BX Hosepipe Ban

[Way2go]

Was going to give the BX it's intensive spring clean and polish only to find that Thames Water has just introduced a hosepipe ban .

Normal washing can be done by hand but for tackling the muck and degreasing wash off underneath I think the hose and pressure wash is a necessity.

No mention of course how long this ban is likely to last!

[Stewart (oily!)]

Here in North Wales we have water everywhere, I was listening to news of your hosepipe ban the other night whilst driving back from my mates place, the road was running like a stream and I was thinking "Well that will wash the winters salt off!" It is possible to use your bathwater to clean the BX, soo you might want to consider using car shampoo in the bath
Stewart

[Way2go]

On an everyday level there seems to be plenty of water lying about down here too! A group of us met up in Henley on Sunday and ironically remarked that the flow of water going under the bridge almost looked like a tidal flow.

It's about time these water companies sorted out their leaky pipes.

[AlanS]

An interesting thing here is that in some places, "Power washers" can still be legal even when hosing bans are in place.
You suds up the car with a sponge and just blow it off with a Karcher or Gerni or similar.
Reason being that they only use a fraction of the water of a standard hose and it all happens so quickly.

As an example, where I live there's no reticulated water supply so we have to collect and store our own water (currently around 11,000 gallons storage but used to be only 5,000 for a family of 5 prior to installing second tank) so it goes without saying we soon became expert at conserving water. The Karcher is always used for any volume washing, such as cars, boats and walls and windows in the house. In your cases, it should be a good way of washing the salt off the undersides too.

This is worth a read:

http://www.karcher.com.au/aus/Watersaving.htm


Alan S

[Way2go]

Alan, you are right the following is an extract from the Q&A of the UK Karcher site:

Q: Can I still use my high pressure cleaner during a hose pipe ban?

A: By connecting your high pressure cleaner to a hose pipe you will be contravening the water authorities advice. However, certain Kärcher pressure washers can be used without being connected to a hose pipe. With a suction kit accessory it is possible to draw water from a water butt, bucket or static water source. The suction kit is also fitted with a filter to remove any unwanted particles.

(A laborious solution though and extra accessory kit to buy.)

[jeremy]

Some washers will in fact draw from a bucket. Pressure is a bit reduced as the input pressure in effect drops by about 75 psi or so. When I've used them that way I've found that a bucket lasts a bit longer than you'd expect - and probably could be fed by employing the family to continually fetch water for you.

jeremy

[Cornishbx16v]

you can still use a hose pipe or pressure washer etc as long as it doesnt draw of the mains water system so if you happen to have a nice full waterbutt or twon in the garden then you can draw ofthem without the water authorites getting narky!
there's major discussions about this on many of the car cleaning forums!

are the water companies going to reimburse the local valeting companies that rely on on the useage of hose pipes etc??? hmmmn, doubtfull!

[finishthat]

Handy tip, well its my first post so it may as well be of use!

get one of the pump up garden spray units, a 5 litre version is great,
saves water and you can carry it easily, with the spray wand you can
adjust it to be a reasonable cleaning device, and good for washing clean after using Gunk or something like that, perfect to have ready in the garage.

[ken newbold]

If water is so short in the SE corner, I wonder what the landlords are putting in the beer tonight.

[Philip Chidlow]

Northern beer