Huh?

Isn't that the same as saying if A = C, and B = C, then BANANA!

I think we're confusing electric car dryers with leaf blowers. Leaf blowers are those things you use to blow leaves around your yard, and/or suck up stuff into a bag. A car dryer is a device used for drying your car, (here's the key) and nothing else.

I can see using the leaf blower to suck up debris, than turning around to dry your car isn't the smartest idea. But if the blower is only ever used as a car dryer (blower), shouldn't you be safe from debris? (Unless of course it's literally raining rock, dirt, and debris at the time you decide to dry off your car, than well, you have bigger issues.)

 

That analogy is not valid. On the road it's actually worse than using a blower as you have stuff being kicked up by cars and trucks and likely a lot more crap on the road. With a blower, you have... air.

The point is, what amount of debris are you going to be blowing at your car? Do you have a debris feed pipe on your electric blower?

No matter how gentle, virtually any physical contact with the paint can and will induce marring. The water blade, as much as I appreciate it and use it, will induce some SERIOUS marring if you're not extremely careful about cleaning the blade throughly, frequently and there being no dust and debris falling on the car from the environment. I would not rate it a "safe" method due to the potential for serious error.

Even a microfiber towel or absorber is going to pick up and push around dust and dirt (perhaps missed during a wash, perhaps again environmental) or the fibers of the towel themselves can cause marring (however light).

A blower is blowing AIR at your car. It's not a pressure washer or a sandblaster and unless you're drying in a barn or construction site, I see very VERY little concern for paint damage from a blower (even then, I see you just getting it dirty again). It actually presents the lowest possibility of marring of any drying method. I wouldn't use an absorber because it doesn't have the "pockets" that microfiber does, that can pick up stray dust and pull it away from the surface. It's the same reason you don't use a sponge to wash the car - it PUSHES dust and dirt along instead of picking it up like the fibers of a sheepskin mitt.

Look at it this way - you don't get swirls in your paint from driving (or blowing it dry). You get swirls from physical contact with the paint. From washing and from drying with towels and other materials that come into physical contact with the paint. Less physical contact = good.

 

My roommate would always drive his car around the block after washing and before drying.

Perhaps that would settle the debate. :-)

 

I use the Absorber no complaints here.

 

hehehe... I've done this before, as well. The only problem with that is that it WILL kick up dust and dirt (as well as water from the tires and wheels) onto the car, which you're then going to be rubbing into the paint. Not so good.

 

My uncle who's very particular about his car does this too. My jaw dropped when he suggested it to me. I think he dries the whole car first then just drives around to get the water out of the cracks and crevices. Luckily, he recently switched to using a leaf blower instead.

 

hey i hope u guys dont get mad but well i washed my car for the first time and use a sheep wool glove to wash it and dried with a regular shammy but now i have spider webs what the best way to get those out and umm so im confused i should get a leaf blower and a big blue correct??

 

Please explain. What are spider webs?

 

It was probably the chamois that put the cob webbing in your paint. You should get yourself a good waffle weave microfiber towel. Big Blue is a popular example of such a towel. Personally, I'm currently using the Ultimate Guzzler by Cobra which I bought from Autogeek. Of course, you won't be able to get rid of the cob webs without polishing the paint.
Cob webbing or spider webbing (also sometimes called swirls or swirling) are very light scratching in the paint. When you look at the paint in the sun you see lots and lots of scratches which look like concentric circles or a spider's web. The problem is usually caused by poor washing or drying tools and/or techniques. The only way to remove them is to polish the paint. If the scratching is deep enough it may require re-painting to get rid of them. If you look at most cars on the road at least 90% of them have cob webbing in the paint, because the average person doesn't care enough to learn how to prevent them.

You can see some cob webbing in this picture around the door handle. FYI . . . the up & down marks on the rest of the door are not cob webs, but rather buffer trails caused by poor buffer technique.

 

coool thanks for the 411