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janderson

New member
I tried it, and man did the winter wash backfire on me. I used hot water to wash the car, but the water kept on freezing. I finally just gave up. (I think that my neighbors thought that I was crazy. I was all bundled up, ready to combat the elements :)).



I was wondering if there was some place that had a covered wash area, or some place that might be indoors. I was drawing a blank.



I was actually thinking of using hot water to wash the car, and then using hot water to rinse the car. I will have to have my Wizzard drying towel in my holster, as ice might try to creep up on me.



I hope that everyone had a great New Year! If anyone has any suggestions for a place that I might be able to wash my car, please let me know.



Best regards.
 
Even if ambient temps are below freezing, the water won't freeze on the warmer paint. Be careful though, your driveway will be an iceskating rink!



Also, once water froze on my brake rotors and when I took a drive after the wash the first few brake pumps did nothing! MAN WAS THAT SCARY!
 
It's supposed to be 38 here in Chicago tomorrow so I'm headed for the wash bay. I can't believe how bad the car looks after only 2 weeks without a wash
 
Ummmm The Warm water thing was a mistake. Don't you guys remember science? The greater the difference in temperature the faster the heat transfer will be.



That is why if you wanna make ice fast you put warm water in the ice cub trays and not cold water.



You know when it is really cold how you can take a cup of HOT water and throw it up in the air it'll freeze before it hits they ground? yhea if you use cold water it won't freeze.



Do I need to go into the details of it?
 
Were you in your closed garage? it's usually above freezing in my garage, despite that it's really cold out. I use really warm water and it does not freeze, but it depends on the temperature. Dry the panel you just washed before it freezes and don't remember a frozen clean panel is better than a salted one any day :)



There are certain instances where warm water freezes faster, like in a styrofoam cup, but put it in a tin cup and the colder water freezes first.
 
Is all that true?? I know that if you start with hot water it will boil faster than if you had started with cold water. The molecules are moving already, and the heat will hasten the speed of the moving molecules. As for freezing, it seems like it would be the same concept: slowly moving molecules will slow down sooner... but who knows? This is just what I remember from chemistry class, and obviously I could be wrong. I have no empircal evidence concluded from expirementation because it's only 32 degrees where I am! Great detailing weather ;)
 
<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' >

<em class='bbc'>Originally posted by DETAILKING [/i]
<strong class='bbc'>Are you on drugs? LOL [/b]</blockquote>
Maybe he just stayed out in the cold too long when he was washing his car.

That is some funny sh*t!!! :D
 
So, theoretically, if you stuck your head in the freezer for 15 minutes, then ran out into 100+ degree weather, your head would explode :)



I must have missed that science class..
 
It is true that hot water pipes freeze before cold water pipes.... I could tell you how but I would have to take posession of all your detailing supplies ...:D
 
Yikes! I can't believe my eyes here!



I have to make this quick--->



Two main types of heat transfer....conduction and convection. I agree that the larger the temperature difference, the more heat transfer is possible. Some of you guys should remember from college that Q = U*A* (DT). Where Q is the heat duty in BTU/hr, or KW, or whatever, U is the heat transfer coefficient, A is the area, and DT is the log mean temperature difference. For a given U and A, the larger the temperature difference the more heat transfer.



Now lets apply this to the car and water. For simplicity sake, lets ignore the convection cooling that the cold ambient air will have on our water. On a short time scale this will be very small anyway.



The cold car represents a constant heat duty available (Q). Since is it massive in respect to the water we will be pouring on it, lets assume that no matter what temperature the water is, we dump on it is, the car's metal temperature stays the same. If we dump water on it at the same flowrate, on the same location of the car, the heat transfer coeff. and area are the same (UA). This brings us to the DT term. For the cold water the change in temperature (delta T) from the water to the cold steel is smaller than that of the hot water. This says that a larger cooling duty (Q) is required to cool the hot water, than the cold water. Since Q is constant, it will take longer to cool hot water down to cold water (freezing point) than it will to cool cold water down to it's freezing point. Pretty obvious huh??



Now we go to freezing. Freezing (phase change) takes a lot more duty (Q) than cooling. Cooling to the freeznig temperature is called sensible heat, and the amount of cooling it takes to freeze something from liquid state is called latent heat. You have to get down to the freezing point first to do this, and then freezing from a liquid to a solid takes place at constant temperature no matter how cold the surface of the car is. The truth is that hot water will have to cool first to freeze, and all things being equal, will ALWAYS take longer to freeze than cold water................



Hope this helps
 
MB,



Your not the first person to have his vehicle freeze about as fast as you washed it.

Washed mine, by hand, last week. 34 degrees. Put it out in the sun for half an hour. The finish almost warmed up to body temp. Washed with 2 buckets, Bodywork shampoo and rinsed with cold water from the outside tap.

Yes it did get clean, and it did freeze on the side that had shade. But when I was through washing, I gave it a complete rinse, and then tucked it in the garage.

I then wiped with the Cali blade and a large MF towel. No problem. I then QD'd. I always keep my supplies in the house where it's warm, and take them out just before I use them. If you let the QD get too cold, it's a pain to get off.

Don't worry about the water freezing a little on your vehicle, just leave it out in the sun, the sun and the wind will evaporate that thin layer of ice in no time. It happens to me when it's really cold, but I just can't stand to let my truck go filthy.

I'm finally resigned to using the touchless car wash for the rest of the winter. Keep the faith, the days are starting to get longer. Enjoy!
 
I believe one should use all the paint care precautions that one uses in warmer weather. If these precautions can not be met let the car be dirty. If you have a good protectant ( sealant or waxes ) let it do its job until conditions improve. Neqlecting these precautions can only lead to more work this spring and another season of repairing damage created by poor washing/ drying technique. I feel your pain about driving a dirty car but I now can deal with the dirt a lot better than the swirl marks ( marring).

The only real solution is to get a beater and drive that in bad weather. :D
 
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