Water Restrictions

[grant]

Current Restrictions 3A (Melbourne)

Stage 3a Water Restrictions


Vehicle washing
An efficient commercial car wash that uses 70 litres of water or less per vehicle can be used. A bucket filled from a tap can be used to clean windows, mirrors and lights; and spot-remove corrosive substances.

From Aug 1 2007

Stage 4 Water Restrictions

Vehicle washing
A vehicle may only be washed for health and safety reasons. A bucket filled from a tap can be used to clean windows, mirrors and lights; and spot-remove corrosive substances.

This also applies to commercial car washes.


How is this going to affect us all? How will you cope with going out 2-3 times per week during snapper season and not being able to wash your rig. I am going to get a water tank and use it just for the boat.

g./

[hillbilly]

I think im pretty right now as I have invented a new way of washing the boat.
I have got my hands onto a fire extinguisher that does the job just fine, its a 9 litre refillable water extinguisher, I fill it with water, pump some compressed air in and fire away, it works like a beauty, costs nothing, is easy to use and saves water.


Kaz

[ozdevil]

water restrictions maybe getting tighter and i think they should be specially seeing thou our dams are low

there is auto shops such as sprints , repco, autobarn and even kmart and big w sell cleaning aides that do not use water to keep vechiles clean... I am not sure how these products will handle our boats but i reckon it is worth a shot

water is precious

cheers
OZ

[brent]

This is interesting. Presently I wash the boat at a commercial car wash and focus on getting salt water off the trailer and boat hull. That, and flushing the motor are the most important things to me. I doubt they will stop us from flushing our motors (if they did, no one could/use their boat unless they had their own tank), but if they stop us from washing salt water off trailers, then that would pose a problem. We store our boat in storage 20km from where we live, so tanks are out of the question.

Kaz, I'd be really interested to hear a bit more about these refillable water fire extinguishers! Sounds like a great idea! How do you pump air back in? Does it have a simple valve?

[hillbilly]

Hi Brent,
The extingusher has a simple valve, just fill it with 9 litres of water then replace the hose valve and guage hand tight and pump the air in through the valve, I use my battery pack that also has a small air compresser to pump the required amount of air into it but you can use any cheap air compresser or even a manual car or bike tyre pump.
After a messy days fishing I can clean my 4.2 metre boat inside and out with 11 litre of water, 2 litres in a bucket to sponge her down then the 9 litres in the extinguisher to hose her and the trailer off.
Im also getting a plastic barrel that I will cut down and use as a flush tank and for this I will collect rain water to fill it.

Kaz

[lampukameister]

I suppose it is lucky we are getting a tank - although I don;t think motor flushing is a problem.

sadly stage 4 will mean commercial car washes also need to shut. this is a shame as I like using them to clean the boat as they are quick and efficient and the refuse (scales and slime) stays at the car wash and not my driveway. worth the $4 in my view.

[hillbilly]

You dont realise just how much upheaval the water restriictions really are.
There will be more unemployment when the car washes close down as well as all other areas where water is relied upon in the work place,
I did not realise just how bad the drought was until flying over to Tassie a couple of months ago and seen the ground from above, empty or near empty dams, brown and not green landscape, dead and dying lawns and gardens ect ,was a truely disheartening site to see.
Yet you still get the water thiefs who think that by watering their lawns and gardens before daybreak they wont get sprung, Not so, It gave me great pleasure dobbing in a water cheating nieghbore for doing just this and I will do it again.

Kaz

[Peter Vermaas]

Here in ballarat we have been on stage 4 for about 6 months you will find that most of the car washes will put in tanks and purchase their water from private sources and pass the price rise on to users


Our water board still allows outboards to be flushed,

pv

[Burv]

Hillbilly, what kind if fire extinguisher is that? Are they commercially available and where? Sounds like a great idea!

[glensim]

Sounds like a great way to save time and money