Car Wash with a hosepipe ban

[FakeConcern]

Here in East Sussex we have had a hosepipe ban since the Spring so despite having a perfectly good pressure washer in the garage, here I am using buckets to wash my car!

I'm sure many of you are happy to wash your car only occasionally, but I hate driving a dirty car and black paint shows the dirt like nothing else.

What I do now is use an old pump up spray bottle that came with insecticide filled with Turtle Wax wash to spray over the car before using a mitt and clean water in a bucket to wash then rinse. Works ok, but the hose with pressure washer is so much better and quicker. Also I noticed when filling up in a brightly lit petrol station how many more swirl marks I have on my black car since last year.

On Mrs Concerns Modus, I used to use a strong pre wash with the machine then a rinse off, no contact at all to achieve a presentable result.

Now it only gets a quick bucket wash.

So what are you doing?

Do it yourself with a bucket?

Take it to a mechanical car wash?

Take it to a hand car wash?

Leave it dirty?

[Jazoli]

Just use the hosepipe??

or fill a water butt with a hosepipe and drop the feed pipe for the pressure washer in it.

hosepipe bans are a joke, if the water companies are happy to piss millions of gallons a day away because of leaky pipes 20 litres to wash a car is insignificant.

[Bradders59]

I use the two bucket method on the Omega and dry with microfibre towels,  which helps in the fight against swirls.

C1 gets a bucket of water chucked at it a could of times a year.

Do you have a water butt you could run the pressure washer off ?

[Split_Pin]

Almost the opposite up here in Scotland but when it's too cold to wash the car with a hose due to either making the driveway dangerously slippy or if the hosepipe itself is frozen, I also use a large pumper spray to pre rinse and rinse off the suds. It uses a fraction of the water and therefore doesn't create a skating rink.

On a side note, why on earth has there been a hosepipe ban since the Spring? 

[vtec-e]

I use a bucket and sponge. When I've borrowed my neighbour's jet washer some water has usually seeped through where it shouldn't, so it's the slow and low tech approach.

[vtec-e]

7 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

On a side note, why on earth has there been a hosepipe ban since the Spring? 

It's been a dry spring and summer down here, and the chalk aquifers are still low despite the recent rain.

[FakeConcern]

25 minutes ago, Jazoli said:

Just use the hosepipe??

or fill a water butt with a hosepipe and drop the feed pipe for the pressure washer in it.

hosepipe bans are a joke, if the water companies are happy to piss millions of gallons a day away because of leaky pipes 20 litres to wash a car is insignificant.

I'm far too law abiding to use a hose!

I totally agree, but didn't want this to be in the political section!

25 minutes ago, Bradders59 said:

I use the two bucket method on the Omega and dry with microfibre towels,  which helps in the fight against swirls.

C1 gets a bucket of water chucked at it a could of times a year.

Do you have a water butt you could run the pressure washer off ?

Yes I use two buckets and a baffle thing in the bottom to catch the sediment.

I think we have five water butts, but in the summer all of them were dry as Mrs Concern and Daughter No1 have over one million* flowers.

24 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Almost the opposite up here in Scotland but when it's too cold to wash the car with a hose due to either making the driveway dangerously slippy or if the hosepipe itself is frozen, I also use a large pumper spray to pre rinse and rinse off the suds. It uses a fraction of the water and therefore doesn't create a skating rink.

On a side note, why on earth has there been a hosepipe ban since the Spring? 

If it's going to be sub zero, I have to remember to set the mirrors not to fold as they freeze folded after washing!

See above and below for reasons of hosepipe ban!

14 minutes ago, vtec-e said:

It's been a dry spring and summer down here, and the chalk aquifers are still low despite the recent rain.

Thanks for official reason...

[barefoot]

I only joined this forum of manky old cars so that I’d not be picked on, or have to feel guilty for completely failing ever to wash my car.

So, I don’t understand the question.

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

On a side note, why on earth has there been a hosepipe ban since the Spring? 

