If you do have the opportunity, give it a good thorough wash and a good thorough wax job with a good carnauba wax before transitioning to the CA Duster. And do this two or three times a year. The finish will stay nice far, far longer.
Ive owned a lot of Black vehicles. My Fav is my …wait for it… Honda Blackbird…
Couldn’t resist.
I never liked the idea of the CA Duster…in my neck of the woods if your car is so dusty that you say to yourself…Hmmm my car is covered in dust…round here we call that stuff DIRT…and what you do is WASH your car. Been working for me for over 20 yrs
Blackbird
@keith just now noticed your comment. I’ve been meaning to try that. With your endorsement I’ll have to pick it up next time I’m at the parts store.
I’ve used California Car dusters for years. I’ll dust a car four or five times before it rains enough to need washing. I also see them being used on high dollar cars at shows all the time. If those picky guys use them, they can’t be all bad. Contrary to their advertising, they do not get better with age. They are treated with something, I would not call it grease, that helps to pick up dust. That’s the part that eventually wears out and quits picking up dust. I think they are very similar to those red 4’ wide floor dust mops that I see delivered by janitorial supply companies weekly. I tried one, without the long handle, on a car once. It seemed to work about the same.
I also have a California Water Blade. It’s very flexible silicone plastic sort of squeegee with a rigid handle. It saves a lot of chamois time, and works almost as well. I bought a cheaper knock off with a flexible handle, but I didn’t like it as well. They do snag and get holes in the blade so you have to watch for ornaments and chrome strips sometimes. Sometimes I’ll use a water blade on on a car between rain showers. One shower breaks the dirt loose with the blade, and the second rinses it off. It saves city water, and doesn’t leave hard water spots.
Been working for me for over 20 years
@“VOLVO V70” -
i) Even the guy who uses wear a mask - its that bad - it stir dust up in the process of moving the dust away from you. If you are to pass him, he pauses the blower without you asking him - he knows.
He just pushes the leaves to a corner and go away - once in a while he them picks the leaves and drop it in the trash. A tool for the lazy.
ii) On top of that, most are gas powered - I’ll leave it to your imagination. In CA there is a current program where you give up your gas powered blowers and get $50.
I think that in this product country someone came up with this “lazy product” without an environmental study - we got bought into it. Much like how lawyers sued tobacco companies, we need to do it.
Another hilarious innovation is at Trader Joe’s - their Soy milk containers have a seal inside - nowadays, when you turn the cap to open, it automatically cut the seal inside which you can not verify - when the product was launched, customers returned them saying it was already opened.
I guess the health dept. needs to place a ban on all motor vehicles with all the dust they churn up. It must be bad because here in the DC metro area I have even seen pedestrians wearing masks.
Instead of BLOWING a cloud of leaves and dust into the street or having a blower war with the neighbor’s yard…( it’s that cloud of who-knows-what that could be feared and regulated )…
try VACUUMING instead.
I have seven poplar, three ponderosa pine and two other trees on my small lot.
fall is a BIG deal for me…raking, bagging, etc.
Till I found yard VACUUM mulcher ( it is a blower too if you want. ) Best purchase ever for all these fall leaves. We have one of those roll-to-the-curb trash recepticals and for what amount of raked leaves would fit in there on trash day…the vacuum/mulcher would stuff ten times that amount !
This is not an advertizement but, sciconf, if you’re worried about your blower being regulated , or that cloud of dust…look at a vacuum instead. My electric one is made by Worx.
sciconf you did not answer the question. Why do you state the Health Dept is wanting to ban blowers . The trade in programs for gas powered equipment to battery powered is for air pollution not dust. The reason they stop blowing when you walk by is so that they won’t blow something in your eye.
Perhaps not the health dept. but some communities/cities have band the use of leaf blowers because of noise and internal combustion engine pollution. In the southwest dust pollution is as great of a concern as vehicle and small engine pollution.
