As per the subject, will it be odd or laughable if I use leaf blower to dry my car?
I just like the idea of blow-drying the car, logically easier streak-free result.
If it's fine, what's the right sequence after you rinse all the shampoo off the car? Do you wipe with drying towel first or blow first then drying towel?
From what I’ve read you need to be careful using a garden blower to dry your car. The key reason is there is no filter, so like most things used for outside they’re usually dirty. If you use it you could be adding some marks to your clear coat.
If you want to blow dry, buy a purpose built blower that has a filter. I can’t recommend any one in particular as I’ve not used one, but plenty of top end detailers use them, there should be plenty of info around.
This is an important point - I would only use it for drying the car and no other purpose. Otherwise you'd run the risk of blowing dirt and grit all over the car.
if a stupid idea works, it’s no longer a stupid idea
Never use a chamois, sponge, jelly blade or towel! You will create swirls (and scratches). Only ever use micro fibre cloths. Use two buckets with grit guards. Like driving it to dry it, a leaf blower will leave runs/water streaks. Use a big green sucker as others have mentioned, first, then blow dry any crevices with your leaf blower …….
no streaks if waxed and wiped up good
Sure, I've seen it done. My neighbour does it. I would worry about sending specs of dirt into your paint though. When I was a detailer, after a wash I would drive it into my shed and use an air hose as well as a chamois. But the air hose was filtered.
A dirty microfiber will scratch your paint just as much as a dirty chamois. I've seen it happen plenty of times. A good sized leather chamois holds alot more water and is easier to wring out.
Microfibers vary alot in terms of quality. The ones from the dealership were worth $15 each, and you opened up a new one for every chump who ordered the special coating. Never buy the special coating.
Plot twist. OP saw neighbour blow drying car and thought It was silly.
The local touchless car wash use what is essentially a massive leaf blower to dry the car when done. It does a pretty ordinary job because they have 2 jets that swing back and forth, so 1 blows the water to the right, and then the other jet blows it back.
Are you trying to avoid swirl marks or just to save time?
Blower alone will really only work best if the car has a Polish and hydrophobic sealant coat which helps the water glide off easily. Otherwise you could be there for ages trying to push it off with air as it sticks to the rough clear coat.
You'd be better off with something like this which has a faster rate of air flow and heat to dry the water contactless.
Or as people have suggested, the new large absorbent micro fibre clothes are also good. You risk swirls but if you haven't detailed the car yet then it doesn't matter.
Sorry OP, but it's a shit idea.
You could achieve the same result by just going for a short drive around the block
Wipe it down with a clean microfibre towel. Get a big enough towel so you only have to go over it once
If you find yourself getting streaks, then there are probably leftover chemicals after you wash the car (sometimes just the calcium in water).
If you don't wipe it off and just dry it, then you will get waterspots instead
I've got a ceramic coat and I've tried the driving around. Doesn't work. The leaf blower does.
It doesn't save any time though. Just eliminates the risk of swirl marks.
I'd laugh hard, snap a photo, create a meme and make you famous.
I've done this before. Who cares what they think.
It's a great way to get 90% of the water off. Still have to do a dry with a cloth but its much quicker.
And it's not the same as a drive…the drive would kick up dirt from wheels back onto car.
air blowers are great for the fiddly spots, around wheel nuts, mirrors, cracks & crevices, etc
For general drying, the Bowdens Own big green sucker & boss gloss is the best (But in true OzB style, wait for the next 25% or 30% off sale at Supercheap, Repco or Autobarn)
I washed my bike on the weekend and then went over it with the chamois. But given it’s a bike with lots of gaps for the water to sit in, I went over it again with the blower to flush the water out of the gaps and once again with the chamois for a final shine.
I couldn’t care less what my neighbours think. I like my bike too much to let it sit wet and drip in the garbage.
Try Dyson Supersonic™ hair dryer lol
I use a Ryobi One+ workshop blower to get water out of crevices and those usual spots the water likes to hide. Large microfibre drying towels to dry the panels. If your car has a decent hydrophobic wax/sealant on it and you take care to rinse it properly then most of the water will run right off and you won't have to worry about leaving streaks.
