If you are like me, you hate taking your vehicle through an automated car wash. The touch ones swirl and scratch your finish on your beloved vehicle, while the no-touch ones are not much better and do very little actual cleaning of the car.

I have been using conventional car wash soap found in the aisles of the local vehicle maintenance store for years and I have noticed recently that I need to wash my vehicle two or three times before getting rid of the dirt and streaks, so I wanted to try something different.

If you live in an apartment or an area where water usage is restricted sometimes there is not much choice. And when it comes to winter, well let’s be honest, there isn’t much driveway car washing going on in the middle of an Ottawa winter – even by the hardcore enthusiast.

That’s where Optimum’s No Rinse Wash & Shine steps in – the name says it all, this soap allows you to wash your car without rinsing it. My initial thought was that meant I didn’t need to drag the hose out, that in itself was a bonus. But I live in a single home and can easily wash my own cars, so what’s the advantage here? Believe it or not there are many.

First off the Optimum No Rinse car wash uses far less water than the conventional method of washing your car. Again there is no rinsing, that means there is also no pre-wetting, this results in much less water usage than a conventional wash. Washing your vehicle with this product uses around 8L of water and only 30 millilitres of product (1oz).

According to the instructions on the bottle, mix 2 gallons (8 litres of water) with 1 oz (30 ml) of product in a bucket. Wash one panel at a time with a microfiber towel and dry the panel off – heavily soiled panels may require more than one washing to get it clean.

I purchased my 32 oz bottle of Optimum No Rinse from CanadaCarCare.ca. Owner and enthusiast Nate Miville was quick to point out the many advantages and ease of use of the product.

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Nate told me that he actually uses this product for all of his car washings now and after using the product I can understand why. He also told me I could use this to wash my vehicle in the garage and the amount of runoff would be so minimal I could wipe it up with a paper towel – great for winter washes! Of course I was a little skeptical but after trying the product, he certainly was not exaggerating – it is that easy to use.

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