Maruti Suzuki Dry Wash System

[box type=”shadow” ]While the conventional method of car washing is still being widely resorted to in India, Maruti Suzuki has moved ahead in setting examples of going waterless.[/box]

The two-bucket soap wash conventional systems of keeping cars clean is still considered convenient, in spite of the fact that water is fast becoming a scarce commodity. Interestingly, many have opted for single bucket wash system where a diluted soap water is used to wash and clean the car!

An interesting report published in Financial Express explained the new waterless system of car wash introduced by Maruti Suzuki.

Select Maruti Suzuki dealers have adopted the new waterless system. Here is how this system works and helps save water.

Maruti Suzuki, in its initiative towards saving water, has introduced a waterless wash system which has a substantial reduction in water consumption during cleaning a car. If your car has gone for a service or any other aftersales treatment, the final bit that happens after this is cleaning the car inside out. A conventional method would involve a high-pressure wash which not only takes a considerable time to clean, but also involves wastage of a lot of water. Since salt water or non-edible water would reduce the life of the paintwork on a vehicle, dealers have to resort to ground water in order to wash the car thoroughly. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, however, is now moving from the conventional method to a new ‘Dry Wash System’. Not only the wash time for workers has reduced to 20 minutes from approximately 45 minutes on each vehicle, the new method has saved around 216 million litres of water every year. The system is available in 1,130 workshops and nearly 2.28 million vehicles were cleaned using this system in the 2016-17 fiscal year. This is three times the increase of the cars cleaned using this method in the 2015-16 timeline.

The Dry Wash System involves using comparatively lesser quantity of water without compromising on the quality of cleaning. The entire kit consists of a dry foam polish, micro fibre cloths, wipers and towel hand gloves. The process starts off with dusting off the car with excess dirt or dust after which the car is sprayed with the dry foam wash. This is the only place where the cleaning process involves water which is minimal. To put it in perspective, if the conventional process involves 20 litres of water, this system involves barely 500ml. Once the foam is sprayed, it is allowed to settle and then spread across the entire exterior of the car using the hand towels

The next process involves cleaning the body of the car with a micro fibre cloth, however, before the cleaning starts, windows, rear glass and the windshield are cleaned using wipers, after which the entire car is cleaned using the microfibre cloths. The time taken for the entire system is approximately 20 minutes which is considerably lesser than the conventional method since it needs a lot of water which needs to be dried up more than once, even using a micro fibre cloth. Here this sweep has to be done once, or at most, twice.

The system isn’t a completely waterless one, however, the amount of water saved is not just considerable, but, substantial. Not only does it reduce the amount of operation costs at a dealership, it also reduces the water consumption involved in cleaning a vehicle.

With Maruti Suzuki’s initiative across a number of workshops, the company not just plans to have a cost-effective method for workshops, but also, make this entire process more environment-friendly. At this World Environment Day, the company has started what would be a small initiative to save water but it is a positive commitment which would go a long way in conserving natural resources and the environment.