Eco Car Care – Mobile Car Wash Fort Lauderdale Car Care & Mobile Detailing

In today’s modern mobile detailing car wash facilities, whether tunnel, in-bay automatic or self-serve, soaps and other cleaning solutions used are designed to loosen and eliminate dirt and grime. This is in contrast to earlier times, when hydrofluoric acid, a hazardous chemical, was commonly used as a cleaning agent in the industry by some operators.[citation needed] There has been a strong move in the industry to shift to safer cleaning solutions. Most car wash facilities are required by law to treat and/or reuse their water and may be required to maintain waste-water discharge permits, in contrast to unregulated facilities or even driveway washing (at one’s home), where waste-water can end up in the storm drain and, eventually, in streams, rivers and lakes.

Self-serve car wash[edit]

A multi-bay, coin-operated self-service car wash in Seattle, Washington
A simple and automated type of car wash that is typically coin-operated or token-operated self-service system. Newer self-service car washes offer the ability to pay with credit cards or loyalty cards. The vehicle is parked inside a large covered bay that is equipped with a trigger gun and wand (a high-pressure sprayer) and a scrub foam-brush. When customers insert coins or tokens into the controller, they can choose options such as soap, tire cleaner, wax or clear water rinse, all dispensed from the sprayer, or scrub the vehicle with the foam brush. The number of coins or tokens inserted determines the amount of time customers have to operate the equipment; in most instances, a minimum number of coins is necessary to start the equipment. These facilities are often equipped with separate vacuum stations that allow customers to clean the upholstery and rugs inside their cars. Some self-service car washes offer hand-held dryers, a somewhat new feature.

Automatic Mobile car wash[edit]

Rotating brushes inside a conveyor car-wash
Conveyorized/Tunnel Car Wash[edit]
The first conveyorized automatic car washes appeared in the late 1930s. Conveyorized automatic car washes consist of tunnel-like buildings into which customers (or attendants) drive.[citation needed]

Following the idle zone and/or high pressure arch (if applicable) is the friction zone. In the friction zone, a variety of brushes are used to clean all of the vehicle’s surfaces. Wrap-around brushes (wraps) clean the front, sides, and rear of a car. A set of wraps consists of two offset brushes which are attached to overhead arms which are generally mounted over the center of the tunnel. Some wrap-around brush designs use jointed side-mounted arms to increase the brush’s front and rear contact time. Wraps typically rotate with the vehicle’s direction of travel. Some wrap-around brushes are capable of switching direction while cleaning the front of a car to prevent customers’ license plates from being bent. Wraps are supplemented by side brushes (ranging in size from 18 inches [45 cm] up to 63 inches [160 cm] tall or higher). Side brushes may be either top or bottom mounted. To conserve space, side brushes are often staggered in the space occupied by a set of wraps or placed under top surface cleaning components, such as top brushes or mitters. Side brushes rotate against the vehicle’s direction of travel to increase cleaning power. Top brushes are rotating brush assemblies which clean the vehicle’s top surfaces. A top brush can face either the entrance or exit of the tunnel to assist in cleaning the car’s front or rear. Some specialized top brushes are designed to achieve more contact time with the front or rear of vehicles.[10] To prevent damage, a top brush can be programmed to retract if an ultrasonic pick-up truck bed detection system detects a pick-up truck with and open bed. In many car washes, top brushes are either supplemented by or replaced with mitters. Mitters are components which suspend cloth strips or sheets over the tunnel while utilizing motion to increase friction against the car’s surface. A mitter’s motion can be front to back, side to side, rotational, circular, or diagonal. The friction zone may also include specialized front grill and rear brushes. Front grill brushes clean the front, and in many cases, the sides of vehicles. They often appear as side washers with an unusually long and bent arm. Instead of bent arms, some front grill brushes use jointed arms. Like standard side washers, a grill brush may be either top or bottom driven. Rear brushes appear as a specialized tall side washers with long arms that face the entrance of the tunnel. Once a car’s mirror passes a rear brush, the brush makes contact with the vehicle’s side, where it then continues to engage until the assembly cleans the rear of the car. Additional high pressure components may also be present in the main friction zone.[11]
A typical “tunnel” car wash view from the inside
After the main friction zone, some car washes have a dedicated care zone. Prior to entering the care zone, the car is rinsed with fresh water. This is immediately followed by a series of extra services. In many car washes, the first of these services is a polish wax. Polish waxes fill in microscopic imperfections in the vehicle’s clear coat, thus improving shine. After the polish wax application is typically a retractable mitter or top brush and, in some cases, side brushes or wrap-around brushes. Next is a protectant, which creates a thin protective film over a vehicle’s surface. Protectants generally repel water, which assists in drying the car and aiding in the driver’s ability to see through their windshield during rain. A low-end wax or clear coat protectant follows the main protectant. A drying agent is typically applied at the end of the tunnel to assist in removing water from the vehicle’s surface prior to forced air drying. After the drying agent, there may be a “spot free” rinse of soft water, that has been filtered of the salts normally present, and sent through semi-permeable membranes to produce highly purified water that will not leave spots. We Provide mobile detailing in Pembroke Pines, Davie Florida.

