Automatic Car Wash (home-made!) entry by Avatar-X 1/23/2011 3:03 AM
In the last week or so, I built my very own automatic, home-made car wash. It has two stages, a soap stage and a rinse stage.
I made a video here that showcases it:
Make sure to watch in HD!
There's basically two 24VAC irrigation system valves that are activated via remote. One valve opens a direct water flow, for the rinse, and the other valve opens a flow that passes through a siphon mixer. The siphon sucks soap out of a bottle and mixes it with the water to provide a soapy wash.
Check valves are used to keep the two water flows from interfering with each other. After this initial part, the water splits out into an 8-foot-wide section of plastic piping with small holes cut into it. There are angled sections to spray the sides of the car.
I'm planning on upgrading this with an underbody sprayer as well at some point. But for now, it is super fun!
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