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Something to think about.

I normally like to take my car in to a car wash after riding on the road after the snow is cleared off to clean the under side. I never really gave it any thought but I had heard that they recycle the water at car washes and also heard that the filtering does not remove the salt from the water.

Should this be a concern or am I just being paranoid or am I just miss informed?
Wes

Obviously I don't know the specifics of what your car wash does, but simple mechanical filtration can not remove salt from water.

Of there's salt left in the water your vehicle would dry up and appear "white".

I'm just saying, you go in to wash the salt off from the under side, and the water is recycled so do you get more salt into tighter places since it's under pressure. Or am I just over thinking this?
Wes

It depends on what the water is recycled means. I suspect the car wash can answer that question, don't see how anyone here could answer it.

I asked a company that does an excellent job washing cars to answer the question based on their system.

"The wash water is reclaimed from the rinse water which is always fresh. So although there might be trace amounts of salt in the washing there is no salt in the rinse. The tanks that collect the rinse water are thousands of gallons in size and many of them collect rain water too, further insuring that the reclaimed water is diluted of salts."

Kaady Car Wash - Environmentally friendly car washes serving Oregon, Washington and California with the wash methods and cleaning products fine auto manufacturers recommend.

How about using the quarter places? I used to use them in snow/salt country when was too cold to drag out the hose at home. You get hot soapy water and filtered and treated rinse water.
Salt and now calcium/magnesium brine is very difficult to remove thoroughly, so I doubt your getting it all at the quickie car wash and need to follow up at home. Flush the fender wells and frame.

The two tank system answers most of the questions, but the rinse tank has salt in it ("trace" means ppm to me, and I doubt that). So the right question is "do you have separate wash and rinse recovery." I done learned something

As I understood it, the rinse water is always fresh. There is no recovery other than using it to replenish wash water.

The wash water is recycled, filtered and reused, but only for washing.

Go to the car wash late in the day for the no-wax price and get the benefits of free wax in the wash water?

A quarter!

Now I can sleep easier at night, just worrying too much. Thanks!
Wes