Drying is done using blowers, and, in many cases, mitters, side brushes, top brushes, and/or wraps outfitted with specialized drying material.[12] Blowers may be present in a variety of forms, such as stationary gantries with a contouring roof jet or as small circular assemblies with nozzles of various shapes and sizes mounted on arches. Similarly to the rest of the tunnel’s layout, the configuration and type of blowers varies based on operator preference. Mitters, side brushes, top brushes, and/or wraps outfitted with shammy- or microfiber-based material may follow the blowers. In many cases, these additional drying components retract if a customer does not buy an upgrade. Below the blowers or textile drying elements are often tire shine applicators (also referred to as tire shiners). Tire shiners typically appear as box-like assemblies with a guide rail on their entrance sides and a brush or sponge pad on the side closest to the vehicle. When active, a tire shiner extends out towards the vehicle and applies a water or silicone-based tire shine product to its brush, which in turn applies the product to the tire. Tire shiners are generally activated only if the customer purchases and upgrade.
A touchless in-bay automatic car wash
Older automatic washes – a majority of which were built prior to 1980 – used to use brushes with soft nylon bristles, which tended to leave a nylon deposit in the shape of a bristle, called brush marks, on the vehicle’s paint. Many newer washes use either cloth (which is not harmful to a car’s finish, as long as it is flushed with plenty of water to remove the grit from previous washes) or a closed cell foam brush, which does not hold dirt or water, thus is far less likely to harm any painted finish. Closed cell foam brushes can, in fact, provide a gentle polishing effect that will shine the vehicle’s surface during a wash.[citation needed]

In order to avoid marking paintwork, “touchless” (aka “touchfree” or “no-touch”) car washes were developed.[when?] A touchless car wash uses chemicals and high water pressure to clean the vehicle instead of brushes, minimizing the chance of surface damage to the vehicle. There are five primary factors to cleaning a vehicle successfully using a touchless system. These five factors are water quality, water temperature, chemistry, time, and water pressure generated by the equipment. If these factors are all set properly, vehicles will come out clean and shiny without the chance of vehicle damage caused by brushes.[citation needed]
A glass car wash building containing an inbay automatic and freestanding blowers.
At “full-service” Mobile car washes, the exterior of the car is washed mechanically with conveyorized equipment, by hand, or using a combination of both, with attendants available to dry the car manually, and to clean the interior (normally consisting of cleaning the windows, wiping the front and side dashes, and vacuuming the carpet and upholstery). Many full service car washes also provide “detailing” services, which may include polishing and waxing the car’s exterior by hand or machine, shampooing and steaming interiors, and other services to provide thorough cleaning and protection to the car.