water restrictions<\/a> still in place, more drivers are skipping the driveway wash and heading to commercial car washes instead.<\/p>\nOperators say the seasonal combination of pollen and passing showers has made this an especially busy time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are rocking,\u201d said Ryan Branney, general manager at Woodie\u2019s Wash Shack. \u201cThe pollen this time of year is just going crazy, leading to very dirty vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Branney said the problem gets worse when light rain mixes with pollen already sitting on cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you start adding sprinkles of water on top of the pollen, it leaves a lot of spots and we just get even busier,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Customers say the buildup can happen almost overnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI washed it on Friday. I woke up on Saturday morning and it was green again \u2014 with just the dust, the pollen,\u201d said customer Manny Adams.<\/p>\n
For many drivers, convenience is another reason to visit a professional wash.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is much faster,\u201d said Doug Nipper, who brought his vehicle in for a cleaning. Nipper said the trees around his home in South Tampa make it difficult to keep his car clean.<\/p>\n
\u201cI live in South Tampa, so they have a bunch of oak trees. So, I am inundated with leaves. I\u2019ve got the straight vacuum here that gets all of that out. Plus, I\u2019ve got the pollen off,\u201d Nipper added.<\/p>\n
Some customers also believe commercial facilities use less water than washing at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s definitely worth it because I feel like they have an effective system going on,\u201d said customer Olivia Costaldi. \u201cIf you\u2019re at home, it might be like you might be wasting more water.\u201d<\/p>\n
That perception reflects how most modern car wash facilities operate.<\/p>\n
Commercial car washes are generally exempt from one-day-a-week residential water restrictions because they are designed to be more efficient.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many use water reclamation systems that recycle and reuse between 75% and 90% of the water used during the wash process.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt our location, as the cars go through, we spray the water on the cars, it goes through our process, and then it gets reclaimed,\u201d Branney explained. \u201cBasically, we will filter it \u2014 different layers of filtration \u2014 and then it will go right back through the pumps and onto the cars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Branney said the system creates what he described as a highly effective recycled wash cycle.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe put together a really clean reclaimed water that does a great job washing the cars, even though it is reclaimed water,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The technology also helps protect the environment by capturing runoff that might otherwise flow into storm drains.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re in your driveway, the water just runs right off into the storm,\u201d Branney said. \u201cWhereas we catch that water that goes right back through the system and we can easily reuse it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Customers say the quick turnaround is another advantage \u2014 especially during periods when water use at home is limited.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, restrictions,\u201d Adams said. \u201cI\u2019m up here in 10 or 15 minutes. I have it all clean and ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Branney says the recycling systems also allow car washes to keep operating even during dry conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re in a community that has water restrictions, we can just keep on trucking,\u201d he said. \u201cThe water keeps on getting filtrated and we can just keep washing cars.\u201d<\/p>\n
For some customers, that combination of speed, convenience and water conservation makes the choice simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, to conserve water,\u201d Nipper added.<\/p>\n
Officials still remind residents that anyone washing vehicles at home during enhanced water restrictions must do so only on their assigned watering day using a hose with an automatic shutoff nozzle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With residential water restrictions in place, more drivers are turning to commercial car washes. TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-184902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}