MANUAL

Although rare to explicitly hear or use the term “manual” wash, it is more often implied through referring to washes that are non-automatic. These are washes where humans do the vast majority of the washing and cleaning process.

AUTOMATIC

An automatic car wash uses machinery to do most of the heavy lifting, without human intervention. People often use “automatic” as shorthand for express or automated washes (washes with computerized pay stations), which is incorrect.

IN-BAY

In-Bay are structures where the vehicle stays stationary during the wash process, and machinery or washer moves around the vehicle. In-Bay washes can correctly be referred to as “non-conveyor”. Essentially, if the car is not moved from Point A to Point B by external non-human mechanisms (aka a conveyor), then it is in-bay.

TUNNEL

Tunnel structures are where the vehicle moves through the wash equipment, and it is the equipment which is largely stationary. The vehicle is moved using an external mechanism (typically a conveyor or belt). All tunnel washes are automatic, but all automatics are not tunnels.

TOUCHLESS

Touchless car washes use no physical contact of external solid elements to clean the vehicle. Touchless washes use a combination of chemicals and high pressure water to clean. Touchless car washes are often referred to as brushless, frictionless, and no-friction car washes.

FRICTION

Friction car washes are washes where the cleaning is partially done by cloth, brushes, or other like physical elements touching and creating friction with the vehicle. Anytime you see brushes, clothes, or big spinning “things” that touch the car – you are looking at a friction wash. The vast majority of car washes are friction based.

Summary

Hand car washes require no setup or fixed location. These are at home type services, or establishments where the car is completely washed by hand. In a commercial setting, these are most often present in the form of very high end “detail shops”.

Throughput

The throughput of hand car washes is typically low given its complete dependence on human labor.

Price

The price tag of hand car washes vary the most of any wash type. This is due to the extraordinarily large spectrum which falls under this specific wash type label. Your middle school neighbor knocking on your door asking to wash your car counts, as does a $500 full car detail of your luxury sports car.

Cost

Undeniably the absolute lowest in terms of cost to start, hand washes require no actual equipment costs beyond the low variable costs of the soaps, brushes, and products used to perform the wash… and the cost of the human labor of course. Overall, the cost structure of hand wash companies is the lowest and has the highest proportion of variable costs.