It's an annual thing, down here, South East Water incompetence.  Then we have Southern  Water for effluent, regular spills and, just this month, plastic beads polluting the seas.

Morrisons here have DIY jet washes, £2 for 3 minutes IIRC

[danthecapriman]

To my extreme shame I haven’t washed the Volvo in over a year! Insides clean, but I just haven’t done it in ages on the outside.

I either use a hosepipe or one of those little pump things you put in a water butt and spray down with the rain water in the butt.

[Wibble]

Despite being in Basingstoke, a South East water area, don’t know why it is, but we don’t have a hosepipe ban like other areas. Despite this, I’ve felt that getting the pressure washer out would look bad, so haven’t.

I ran the Skoda through an automated car wash last week and it gave, predictably, shit results. The Senator is covered in pollen and leaves and I need to get the mojo up to give it a proper clean. It’s out of MOT in a couple of weeks, so I might just Sorn it.

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

It's an annual thing, down here, South East Water incompetence.  Then we have Southern  Water for effluent, regular spills and, just this month, plastic beads polluting the seas.

Morrisons here have DIY jet washes, £2 for 3 minutes IIRC

It’s been going on since the 70s in the South. Almost ritual hosepipe ban at some point in the summer.

I moved to Scotland in 1990 taking with me an unused hosepipe I’d bought in 1986.

[Lord Sterling]

The days when I used to wash a car myself have looong gone.

I did used to wash my cars myself, even up to about 5 or 6 years ago, in fact this was the last time I ever washed a car by hand which would have been around 2020:

It left a load of swirl marks and didn't get rid of mould a jet wash would have done, plus being situated where it was, it just wasn't practical carrying buckets down only to have to run somewhere to find water. I don't have a garage/driveway or even private parking where I live so just somewhere to wash a car by my own hand where there is facilities to hand can be quite challenging in itself.

These days, I generally visit a hand car wash. The car gets a good clean by hand. Rarely I will use a car wash due to harshness but needs must sometimes, especially given the hours I work.

I did use an old "token" carwash I used to use regularly near my Mum's house. The S-Type was looking a bit worse for wear so decided it needed a bucket of water chucked at it. Here is a Merc W124 I spotted there some weeks back:

I used a similar car wash in Dover for the Vectra before taking it abroad. Again, it generally left swirl marks and bits I had missed with the foam brush. Not really a fan of these.

[Split_Pin]

If you use 2 buckets and a microfiber mitt, you won't leave swirl marks.

My cars all get a wash at least once a week and hoovered inside by the same frequency. Whether its decent like the 75 or a bit careworn like the Saab, I hate driving a dirty car as it just looks neglected and a dirty interior is just humming.

[Hogie]

I have one of these, expensive new but I got my one for 80 quid second hand.

You can wash 2 cars on a single charge, the internal tank can just about do a mid sized hatchback like a civic. 
 

For a quick wash I normally just get his out, instead of faffing about running hose for the big pressure washer

 

[Hogie]

If you have a battery tyre inflator you can always fit a tyre valve to a pump sprayer, just so you have something to rinse the car off with.

See my own creation below, obviously not as good as the Bosch, but does take some of the misery out of needing to hand pump sprayer all the time. 

If you set the pump to say 30 PSI, run it, then start spraying you can maintain a constant pressure / water flow

 

[danthecapriman]

10 hours ago, Wibble said:

Despite being in Basingstoke, a South East water area, don’t know why it is, but we don’t have a hosepipe ban like other areas. Despite this, I’ve felt that getting the pressure washer out would look bad, so haven’t.

I ran the Skoda through an automated car wash last week and it gave, predictably, shit results. The Senator is covered in pollen and leaves and I need to get the mojo up to give it a proper clean. It’s out of MOT in a couple of weeks, so I might just Sorn it.

You might be in an area with the big underground reservoirs. When I lived in Waterlooville we got our water from the big underground reservoirs under Portsdown hill so very rarely got hosepipe bans.

