Commercial Car Washes

Follow these tips to reduce your water bill and conserve water. Install water-saving equipment and receive a rebate from Denver Water for doing so.

Self-Service Car Washes

  • Reduce nozzle size and reduce water pressure to three gallons-per-minute maximum flow rate.
  • Check for and repair water leaks as soon as possible. 
    Replace brass or plastic nozzles with stainless steel nozzles. Plastic and brass nozzles wear away faster, increasing the nozzle size and allowing more water out.
  • Turn off spot-free rinse or recycle reject water.
  • Discontinue bay/lot wash down.
  • Install a temperature-controlled weep management system and set it to 32 degrees

In-Bay Automatic Car Washes

  • Install a water reclamation system.
  • Regularly check nozzle alignment.
  • Check for and repair water leaks as soon as possible.
  • Use only one soap pass.  
  • Reduce nozzle size. 
  • Replace plastic or brass nozzles with stainless steel nozzles. Plastic and brass nozzles wear away faster, increasing the nozzle size and allowing more water out. 
  • Eliminate spot-free rinse or recycle reject water. 
  • Increase cycle speed times. 
  • Discontinue bay/lot wash down. 
  • Install a temperature-controlled weep management system and set it to 32 degrees.

Conveyer Car Washes

  • Install a water reclamation system.
  • Regularly check nozzle alignment.
  • Check for and repair leaks as soon as possible. 
  • Reduce nozzle size.
  • Replace plastic or brass nozzles with stainless steel nozzles. Plastic and brass nozzles wear away faster, increasing the nozzle size and allowing more water out. 
  • Eliminate spot-free rinse cycle.
  • Speed up the conveyer and reduce the rinse cycles to no more than 40 seconds per car.
  • Turn off one or more arches.
  • Reduce prepping, turn off prep guns.
  • Rearrange nozzles on the top and sides of arches so that larger nozzles are on top and smaller nozzles are on bottom.
  • Reduce the amount of water used in towel washing.
  • Reduce tip size and pressure in detail prep guns.
  • Eliminate part of the rinse or reduce rinse nozzle size to save at least 25 percent of rinse water.
  • Make sure arches are properly timed to start and end as a car passes under them.
  • Increase the dwell time in the final rinse cycle to catch and reclaim more water.
  • Install a temperature-controlled weep management system and set it to 32 degrees.