Picking the right kind of car wash near you can be confusing at times. Is a soft cloth wash always better than the touchless car wash method? We’ve got all the answers right here – read on to find out more!
Get in The Know
We’d highly recommend a thorough understanding, comparison, and contrast of the various car cleaning methods available before you shell out money for a car wash. In this blog post, we’re taking a look at the differences between soft cloth car washes and touchless car washes. Understanding the basic differences between the two can help determine if it’s the right choice for your vehicle. This helps you narrow down your choices more easily when you type in ‘car washes near me’ into your phone.
Differentiating the Two
A soft cloth car wash employs a dedicated washcloth that allows for physical contact with the car’s exterior. This method is great for getting rid of dry dirt and grime that has accumulated on your car’s surface. On the contrary, washcloths or brushes are not used in the touchless car wash method. Instead, high-powered jets of pressurized water (often mixed with specialized detergents) are used to clean grime and dirt from the surface of your vehicle.
Soft Cloth Car Washes vs Touchless Car Washes
For your car’s windshield
Your vehicle’s windshield attracts a lot of gravel, grime, and road salt, particularly during the winter months. Even in warmer conditions, thin layers of dust can obscure your vision while out on the road. Wiper fluid is a great way to keep the windshield clean, but it’s a fact that wipers can only do so much. The wipers neglect the windshield’s upper areas where dirt stains are left behind as it’s beyond the wipers’ arc reach. A soft cloth car wash is your best bet in this scenario. This is because gentle, controlled friction and foam are highly efficient at removing debris and grime from the surface of your car’s windshield.
For the underside of the vehicle
Run-of-the-mill automatic car washes (this includes touchless car washes) tend to not be efficient at cleaning the hard-to-reach places on your car’s exterior and underside. The license plate is a typical spot that automatic car washes tend to ignore. Choosing a soft cloth car wash, in this case, ensures all areas of your car are covered during cleaning.
For smudges on your door panels
Sticky fingerprints on your car’s door panels can be hard to get off. Often times the pressurized water jets of a touchless car wash, don’t quite cut it. Combining food, sweat, and finger grease will also produce hard-to-shift imprints on your car’s exterior paintwork. Soft cloth car washes make quick work of this problem.
For tree sap stains on your car
Tree sap is essentially a solution of water and minerals and can be quite resilient to traditional washing techniques. You’re likely to end up getting sap all over your vehicle if you park under one, and that’s not going to look good on your car. What’s more, after tree sap hardens, it is close to impossible to clean, creating issues with car paint if you don’t wipe it off as quickly as possible. In this case, when it comes to comparing a soft cloth car wash versus a touchless car wash when you want to remove tree sap stains, the former is much more effective.
For bird droppings on your car
Bird droppings can be corrosive and discolor your paintwork quickly—it’s imperative that they be removed carefully. When tested, friction from soft fabrics, such as in a soft cloth car wash, is better at extracting bird droppings from the car’s exterior than a touchless car wash. Soft cloth car washes typically use micro-fiber cloth strips that make easy work of challenging stains, such as bird droppings.
For removing bug splats on your car
Windshield wipers can easily smear dead bugs, making an already ugly situation worse. Touchless car washes often use chemical agents to help remove bug splats and organic debris easily. Soft cloth car washes, on the other hand, are quite efficient in eliminating bug splats from the windshield, hood, and roof of the car, thanks to the strong friction of the cleaning cloths and the foam created in the cleaning process.
Should I choose a touchless car wash or a soft-cloth wash?
Some people claim that an automatic car wash could affect your car’s paint – is that necessarily true, however? Not really! The softer cloths used for soft-cloth car washes make for gentler scrubbing of painted surfaces, we agree but provided the brushes being used in an automated car wash are intact and grime-free, you end up getting the same results.
Websites and apps like Way offer professional, top-rated car wash services at great prices. What’s more, the whole family can get in on the sudsy action thanks to Way.com’s Carwash Voucher and Family Car Wash Pass, which can be used on multiple (that’s right, multiple) vehicles!
Renée Martin is a travel and car expert who focuses on road and air travel in the U.S. For the past 6 years, she’s been helping make driving and trip planning easier and budget-friendly for everyday travelers.
