I know a lot of you use leaf blowers to dry your car after washing. I've always used the old two towel method and don't own a leaf blower but wondered what you thought about using my shop air compressor. I have an 80 gal 2 stage compressor plumbed to 2 outlets in my shop and one in my garage using black iron pipe with a filter at each outlet. I have no oil added to the air stream anywhere as I add oil to my air tools when I use one. I have what I think is dry, clean air and short of it being a much more concentrated stream than a blower, any reason why I shouldn't use it to blow the water off my car? What pressure would you suggest?

Thanks,
Pete

 

Pete, probably better than using towels.

Christmas is about 5.5 months away. Put a MasterBlaster on your list. Buy when Phil at Detailer's Domain runs his Xmas sale with 25% off and free shipping. Best $300 I've spent on the Porsches.

 

Pete, from April 2017:

https://rennlist.com/forums/991/9871...ar-drying.html

 

Thanks LexVan, I should have done a little more thorough search.

 

You're very welcome. I'm a search savant and our search function sucks.

 

I read that thread when it was current. I then researched cordless leaf blowers (I already have a Stihl gas) and ended up getting a Worx 56V (?) for under $125 delivered on Amazon. Still don't have a new car, but that thing has a very good battery life when playing with it on the driveway. I don't know how many cycles it's good for or if it retains CFM/time of use during the battery's life, but it'll last plenty long to dry a 911 as it sits now.

 

Back in the 997.1 days, there was a member called OCBen did a similar thing...

 

youre on the right track, dry with microfiber towel, and use a yard blower to blow and run water out of the cracks, door jambs , trunk, dry as you go with the towels.
air comp is to little air its ok for engine or brakes
Watch wayne carrenni selling reverse vacuum cleaners on tv , its a neat concept but not enough bang for the effort

 

+ 1 on Master Blaster. Happy owner here.

 

Compressed air will likely have moisture in it. Could be rusty looking water if tanker is not drained regularly and if running the compressor hard in hot temps. With an after cooler you could limit this, but if you just washed you car you could be introducing nasty stuff to your clean car.

 

Master Blaster is very good, highly recommend buying it with the longer hose -- 30ft.

 

Just to pile on, I used a cordless Makita leaf blower and recently got a Master Blaster - it's awesome and as you might tell from my handle, my car is black.

I looked into compressed air as well - it's a legitimate risk with small of the smaller units (5 gallons and less) that you might inadvertently blow some rusty water and/or oil onto your paint.

If you get the MB, get yourself some comfortable hearing protection as it can be loud.

 

Whenever I try to use my air compressor to dry anything, it ends up making the object wet. It's a dirty kind of moisture too. No good.

Personally, I sheet the water to get rid of the tiny water drops, then use an air blower to get the big sections of water and the crevices and finish off the details with a MF towel.

 

Just tried the McKees turbo dryer from Autogeek. Around $150 w coupons. Did a nice job drying my S4 - I didn't use a towel and it took around 15 minutes. I did get some water spotting but my S4 paint is awful in regard to that issue and I am fairly certain with improved technique and weather (90 degrees today) I could minimize spotting. Much prefer the turbo dryer to the microfiber drying towels or chammy I had used previously.

Cheers,
NF

 

+1 on the master blaster, and unless you're really patient get the 8hp model with 30ft hose. makes cleaning the car so much easier and the results really show. I would recommend ear protection too because it gets loud!