Seems ridiculous really in this country. The one thing we get in abundance is bloody rain and yet still end up with hosepipe bans and low water levels. 
Mind you, you can’t expect to keep building more and more houses for a growing population and not build any new reservoirs. But our inept leaders seem to think continuing to use 1950’s infrastructure will just keep working regardless of how many people are using it.

[Marshall2810]

Bucket/sponge/watering can

Works perfectly with minimal faff

[Metal Guru]

26 minutes ago, Marshall2810 said:

Bucket/sponge/watering can

Works perfectly with minimal faff

Scottish method. Bucket , sponge, let the rain rinse it off .

[beko1987]

I drive 20 miles to my mum's which is in a different water area to me and doesn't have a hosepipe ban 😂

Still only once or twice a year though

[AxleHorsepower]

I have a battery powered portable pressure washer that comes with a hose/filter that can be used in a bucket of water. I've not tried that method yet but works ok when connected to the hose. They are around £50 on Amazon.

[FakeConcern]

On 15/11/2025 at 21:22, Jazoli said:

hosepipe bans are a joke, if the water companies are happy to piss millions of gallons a day away because of leaky pipes 20 litres to wash a car is insignificant.

 

On 16/11/2025 at 10:29, danthecapriman said:

You might be in an area with the big underground reservoirs. When I lived in Waterlooville we got our water from the big underground reservoirs under Portsdown hill so very rarely got hosepipe bans.

Seems ridiculous really in this country. The one thing we get in abundance is bloody rain and yet still end up with hosepipe bans and low water levels. 
Mind you, you can’t expect to keep building more and more houses for a growing population and not build any new reservoirs. But our inept leaders seem to think continuing to use 1950’s infrastructure will just keep working regardless of how many people are using it.

See above!

[Rust Collector]

I’m stuck under this ban too, I need to find a way to blast all the moss off of some of my non-roadworthy cars before they go in for MOT.

My water butts are downhill of my driveway, so I was thinking of running a hose from one to a bulge pump or something, then hoping that could pump the water up to where I need to use it.

I do agree with the sentiment that it’s bang out of order that we have a ban, when the supplier is so wasteful in the interest of making a profit.

[FakeConcern]

Having not washed the C30 since I started this thread it was looking a bit mank and I decided to wash it again

Looked up on the water authorities website and having read through pages of propaganda shite, I found out we still have a hosepipe ban fuxsake!

Does come up quite well using two buckets, but takes twice as long, also I CBA doing Mrs Concern's Modus as well (soz Mrs Concern!)

 

 

[FakeConcern]

I have just celebrated the end of the hosepipe ban

It's raining again now!

 

 

[danthecapriman]

Beggars belief that there’s any sort of hosepipe ban, considering it’s been raining constantly since what feels like the dawn of time! 
If it was me I’d have probably used the hose regardless tbh. All that piss falling from the sky if there’s a water shortage it’s because the water companies are letting it leak away so sod em.

Keeping the ovloV clean is worth it though👍

[green200b]

There were periodically hosepipe and car washing bans in Australian when I was growing up. Sometimes I would take a bucket in the shower with me, and use that to wash the car. Once I discovered that the DIY jet washers were somehow exempt from these bans, I would use those instead.

Over here, there is one DIY jet wash near my work, and one near the garage that my car lives in, so I use these on the company van and my car respectively. I have used a couple of places where you pay people to wash your car, and in most cases find that for half of the price I can do a better job at the jet wash myself. Plus both vehicles get driven a lot regardless of weather conditions so they get dirty again quite fast.

[Mr Livered]

My cars get washed quite often in winter, because of all the salty grime - I just go to the jet wash at the pez station. Buckets and sponges and "detailing" can FRO.

In the summer when it's just dust I couldn't give a shit. 

[UltraWomble]

2 hours ago, FakeConcern said:

I have just celebrated the end of the hosepipe ban

It's raining again now!

 

 

Is it supposed to say VOLVO backwards or is that just a happy coincidence?

[Split_Pin]

Take out the 61 and it does!