Garage Wash or Auto this Winter?

E

Egoolps

New member
Here's my dilemma:



I finally have my own garage. It's 22*20, but not very well insulated at all. The ceiling is also not drywalled with the height being around 18 feet to the top.



I'm trying to take cost into affect, but for some reason it seems like bringing it to a wash once every two weeks will be better cost-effective than washing it in the winter.



A heater, that's safe, seems like it's going to run me about $225 or so. Then you figure I'm going to be using it 2-4 hours at a time...getting the heat up to 65 degrees so I'm not freezing in my garage. My guess is if I do that 2-3x/month...with the temps being around 20 outside it's going to cost me another $75 minimum on my gas bill.



So for 4 months...I'm looking at $300 more in gas bills...and another $225 for the heater. So $525.



If I got a car wash every two weeks, not only do I save time, but for $10/pop, I end up saving around $400 this winter. $250 of that can go toward a full exterior detail in the spring that will make my paint virtually new...and leaving me with $150 to spend on new supplies.



I know I may be doing a lot of overthinking...but it just seems like washing the car in the garage seems more expensive in the end.



Thoughts?
 
i'm in the same situation. I just moved east (cali back to philadelphia) and finally have a garage, but also have the winter to deal with..sigh.



My garage is HUGE, but not insulated at all and i'm more concerned with cleaning the undercarriage more than anything. You just can't do a better job at home without a lift compared to one of those auto washes that pressure washes it for you.
 
Cold weather clothing (performance base layers) and ONR (with warm/hot water) is a good compromise. I don't have a garage, so I'll be doing this in the carport most of the time.

Obviously you won't be able to blast away at the undercarriage but if you just want to keep the car clean during the winter it's a good way to go.

Besides, the auto car washes will always end up leaving scratches on your paint.
 
Egoolps said:
I know I may be doing a lot of overthinking...but it just seems like washing the car in the garage seems more expensive in the end.



Thoughts?
Click to expand...



If you look at it that way, any Autopian solution is going to be more expensive than going to the car wash, even a summer wash, if you factor in the cost of your time.



Having washed outside with a hose when it's 33°F, I think 65 inside with ONR is more than you need. If you can get it to 50 you should be fine.



Only you can decide if it's worth it. I haven't been to a tunnel wash since before the last time we had a balanced budget.
 
im in dallas tx, and its been in the 30's here. ive been fine in my garage with no heat just using ONR with warm water and a few layers of clothes
 
actually since i have the chemical guys go green/ecosmart product (i bought a kit that included it but forgot about it), i'm going to try that inside the garage.
 
I don't have heat in my garage, however it is attached to the house. I have been in there in the winter months, where the coldest I have ever seen it get is around 38*, even when it's 10*-15* outside. I keep the garage doors closed; and as said before, warm water with ONR. Warm clothes, yeah...but I don't know about you guys, I work up a good sweat washing a car...even in the colder weather. Anyway, As soon as I am done, I crack the windows a tad (to prevent from freezing shut if I have to take it outside immediately when I am done), but I make sure to use my air compressor to blow it dry (thus eliminating doors freezing shut, mirrors freezing, etc.) and then finish up with a micro fiber towel.
 
What about something a little less expensive like this ($169):





I build custom poker tables here in NJ so I know the temps you're talking about.

My garage workshop is unheated like yours. I simply turn on a small stand-alone space heater 5 or so minutes before I'm about to start working, just to take the chill out of the air.



Wearing my Carhartt thermally insulated jacket like this one...



J14BRN




(you'll be amazed at how warm you get quickly when moving around in one of these jackets)



...once I start moving around inside the garage things start to warm up quickly.





So if you are thinking about doing ONR washes for this Winter:

  • simply keep your distilled water inside the house until your ready to get out there

  • Head out to the garage to turn on your heater and then head back inside for a few minutes to mix your ONR

  • Head back outside with your ONR mixed in your bucket and start washing



At the very worst, if you don't find this optimal (but I think you'll do fine) you can return the heater and make up a 'plan B'.
 
Also, that costing is for year 1 only. After you have the heater installed.. the cost drop significantly in year 2 onwards.



Unless your local coin op lets you use a bucket wash, you won't get your car nearly as clean as you can at home.



I'm faced with the exact same scenario and plan on getting 2 small heaters that plug into regular sockets and ONR it this weekend. If that car is really dirty i'll probably do a coin op rinse only to remove the bulk of the dirty.
 
Don't forget a car that has been driven for a while is a good garage heater. Just pull it in, close the door, let it sit for a while, it will raise the temp quite a bit, at least 15 degrees in my garage, which is plenty warm for washing.
 
I've been researching this recently quite a bit over on the Garage Journal forum, and here's my take (both from personal experience, and the GJ):



There are three energy/fuel options for cheap, non-permanent garage heat - electric, propane, and kerosene (those units can also use diesel/jet fuel). Trying to heat up a garage with electric will really hit you in the pocketbook, and take forever to warm up. Kerosene, et al., works fine, but puts off nasty fumes that give many users headaches. Propane still has some negatives, but seems to offer the fewest of them, and is cheaper to run.