Maybe start another discussion on why you're afraid of being laughed at by neighbours…. That's the real issue here
I do that all the time followed by microfibre towel if needed. Helps a lot with streak marks
In all honesty, I don't think your neighbours would really notice or care.
The only thing I'd be concerned about is if the leaf blower somehow blows debris/dust back onto your car.
There are specific products for drying cars: https://www.amazon.com.au/SGCB-Powered-Velocity-Pressure-Fle…
However, the idea suggested above to use a small blower (not necessarily for cars) and then using the chamois to clear off any excess sounds like a brilliant idea.
If your car has a ceramic coating or wax, water will be beading and coming away quite easily anyway.
I've used a leaf blower on my cars for years, a microfiber/chamois is fine but it won't remove water from inside hard to reach places, panel gaps, behind mirrors/badges/trim, inside grilles, door jambs, etc. These areas carry quite a bit of water and will continue to drip on your paint once you've wiped it dry with a microfiber/chamois.
You do need to have well maintained paint and a decent hydrophobic coating for it to work quickly. Blow as much water as you can off the car, then go over with a plush microfiber and quick detailer, I use Nova Boost.
If you're embarrassed to use a leaf blower get yourself a Bigboi BlowR, I have one and it's great but I still use my leaf blower too.
I use leaf blower to dry my bicycle
I also use leaf blower to empty a small garden pond. Dont have time to scoop the bottom water.
Maybe I am older now, I really dont care too much what other people think, especially when I am in my own property.
Detailer use them all the time
Maybe just get an electric one
It is idiotic, complete waste of time, questions, like this, that the Moderator should filter from the site. It demoralises the integrity of what OzBargain is. People who pose such questions only assist in demonstrating how low the education standards have become in Australia. What a shame.
If you did it at 7am on the weekend, I wouldn't laugh, but you'd piss me right off for waking me up.
So be mindful of when you do it 😁
I hate leaf blowers generally, and I think you should take into account whether your neighbours really deserve to hear 20 minutes of you leaf blowing your car just so you can avoid using a chamois or similar for 5 minutes…
If it takes you 20 minutes to dry a car your doing something wrong.
Did try once.
Problem is it also blows dust and tiny pebbles and so on.
Perhaps a brand new blower, unused, with some sort of air filter (cloth or similar) will help.
Yes it is a great idea to dry with air. As a matter of fact automated car wash machines do that after the wash and rinse.
I used to do this when I lived in a house. Blower is great for grills, rims, and trims. You'd be surprised how much water there is!
As I've moved to an apartment I haven't the room to do it but wouldn't give 2 shits if my neighbours thought it was funny. You know why you're doing it
For me it was microfiber, blower then microfiber for spots.
use a Hair Dryer ..
'will it be odd or laughable if I use leaf blower(reviewgeek.com) to dry my car?'
not only odd and laughable, but your neighbours will also probably hate you and want to kill you if you spend 20 minutes disturbing their peace with your noisy toy
about a month ago a neighbour over the road obviously got one of these as new toy and spent 20 minutes disturbing me with blowing something from her 3 steps in front of her terrace house. Then with nothing else to do, spent the rest of the time blowing stuff on the public footpath. The same job would be 2 minutes with a broom. That was once only - I haven't seen or heard that since. Anyway, she's entered my bad books as a local R Soul who will not be getting any friendly greetings from me - but that's no difference as the guy there is already a well-known R Soul …
and someone else said - it might also end up scratching your paint from high-speed forced impact of dust and tiny stones - so yeah, sure, please continue, if you don't care about your neighbours hating you …
Using a blower to dry your car is a thing, but probably best to use the Google machine for your answer given some of the responses here and I couldn’t be bothered writing a full car detailing guide.
In short, it can be a very useful tool in both removing water and reducing paint marring, particularly in soft Japanese car paints for example.
