How to use a self-serve bay

If you have only ever used an automatic tunnel, a self-serve bay looks like more work than it is. Ten minutes, one dial, and you get the wheel arches that a tunnel never touches.

Before you start the clock

Pull in, put the car in park, and take the mats out now if you plan to do the interior. Decide roughly what you want — a quick rinse, or a full wash with wax — because the clock runs on wall time, not on trigger time.

Then pay. Tap, chip, phone or coins all work, and you can add more at any point without losing what is left.

The order that works

Pre-soak first, and let it sit. The single most common mistake is going straight to soap. Pre-soak on a dirty car, especially low down and on the front end, then leave it while you walk round. It is doing chemistry while you do nothing, which is the cheapest minute you will spend.

Wash soap, top to bottom. Gravity is on your side; starting at the roof means you are not re-dirtying what you just cleaned.

Foam brush, if you want it — and rinse the head out before it touches the car. It is the only setting that makes contact with your paint.

Rinse thoroughly. More thoroughly than feels necessary, especially along the bottom edges and in the arches.

Wax, if you are buying one, over a rinsed car.

Spot-free rinse last. This is reverse-osmosis water with the minerals taken out, so the car can drip dry with nothing left behind. Finishing on anything else undoes it.

The pause button

Each bay has a pause button that stops your paid time for 30 seconds, up to three times per wash. It exists for the gaps that otherwise cost you money: walking round to the far side, moving the mats, changing the dial, or checking whether you actually got the back bumper.

Press it again when you are ready, or just wait out the thirty seconds, and the clock picks up where it left off. The remaining pauses reset when the wash ends, not when you add more money.

Then the inside

Vacuum and air are on the same dial and the same clock, so you do not move the car or pay separately. Do the mats outside the car, then the carpets, then the seats.

Use the air on the door jambs, mirrors and trim before you leave — in winter that stops water freezing the doors shut, and year-round it stops trapped water running down a panel you just dried.

What it costs

A dollar a minute, everything on the dial, no packages and no membership. As a worked example: two minutes of pre-soak, three of soap, two of rinse and one of spot-free is eight minutes — $8.00 — and that is a thorough outside wash. A quick rinse-off is two or three dollars.

You pay for the time you use, you can top up without losing what is left, and the pause button means you are not paying to walk around the car.

Questions people ask