Funny you should mention that... I usually do wash it in my driveway with the hose on days where it is warm enough to do it without water freezing on the surface. Usually it has to be above 37 degrees to be able to wash without a problem. Well, my pipe froze at the very beginning of the winter and cracked it. So no hose washing for me this year. My alternative has been to bring buckets of water out of the house and wash it that way.
I've got a really big wash bucket that works great for this kind of thing.
It takes one bucket to wash and 3 to rinse. Kind of a pain, but I refuse to use the brush at a coin op car wash. Those brushes are like cheap hookers. You just have to ask yourself if you really want to be the next one to use it.
Sometimes you can get away with just using the high pressure spray. There isn't anything wrong with those unless you have new paint on the car. They have been known to strip paint off of cars that weren't preped or sprayed properly. Other than that they do the job. However, if your car looks like this:
You might need a little extra scrubbing power in that case. The spray isn't going to cut that stuff. You have to scrub it with something. I can't recomend strongly enough that you do not use the brush at a coin op car wash. You never know what it was used on last. It could have all kinds of grit and grease in it. Spraying it off before you use it does not make it safe. If you are ok with having your car polished out in the spring to repair all the damage that brush is going to cause, then go for it. Otherwise leave it alone.
So how else do you get all that crud off the car if you can't use the brush? Good question. I brough my mitt with me to the coin op car wash and spent about ten bucks in quarters to get my car clean on that particular wash. If you have good protection on the paint then it is easier to clean up, but it still takes time. I've got a lot of clean up to do this spring when it gets warmer and I get my stupid pipe fixed. 9 years of detailing in Utah and I've never had a pipe freeze on me. I am not looking forward to turning on the sprinklers this year and finding out how many pipes broke there...
