Is It Bad To Wash Your Car In The Rain? Before Or After?

Rainstorms don't give us clean cars, says Vahid David Delrahim, founder of the eco-friendly, southern California car wash chain Bliss. Despite the common belief that a rainy day provides a natural car wash, he urges against skipping a regular weekly car wash – especially during the rainy season.

"Rainy days may seem like the solution to a car owner's car wash troubles, however, rain can actually be what stops a vehicle from getting clean," said Delrahim. "Rain removes loose dirt on our cars, and they temporarily appear cleaner, but things that adhere while driving, such as oil, dirt and grease, will still be on your car. Even a heavy rain does not provide adequate pressure to remove these things."

Delrahim also noted that rainwater is far from clean.

"Unfortunately, acid rain is a real phenomenon, especially here in Southern California," he said.

Acid rain is caused by pollution in the air that reacts with water molecules in the atmosphere to produce acids. Dirty rain residues stick to the car's dirt. Car wash professionals, whose job it is to inspect car finishes, find that it's common to see a car looking actually dirtier after the rain; substances left behind by acid rain can etch into the clear coat of your car over time and make it harder to restore later on.

Conversely, when cars are washed with machinery designed to optimally clean, they receive the proper power, friction, and chemical reactions to achieve a spotless look. The car wash provides pH-balanced water with suitable force to remove stubborn dirt for a better clean. Soft-cloth and foam brushes remove anything the high-pressure rinse cannot. Low-pH detergents increase the cleaning potential of the high-pressure rinse and friction cleaning systems alike.

Quality, eco-friendly car washes that use filtered, cleaner water are better for your car than anything falling from the sky. Plus, rain won't clean out the salt, debris, and brake dust underneath your car, compounds proven to damage and rust a vehicle over time.

Delrahim said that environmental concerns also are important factors to consider with car maintenance. The sustainably focused Bliss Car Wash company uses technology that constantly monitors freshwater usage, keeping it down to approximately 24 gallons of freshwater used to wash each car and using 70 percent reclaimed water. Bliss also uses biodegradable cleaning products and utilizes low-energy consuming machinery.

Many people think that they are conserving water by washing their cars at home, but they are actually wasting it. The average person uses 100 gallons per car wash at home and is not capturing and recycling water. This is opposed to the operations at all Bliss sites, where they save 55 gallons of water per car. This is due to carefully engineered systems designed to reuse runoff water.

Potentially worse outcomes of home car washing means that water, with the soap, contaminants, and chemicals, runs off driveways and into the local waterways, unfiltered. Yet, water reclamation systems, such as the ones at Bliss, capture soapy water in floor drains as it runs off cars and then put it through a filtration tank that removes chemicals and contaminants that have been washed off the cars. The water is then recycled.

According to the Western Car Wash Association, car wash companies are also prohibited from dumping used water down storm drains, which may make car washing even more ecological than waiting for rain. It noted that car wash companies are licensed and inspected like most local businesses. Among the regulating agencies is the Environmental Protection Agency.

"We understand that it seems counterintuitive to wash a car during a rainy week," said Delrahim. "But, trust us, we are car wash experts and water warriors. We know that cleaning off a rain's damage is essential to a longer-lasting paint job."

As the owner of eight Bliss locations, Delrahim donates one freshwater well to a needy village in Africa each time the company opens a new car wash. Delrahim and the Bliss team are working with the Wells Bring Hope nonprofit organization because of its mission to provide safe water to rural villages in Niger, West Africa. Each well provides enough water for about one thousand people on which to safely depend.