From Wikipedia;
In addition to adverse health effects of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and particulates generated in the exhaust gas of the gasoline-powered engines, leaf blowers pose problems related to dust raised by the powerful flow of air. Dust clouds caused by leaf blowers contain potentially harmful substances such as pesticides, mold, and animal fecal matter that may cause irritation, allergies, and disease.
Noise pollution is also a concern with leaf blower, as they emit noise levels well above those required to cause hearing loss to both the operator and those nearby. Soon after the leaf blower was introduced into the U.S., its use was banned in two California cities, Carmel-by-the-Sea in 1975 and Beverly Hills in 1978, as a noise nuisance. There are currently twenty California cities that have banned leaf blowers, sometimes only within residential neighborhoods and usually targeting gasoline-powered equipment. Another 80 cities have ordinances on the books restricting either usage or noise level or both.
@"VOLVO V70"
Our dear friend @Nevada_545 nailed it
It was so obvious that I was puzzled when you keep asking me the question - anyway thanks to @Nevada_545.
@“VOLVO V70” - the reason he stops blowing is also because your nose constantly suck in air - besides your clothes, your exposed skin. The untold victim relevant to this forum is your car - he puts nice dust coat on a freshly washed car - he also comes during the weekends and Mondays - cars get washed during the weekend - a perfect combination.
@PvtPublic - Motor Vehicles that runs on bitumen do not cause dust like the leaf blower. Only some pedestrians wears mask because of special health conditions - I am sorry your analogy does not seems right to me.
@“ken green” - Thanks for the great suggestion - searched with your keyword - the specified brand came up first at $80. Great
@"VOLVO V70"
See "Ban Leafblowers! - DrWeil.com"
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/ART02059
I am sorry to see a lot of people greeted my original post with skepticism and …!
they banned the blower and all it s sins
then they called up god and banned the wind…
I was talking about the dust just kicked up by the tires, especially on dirt/gravel roads.The pedestrian mask was just a sarcastic comment to emphasize the silliness of banning blowers because they blow dust. If they didn’t the wind would. Like wes said.
i) Even the guy who uses wear a mask - its that bad - it stir dust up in the process of moving the dust away from you. If you are to pass him, he pauses the blower without you asking him - he knows.He just pushes the leaves to a corner and go away - once in a while he them picks the leaves and drop it in the trash. A tool for the lazy.
First off: You’re talking to a landscaper, here. It’s damn hard, physical labor, no matter what tools you use. I’d like to see you hack a week in my life! Far be it from a “lazy man’s tool”: it’s a tool that lets us 43-y.o. lawn guys reasonably consider a 10-year future in our chosen profession.
ii) On top of that, most are gas powered - I'll leave it to your imagination. In CA there is a current program where you give up your gas powered blowers and get $50.Gee, I'm heading out to CA this summer on vacation. I'm a scrapper, too, and have probably 4-5 blowers in my basement, in various states of functionality. I need to check this out--$50 is more than I can sell them for! That's MY kind of "green": the kind I can fold in half and stick back in my wallet!
See "Ban Leafblowers! - DrWeil.com"
I’ve seen Dr. Weil–and let me tell you, I doubt he could do an 8-hour lawn-mowing shift if his life depended on it!
This is the most offensive part of this push to ban leaf blowers, to me: almost ALWAYS spear-headed by folks who’ve never actually made a living in the industry (but always happy to tell ME how to do MY job better!) It’s implicitly class-snobbish, and (in CA) implicitly ethnic, too. Folks have latched onto a PC means of being a snob, under the pretext of ecology.
And, just like listening to some tipsy sports fan lecture an NFL quarterback to “stay in the pocket, ya dang fool!”, it rankles hearing people who obviously have NO clue or experience tell me how they can do my job so much better than I am. I wouldn’t really mind hearing a 30-year landscaping veteran tell me some tips on how to do my job in a “greener” fashion: I really DO mind being told the same thing by a big, hairy marshmallow with a bunch of letters after his last name.
So, @scionf, what is the experience behind your opinion on leaf blowers? How many years have you worked at landscaping in your life? What sort of equipment did you use?