Hot water is quite beneficial to all of us inside and outside of our home, particularly for cleaning various types of filth. Common sense says that you should also wash your dirty automobile with hot water. Washing your automobile with hot water, on the other hand, may not be safe for your vehicle, as I’ll describe today.
Washing your automobile with hot water is never a good idea, especially in the cold. Vehicles should only be washed with moderately warm or cold water.
As you can see, washing a car with hot water is hazardous to your automobile and its protective coatings, such as waxes and sealants.
This article will tell you more about the perfect temperature to wash your car!
Why Can’t You Wash Your Car In The Heat?
Isn’t it the ideal time to clean your automobile on a hot summer day? Whenever someone washes a car on television or in the movies, it usually appears to be so gorgeous outside. However, unlike what Hollywood may indicate, washing your automobile in the heat is not a good idea.
For a variety of reasons, leaving an automobile parked in the sun can be detrimental. For example, it has been commonly reported that children or dogs left in a parked automobile perish because the interior becomes excessively hot in a short period.
If the interior heats up, the outside heats up as well. On the surface of a vehicle, temperatures may exceed 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
The sun’s UV rays diminish the longevity of paint, trim, and other surfaces (such as a convertible top) while a car sits in the hot sun.
What Should You Consider Before Washing Car With Hot Water
The Benefits Of Hot Water
Hot water accelerates the breakdown of foreign compounds by increasing reaction rates. In addition, hot water stimulates soil, oils, and grime components, allowing them to be easily separated from car surfaces, resulting in a far more successful wash.
Hot water car wash improves the ability to dissolve. Low melting points exist in several greases and residues on your car’s surface. Some greases will dissolve in hot water even without soap.
Using hot water and soap: When combined with cleaning chemicals and auto wash soaps, hot water works as a catalyst. Cleaning chemicals respond better with hot water, allowing them to remove dirt and road grime more effectively.
Do you live somewhere where it gets cold in the winter? Hot water is essential to remove dirt, road salt, and ice during the winter, which are the most damaging and corrosive elements to car bodywork and chassis.
Hot water has a calming effect. In chilly weather, hot water protects hands from freezing and allows for a faster, more efficient cleaning.
The Drawback Of Hot Water
Hot water is an excellent cleaner, mainly when used in combination with vehicle wash chemicals. However, it is recommended that you do not use it to wash automobiles.
The following are some of the important reasons to avoid using hot water while washing cars:
- It’s not safe for automobile paint: when combined with a high-pressure washer, it can degrade car paint faster than cold water, causing rust.
- Waxes and sealants are broken up by hot water; vehicle paint protectants are temperature resistant, but only to a certain extent. As a result, they will be broken by hot water, leaving your car’s finish exposed.
- Car windows may break: Because of the significant temperature difference, washing your car in the winter with hot water might cause the glass to break.
- It’s too hot for your hands: it’s impossible to use hot water inside your vehicle wash buckets. It will burn your skin fast.
- Microfiber cloths are destroyed by hot water, so you’ll wind up spending too much money on new wash mitts because the old ones’ fibers will melt.
- You could lose automobile stickers: if you have stickers on your vehicle, hot water may dissolve the adhesive beneath them, causing them to slip off.
Can You Wash Your Car With Cold Water?
Hitting the cooking temperature of hot metal or steel with a tub of cold water sounds nice, but it may be harmful to the metal structure, similar to not washing clothing or dishes in simply cold water.
We all heard about heating and cooling expanding and contracting metal in school, but it’s unlikely that the terms “thermal shock” were ever spoken. “A rapid temperature variation generating stress in an item or substance” is perhaps the most straightforward definition.
Thermal shock is almost a guarantee when you throw a pail of cold tap water at your car’s metal skin. This is one of the variables to consider while washing your automobile and why cleaning it in the shade is necessary.
If you don’t have access to shade, wash your car in the morning using warm, not cold or hot, water and your preferred brand of car wash product.
Why Is Warm Water Car Wash The Best?
Warm water is ideal for washing vehicles because it is warm enough to swiftly remove debris from the vehicle while safe for the paint, equipment, and protectants.
The optimal temperature for automobile washing is between 100 and 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Therefore, the water should not be hotter than 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
Warm water is provided in every self-service vehicle wash for a purpose. It just removes dirt off the car more effectively, and when combined with high-pressure washers, it’s a win-win situation.
Warm water helps speed up automobile cleaning duties, although it isn’t required for washing cars.
Check out this video to know how to wash your cars with a warm water pressure washer:
Conclusion
As you can see, washing car with hot water is not a good idea. If at all feasible, use warm water instead. If not, don’t panic; you’ll be OK with cold water as well.
If you’re a professional auto detailer who works out of his garage, I recommend investing in a boiler so you can have warm water inside your shop. It will be helpful for a lot more than just cleaning cars.
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