Perhaps, it is not worth talking about what a mini-sink is, or, as it is also called, a high-pressure apparatus. I always, as if spellbound, look at the ease and speed with which the car becomes clean at stationary car washes. 10 minutes and the car shine. Each time the toad strangles to give 250-500 rubles for a ten-minute “shower”. Driving a dirty car is not only undignified, but also unpleasant to you. At the same time, spending an hour, or even more, on an independent car wash near the garage or in the country is often very pitiful, so you come, sooner or later, to the conclusion that it’s time to buy your own minisink.
Well, it can come in handy, in fact, not only for washing the car, but also for household needs. For the same cottage and garage, for example. But here you should pay attention to the class of washing. We will return to this a little later, but now let’s look at whether washing really helps to save money.
Is the game worth the candle?
Say, the cost of washing the body of a Ford Focus is on average 230 rubles. The cost of an entry-level household mini-wash is approximately 5,000 rubles. Of course, there are cheaper sinks of domestic and Chinese manufacturers; they can be bought for 3000 rubles, and sometimes even cheaper. Let’s say you opted for Karcher. For such a price, it will be possible to buy a series 2 or 3 minisink, which, as mentioned above, belongs to the initial class, that is, the Car Pressure Washer With Soap will be only 80-110 bar, and the productivity will be about 350 liters per hour. This sink is perfect as a helper in the garden to wash your bike or motorcycle. You can wash your car, but it will not be as quick and easy as you imagined. And we must keep in mind that such sinks, as a rule, require connection to the water supply. Of course, it is not difficult to find models, which can independently take water from tanks. As an example, again Karcher. Delvir can also “feed” on its own, but for this you first have to fill the hose with water and only then lower one end into the container. And it is desirable that it be slightly higher than the sink itself. Please note that with this method, the productivity and washing resource are significantly reduced.
If you use such a sink, observing operational requirements, do not overload it and supply enough water to the sink, then it will serve you for three, or even all five years. We will assume that the user does just that, and the sink will work properly for 4-5 years. Here it should be understood that the year for most mini-washes will be considered the season from May to October, when it is warm outside, because only a few can afford to use a year-round sink – those who have a heated room with a drain for water, because budget sinks do not tolerate too hot water and are not heated. There are 52 weeks in a year, that is, if you wash your car once a week on weekends, you will get 26 washes per season, converting into rubles – 5980 rubles. In other words, given the cost of detergents, such a mini-wash will pay off in a season, and for the remaining 3 seasons it will save about 15,000 rubles more. But now let’s talk about the factors that can make adjustments.
Performance
An important indicator showing water consumption. It is usually directly proportional to the water pressure. In cheap mini-washers, this figure is not very high – only 340-550 liters per hour (5.6-9 l / min). And here lies the danger. As mentioned above, the resource of mini-washes is limited, on average, as practice shows, this is 50 hours. But the less water the sink consumes, the longer it will take to wash, and the less it will serve you. In addition, the instructions for most car washes costing 3-7 thousand rubles say that continuous operation for more than half an hour can lead to the failure of the device.
There is one more thing to be understood. Many country water supply systems cannot provide the supply of the required amount of water. For example, it may happen that the washing capacity is 9 liters per minute, but the plumbing can only provide 8 liters per minute. This will lead to overheating of the pump and increased washer wear. Not to mention the cases when water is supplied by gravity from some kind of barrel. The warranty is unlikely to help here, since operational requirements were not observed. You need to be attentive to such things and try to wash the car, for example, at a time when no one is watering in the dachas and the pressure in the system is higher.