A portable, torpedo-style, forced air propane heater in the size unit needed for, say, a two car garage is roughly $100-150. You can use the 20 lb. propane tank from your grill, or if you don't have one of those, figure another roughly $50. They'll run for about 10-15 hours on a full tank, but you don't need to run them all the time, just long enough to get your temp up (10-15 minutes- they work fast), and then every once in a while to bump back up the temps, depending on how long you need to be out there. That 10-15 hour tank capacity will last you a bunch of ONR garage washes, in real life application.



If you're looking for a permanent solution, the ceiling mounted, vented, forced air units that run off of propane or natural gas will run a minimum of $600-$1000, depending on your install abilities and what sort of existing utility access you have.
 
prophetx2 said:
ten, sounds perfect, any recommended brands?
Click to expand...



Mr. Heater and Reddy Heater are the popular, "name brands", if you will. You can get either one of these off of Amazon for the $125-150 range.



Amazon.com: Mr. Heater MH55FAV Forced Air Propane Heater: Kitchen & Dining

Amazon.com: Mr. Heater 35,000 BTU Propane Forced-Air Heater #MH35FA: Kitchen & Dining

Amazon.com: Reddy Heater 30,000 BTU Propane Forced-Air Heater #RLP30: Kitchen & Dining



For $100, Lowes carries a Century brand unit, and Home Depot a DynaGlow brand unit, that both appear to come from the same factory.



Century at Lowe's: 50,000 BTU Propane Forced Air Heater

DynaGlow 40k BTU Propane FA Portable Heater - RMC-FA40DGP at The Home Depot
 
I tried the propane heaters in my shop last year, and although they worked fast and well the fumes certainly gave me a headache. I have heard the opposite of what ten39 said about kerosene, that it burns away cleaner than propane with little to no fumes and it is certainly cheaper to run. I still think the torpedo heaters is your best route to take, but research it a bit because there seem to be conflicting reports.



Also consider a combination of everything mentioned in this thread. Start at the local coin-op to blast out under your car and the bulk of the dirt, drive the car home to park in the garage and leave it for 30min with the propane/kerosene heater running, then do your ONR wash. This is a great way to get the best possible wash at the cheapest price while staying reasonably confortable.





EDIT: Looked quickly around the web and it seems kerosene and propane boht have the same problem, carbon monoxide. One doesn't seem to be any worse than the other, but every site mentioned a CO detector should be installed when in use. That really isn't a bad idea if you use the torpedo heater.
 
Whats the chance we can run a:

[Century at Lowe's: 50,000 BTU Propane Forced Air Heater] or something similar off of a gas line, in our case thats what we run our house heater with, our grill is tapped into it, etc...
 
Leadfootluke said:
Whats the chance we can run a:

[Century at Lowe's: 50,000 BTU Propane Forced Air Heater] or something similar off of a gas line, in our case thats what we run our house heater with, our grill is tapped into it, etc...
Click to expand...



I don't know anything about gas lines in the house, but assuming the volume is up to par (no reason it shouldn't be) and you have a shop to purchase the necessary connections and lines to tap into the house, it should work. I had a propane space heater, the blue flame ones not the torpedo, and I did the opposite you are asking, I took it from the house connection and redid the plumbing to connect to a propane tank. Finding the plumbing turned out to be the biggest headache.
 
StadiumDetail said:
I don't know anything about gas lines in the house, but assuming the volume is up to par (no reason it shouldn't be) and you have a shop to purchase the necessary connections and lines to tap into the house, it should work. I had a propane space heater, the blue flame ones not the torpedo, and I did the opposite you are asking, I took it from the house connection and redid the plumbing to connect to a propane tank. Finding the plumbing turned out to be the biggest headache.
Click to expand...



Thanks. We have the gas lines running under our house in the crawl space, which are essentially 1 foot from our garage. We have a splitter, and one continues outside to our IR grill. I just figured if it was possible to tap into the line and T off into the garage and get the appropriate fittings it would be a fairly efficient way to go about it. Instead of grilling once a week [we wont in the winter], we would be using it to wash the vehicles once a week. Maybe I can market it to the parents as a trade-off :)
 
Leadfootluke said:
Whats the chance we can run a:

[Century at Lowe's: 50,000 BTU Propane Forced Air Heater] or something similar off of a gas line, in our case thats what we run our house heater with, our grill is tapped into it, etc...
Click to expand...



By "gas" do you mean natural gas, or propane. Obviously, one would work for these heaters, and the other wouldn't. I'm not aware of any portable heaters that run off of natural gas.



Even if you are talking about propane, I'm sure it would take a bit of research and backyard engineering to get the output pressure within the range of the torpedo heater. Not to say it couldn't be done.
 
It's natural gas. Unless an IR heater would be needed to do something like that?



I'm not about to go out and rig something, just examining the possibilities.
 
What are you talking about? Propane and NG are virtually interchangeable. And the NG that is coming into your house is regulated to less than half a psi.



EDIT: Depending on the appliance you might have to orifice for the higher BTU's of propane, but that's standard stuff.
 
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