Q: Why am I seeing "Absolutely No Mud" signs at car washes around West Texas - I thought that's what car washes are for.

A: You won't see signs like the one below (at a Lubbock car wash) at Red Baron. However, a few practical considerations apply. More and more car washes are disallowing mud altogether for these reasons:

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1. The enormous cost of disposing of mud. It costs $750-$1,000 each time the pits are pumped at Red Baron.
2. If a customer leaves mud on the bay floor it can render that bay unusable until the owner discovers the mess and cleans it up, and vehicles can track the mud all over the parking lot where customers with clean cars have to drive through it.
3. The newer car wash features such as credit card readers and dollar bill acceptors in the wash bay, do not tolerate being blasted with mud.
4. It is unfair to the next customer to leave mud for him/her to have to trek through.
5. These are car washes, not maid services:-)

Q: What's the big deal about cleaning my BBQ'er or a little grease off an engine block?

A: The black residue and/or grease from BBQ'ers gets on the walls and gets on the spray wand and hose then the next customer gets it on their hands and clothes. As for a greasy engine block, as long as it's under the hood of the car that brought you to the car wash, that's fine. We don't allow other greasy parts to be cleaned for the reasons above, and because the TNRCC tests the mud in our pits periodically and if they find trace amounts of oil/grease, chemicals, etc in the mud it can create a lot of problems.

Q: I know your signs say No Semis/Tractors/Grease but what if I clean up after myself?

A: We tried that. We had a few local truckers and BBQ owners who were very good about cleaning up after themselves and thus we gave them permission to wash their equipment at Red Baron. However, we had to stop making exceptions because other, less respectful people would see them there and think it's ok to bring their semi/BBQ'er/tractor and leave a big mess.

Q: Can I lower my tailgate and clean out my pickup bed?

Not if there are any of these items in your bed which we don't want cluttering up the bay or plugging the sewer line:

1. Nails, screws.
2. Leaves, twigs, landscaping bark, grass clippings.
3. Deer corn
4. BBQ'er residue.
5. Cigarette packs, chewing tobacco tins.
6. Restaurant cups/sacks or any other trash

If you wouldn't want it in your driveway, we don't want it either.

It is a delicate balance between providing a clean pleasant place for customers to wash their vehicles, and seeming too restrictive/petty. Toward that we listen closely to our customers, and as long as there is a 100-to-1 ratio between customers who comment about our car wash being nice and clean all the time, and those who think a car wash is a place to clean the grease/mud they don't want at home and dump old car batteries and television sets, we feel like we're on the right track.

We always appreciate your comments about how we can make Red Baron Car Wash better. 

Send mail to adams@door.net with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: January 27, 2008