If however you wash your car with a floor broom and dry your car using the sun, maybe not so much.
I specifically bought a blower for this reason. Im a car guy and i have a black car. Using the blower prevents all the streaks of water that come out of the crevices after washing the car. No cloth can prevent this.
The blower has it's place in car detailing. Every time I shut a door after washing the car, water falls out of the mirror or the door seals and runs down the door and leaves streaks. By hitting all these crevices with a blast of air you're forcing the water out into the open to then be picked up using a microfibre towel / chamois / bath towel / whatever.
I have a small 18v ryobi that I use for this job so I don't have to store fuel, etc. Plus some of my neighbours are real scum (theft, damage to poperty, etc.) and they hate when I use the blower. Win/win.
Why do you care what the neighbours think?
i would wipe down as much as i can first, then blow dry.
a real leather chamois is awesome, it absorbs a lot of water.
also i used a silicone blade that is similar to the idea of a wiper blade. works really well. always start from top and work down to bottom.
Go for it!
It’s a common method for various detailing experts on YouTube.
I have tried it with my leaf blower. It works but is not as effective as a proper drying towel, You will do it a few times and then find that you are spending more effort and time than just using the proper drying towel., Think why dont the professionals do it, its because proper drying towels are the right tools for the job
Bruh who cares about yo neybore
I use my garden blower to dry my car all the time! Been doing it for years to get rid of most of the water. Can't be stuffed wiping it down when it's parked outside anyway.
Thing is people actually behave like sheep. See one person happy to do it then suddenly it's ok. I've even seen a neighbour on the opposite side doing it in the past few months as well now.
You wouldn't want to dry the entire car this way and it doesn't prevent streaking anyway. Well not unless you wash it every few days so there's less and less residue of soap, grease, cleaning products, road grime, etc each wash until there's nothing left to streak. What I do use one for is blowing water out from behind trim, around glass, mirrors, etc after washing. I began doing it after I heard a car enthusiast interviewed on the radio years ago. He was asked how he prevents his rare cars rusting. He said he uses a leaf blower to get all hidden water out so it's not sitting still quietly rusting tiny scratches into big holes. Anyway I wash, then dry with a couple of towels that are kept only for car use. Then I walk around and blow all the hidden water out with the blower. It would be so slow drying the entire car with the blower. The big soft bath towels are much quicker. And using the blower for the hidden water means no streak the moment you drive the car and all the hidden water streams across the clean panels.
I too care about my neighbours opinion of me. It’s so very important than what I want to do in life
I regularly consult with mine for day to day purchases, to see if their ok with it, including toilet paper.
I use the blower to dry my Cars and Motorcycles. Then use clean microfiber cloths to finish it off.
I do it too! Got a 18v Victa blower that I use to get the water off the roof and bonnet
Wasting electricity. Polluting the world. Hope the earth has less of this people.
Do you not own a clothes dryer?
No. Use the sun, get the Vitamin D to the clothes.
I do this all time, with a EGO cordless blower, and follow it up with a quick microfibre wipe.
Just get a big green sucker when they're on special and go to a bit of effort.
I have done this before, many times with few leaf blowers. I was watching Metrovac master blaster revolution for few years. Then found the bigboi pro and jumped in to it as it is Aussie designed product and the hose had very good reviews. If you are a car enthusiast and value your time, these car blowers do much better job with filtered hot air, low noise and they will last for many years. Watch youtube reviews for more details of these products.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g_n3E97Brc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hdhnzceOfA&t=369s
The Pan the Organizer video is a little misleading as the video has been sped up. In the comments, he admits to using his EGO blower instead.
Thanks for the bigboi video. Seems effective but loud.
You can use the hose to take most of the water off. Turn the pressure down so it sheets across the surface and if your car is waxed or ceramic coated you will end up with significantly less water on the car.
The blower works well to get the rest off and out of all the cracks and crevices without causing paint swirls, alternatively a BGS microfibre or similar.
I don't care if my neighbours laugh at me.
If i was your neighbour, i couldn't care less.