How we recycle 80% of our wash water
Running a car wash in the Sonoran Desert comes with a responsibility. The Colorado River and local groundwater supply millions of people, and we take our share seriously. Every SudsCity location is built around a water reclaim system that captures, cleans and reuses most of the water that goes into each wash.
Why a driveway wash uses more water
A typical garden hose runs about 10 gallons per minute. A 10 minute driveway wash easily uses 80 to 140 gallons, and all of that runoff, soap, brake dust and oil, flows into storm drains that lead straight into washes and rivers without treatment.
A modern express tunnel with reclaim uses about 38 gallons of fresh water per car at our sites, and everything that runs off is captured and treated. That is one of the reasons many Arizona cities encourage commercial washes over driveway washing during drought restrictions.
Step one: capture every drop
The tunnel floor slopes into trench drains that run the full length of the building. From there, water flows into a series of underground settling tanks. Heavy solids like sand and grit sink to the bottom, and oils float to the top where they are skimmed and removed by licensed haulers.
Step two: filter and treat
Water from the clarified middle of the tanks is pumped through cyclonic separators that spin out fine particles, then through filtration media. We add ozone treatment to control odor and bacteria, so reclaimed water stays fresh and clean.
That reclaimed water is used in the stages that need volume but not purity: presoak, underbody jets, wheel cleaning and the high-pressure wash stages.
Step three: spot-free fresh water where it counts
The final rinse always uses fresh water that has been through reverse osmosis. RO removes dissolved minerals so your car dries without spots. The concentrate from the RO system is not wasted either, it is sent back into the reclaim loop for early wash stages.
The numbers across our locations
Here is what our reclaim systems achieved last year across five locations:
- About 80% of wash water reclaimed and reused on average, up to 85% at Mesa.
- Roughly 38 gallons of fresh water used per car.
- Over 1.2 million washes completed with captured runoff.
- Zero wash runoff sent to storm drains.
What is next
Our newest Mesa site is testing variable frequency drives on every pump, which cut energy use by adjusting motor speed to the car in the tunnel. Solar shade structures at Tempe already offset part of that site's power use, and we plan to add them to Chandler next.
Water-smart washing is not a marketing line for a desert business. It is how we plan to still be washing Valley cars twenty years from now.
Keep it clean all month
Unlimited washes from $19.99/mo at 5 Valley locations. Sample pricing.
