cars that you wash thrice weekly?

I usually just use TFR (currently G101 but usually a cheaper version) as I only wash the cars/van rarely (i.e. maybe once a month sometimes less) and then, on a dry day, I'll maybe even do some polish. Bini MOT on Friday so I'll bling that up internally and externally too - otherwise I'd rather change the engine oil than wash them  
 

[beko1987]

I love snowfoam and have always got on with it, but I use a foam cannon that fits on the pressure washer. Always been a bit dubious of these hand pump things that seems to be the current tend.

Nice thick foam from the lance, then go round with the brushes and do the trims and tightwork. A good rinse and 70% of the dirt should come right off

It works better if you clean the car every week/2 weeks. A foam and rinse on a well waxed car will be all you need

But that's alot of effort 😂

 

[24vdiamond]

31 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

I love snowfoam and have always got on with it, but I use a foam cannon that fits on the pressure washer. Always been a bit dubious of these hand pump things that seems to be the current tend.

Nice thick foam from the lance, then go round with the brushes and do the trims and tightwork. A good rinse and 70% of the dirt should come right off

It works better if you clean the car every week/2 weeks. A foam and rinse on a well waxed car will be all you need

But that's alot of effort 😂

 

Clean the car every 2 weeks !!!! 😁😁

[Jazoli]

46 minutes ago, 24vdiamond said:

Clean the car every 2 weeks !!!! 😁😁

That’s insane, it has to be done at least weekly.

[beko1987]

There's people who do it every couple of days out there 😬 Not been on the detailing world forums in years though! 

I just keep enough kit about nowadays to do a good decent wash and decontamination that doesn't take all day and inflicts the least amount of damage. Not bothered with waxes or finishes for a good while now, bar a quick go over if I've got time. 

Nowadays washing the car involves going to my mums and doing their car too. I do them 2 or 3 times a year. 

[maxxo]

I’m not going to say how I usually wash the xm

alright sometimes it’s a proper wash with the bucket karcher and polish etc

but usually I use waterless wash and wax and a micro fibre towel I’ve never cleaned to give it a quick freshen up

sometimes I use a petrol station jet wash

i know that’ll give people nightmares but that’s how I’ve always washed cars

[IronStar]

How common are contactless self-service car washes over there? They seem to be all the rage here for the past decade or so. Some of them have snow foam, some not, but they all do car shampoo, wax and demineralized water from pressure washer. They are mostly alright with quality of the shampoo and wax as well, some better or worse than others obviously. Slightly under a Euro coin usually gets you 90 seconds, you need 2-3 coins to reasonably wash a car if you’re not doing wax so fairly cheap as well.

[captain_70s]

I wash the cars quarterly. 😂

The issue with self service car washes is they're usually closed in winter when you most need to wash a car... Also needing coins or tokens to use them is a pain.

[Supernaut]

I just gave the E36 its first wash in a long time a few days ago. It was mostly so I could pressure wash the underside before topping up the lanolin I have on the sills / in the wheel arches...

While I had the pressure washer set up, the Megane got a quick blast but it basically looks the same (complete shit).

[barefoot]

I have washed all of my cars at least once, although I do mow my lawns at least daily and keep a diary to remind me which direction I did them last.

[reb]

When I was a delivery driver I'd wash my car at least weekly, in winter every two or three days. £3 in a jet wash and it'd look lovely. Usually filthy again by the time I got home though.

[beko1987]

Ive used the esso self serve jet wash before when the car turned green one winter 😂

I tend to do it really well once, then as I don't do that many miles it keeps fairly clean. What I want to do one day* is have the rear up on the ramps and jet wash underneath then sort any rust bits out. Giving the engine bay a good clean is handy too as you don't get filthy hands topping fluids off or doing simple little things! Again once done well once a quick blast over as you wash the rest of the car is all it needs. 

Jet washing the door shuts, water drain holes, water channels etc is quite critical though. If I do a car at the FoD I concentrate on that part more than the giving it a wash bit

[Metal Guru]

5 hours ago, Jazoli said:

No it doesn’t, it’s an old trope, fairy liquid is fine if you want to strip old wax and polish off, a proper car shampoo is better though.

from google, other search engines are available 

“Washing up liquid does contain a 'salt' but this is the active ingredient and should not be confused with road salt. There is nothing in a washing-up liquid that will exacerbate corrosion – there's no sodium chloride salt to worry about. The issue regarding corrosion is the 'chloride' bit of the salt.“

According to the Ecologist magazine it has Sodium Chloride as an ingredient. I think we all call that “salt”.

[Markeh]

What's car washing?

Nearly 3 years and over 33k later mines still only ever been washed at Nissan. Although we will have to clean the door to touch in a couple of scratches later this month 

[loserone]

1 minute ago, Markeh said:

Nearly 3 years and over 33k later mines still only ever been washed at Nissan

Bit of a bizarre brag, our Duster is two and a bit, 40k and 5 services in and hasn't been to a Dacia dealer since it only had 7 miles on the clock.

[captain_70s]

Welder wire feed motor has done a die.

Not like I need this car welded and out the garage by next Saturday, as my latest rusty shitheap is landing...

[Remspoor]

7 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

I find fairy very effective 

[Markeh]

49 minutes ago, loserone said:

Bit of a bizarre brag, our Duster is two and a bit, 40k and 5 services in and hasn't been to a Dacia dealer since it only had 7 miles on the clock.

Oh believe me - it's not a brag - it's been a heap of shite. Perhaps if it behaved a bit more I'd consider washing it myself!

[Popsicle]

7 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

at about 2-3 washes per week for a wrong 'un like me.

'per week' must be a typo?