A car cleaning delight!

[macfly]

I just bought myself a fabulous new toy, a Sears air compressor (http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?cat=Compressors+%26+Air+Tools&pid=00915310000&vertical=TOOL&subcat=Air+Compressors+%26+Inflators&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes) but any old brand will do just as well. Being able to blow all the leftover water out of those hard to get at places, like the mirrors, the side vents, front grilles and the 18 spoke wheels is such a pleasure, no more dripping across a dried and polished car. Also being able to dust off all those areas under the hood that need dusting with a blast of high pressure air is a total joy. For around $100 it will totally transform your car cleaning experience, especially in under the hood. I can't believe I waited this long to buy one!

[Bend]

Neat. You'll be able to keep your tires at just the right air pressure too. You just need to figure out where to put it in your garage ... and then explain it to your wife.
Someone told me that you can also use those electric leaf blowers. Some of them apparently come with a special attachment to help dry the car.

[KenZ8]

Be careful using a leafblower- they rarely if ever have a filter on the air intake, and any dust, dirt, grit, etc in the area will be sucked in and blown at your car at high velocity. It can become a sandblaster if you lay it down while its on.

[macfly]

ditto that, no way I'd use a big blower.

As well as having an airfilter filter this unit comes with a wonderful little air-gun nozzel that works just wonderfully, and also clips onto the PP very nicely while you're not using it!

[hapc]

I have had a compressor in my garage forever and I am having air piped all around the new house that I am building. I cannot imagine being without compressed air. I use if for air tools, painting, cleaning and all sorts of things. I have a very large commercial vertical tank unit these days, but years ago I had a small Sears 110Volt operated compressor on wheels. Once you have one, you will not want to be without. If you can fit one in your garage, do it!!

Hap

[RRZ8]

Neat. You'll be able to keep your tires at just the right air pressure too. You just need to figure out where to put it in your garage ... and then explain it to your wife.
Someone told me that you can also use those electric leaf blowers. Some of them apparently come with a special attachment to help dry the car.


You don't fill your tires with Nitrogen Bender ?

[Bend]

Not yet, but I guess I should do that before Buttonwillow.

[RRZ8]

I am starting to question the use of Nitrogen filling in my Z8 tires.....:confused:

[FWK-Z8]

Compressed air

First, hapc, spend the extra money and have it done in metal. There are plastic systems for compressed air, but they scare me because of the compressed energy in a gas. I remember the story of a colleague hearing something like a rifle shot and having a PVDF plastic elbow land on his desk when facilities was leak checking a new high purity water system with nitrogen. There was a corresponding hole in his metal wall where the fitting came through. In the safer inducstrial installations, plastic is forbidden in pressurized gas systems

RRZ8 - Considering that air is 80% nitrogen and 20% oxygen, I don't see much sense in using N2 in tires. The real bad actor around rubber in the atmosphere is ozone. Granted when you compress air, you still get ozone in it, but it has a half-life of around 20 minutes, so it degrades to O2 in your tires rather qucikly. If oyu are concerned about oxygen, make sure the system has a good drier, as it is the combination of oxygen and moisture that is corrosive. We performed an experiment on silicon semiconductor wafers and native oxide growth. We looked at air, nitrogen and a 80/20 mmixture of high pruity N2 and O2 (very low moisture) and showed that the 80/20 pure gas mix was equivalent to N2 storage for native oxide growth.

[RRZ8]

FWK, I guess you are right. And since it is impossible to get rid of all oxygen when inflating the tire with N2, if the normal situation would be about 20% O2, the 'N2-filling' will also contain a 'substantial' portion of O2.
Next time I inflate my tires I think I will just use my medical compressor (dried and filtered air), and fill my tires with 'very dry' air.