Are drive-thru washes safe?
To put it simply, no. Most drive-thru washes uses brushes to scrub the dirt off of your paint, while this method is successful at cleaning the car, these types of washes will induce micro-marring and swirling into your paint, dulling the finish. The other type of drive-thru wash is the touch free wash. Although the risk of swirling induced from industrial brushes is eliminated with this style of wash, it is by no means a safe method of washing your vehicle. In order to remove dirt and grime without physical agitation, very strong acidic and alkaline chemical detergents must be used that can damage your paint and begin to corrode exposed metal. A common problem to all drive-thru washes is the issue of water reclamation. Both washes must maintain control of the used wash water, they can either store the water in large tanks and pay to have a recycling agency come and pump the water away, or they can filter and reuse the water. The filtering process is never 100%, and the particles of san
