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Pandora's avatar

Has anyone tried using a leaf blower in your car to clean it up?

Asked by Pandora (32436points) September 28th, 2022

I just read some comments about how to quickly clean your car interior without vacuuming and more than one person said you open all your doors and run the leaf blower through it. I don’t think it may work so great for dog hair in the mats or carpet but I can see it working to blow dirt and grit.
So if anyone tried it how good was it at removing dirt? Did you still have to vacuum afterward or did it look really good as if you vacuummed?

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18 Answers

chyna's avatar

It seems like it would be more trouble than it’s worth. You won’t have good control over where it is blowing and it will blow under your seats, up on the dashboard etc. With a vacuum cleaner, you can have total control of where you are aiming.
Just my opinion.
But I have heard of people drying their car off with a leaf blower.

gondwanalon's avatar

I use a leaf blower for the inside cab of my Ford F-150 and also to blow dirt and leaves out of the pickup bed.

Pandora's avatar

@chyna My biggest beef with vacuuming is getting into the tight spaces where crap falls but is nearly impossible to get out. That’s why I was thinking this may work. Though I don’t have to do my car too often. It’s pretty clean but once in a blue moon I will do my husband’s car. Like for his birthday or something and I hate how much crap always falls in the tight spaces. I swear it takes more time to clean those than the seats and mats.

Hawaii_Jake's avatar

One of my friends stayed in a very fancy, beachside house while the owners were away. When it came time to get it in shape for their return, he opened all the windows and doors and blew the leaf blower through the entire house. The owners raved about how clean the house was when they returned, and he disclosed what he’d done, and they all howled with laughter.

YES! Use the leaf blower.

chefl's avatar

I tried to search “https://tinyurl.com/3rnmbhsn (“leaf blowers without a bag negatives and positives”) I don’t know if this helps:
https://everythingbackyard.net/the-pros-and-cons-of-using-a-leaf-blower/

chefl's avatar

With a bag, as a person who happens to be nearby, you won’t be wearing the dirt, or worse inhaling it etc. (edited again)

ragingloli's avatar

No blowing of any kind going on in my car.

smudges's avatar

I’ve noticed that on dusty surfaces, if you just blow on them, the top layer of dust may go away, but there’s a layer that sticks to the surface. Like blowing on your sun/glasses or a wood table. So no, I wouldn’t trust a leaf blower to blow away dirt. Even though it’s more powerful than simply blowing with your lungs, it’s still leaving a layer of dirt. It needs to be wiped with a cloth at the very least, and use a conditioner of some sort at best.

RayaHope's avatar

I think that may blow stuff all over the place. That may make more work for you. Pet hair will be really hard to get with only a leaf blower.

jca2's avatar

This is an intriguing idea. My car has a lot of little debris stuff in the cracks between the seats and under the front seats and in the spaces between the mats and the edges. If I pull up to a car vac at a car wash, I can try and try but it’s almost impossible to get the debris out from under the seats and from the cracks.

I have a shop vac that has a vacuum and a “blow” switch, and I might try it with the blow switch. Same as a leaf blower, it just produces a powerful exhale.

Pandora's avatar

@jca2 That’s what I mean. I can guarantee that in 90 percent of the times I try to get into those tight spots to clean that I will scrape my knuckles or knock my fingers into something that will end up making me curse like a sailor. The tiny car vacs are crap and my regular vacuum doesn’t have anything for the narrow sides the long nozzles are awkward to maneuver and the short ones are too short and require me to contort my body to make them reach awkward spots. So I read about this and thought, hey, are does travel and can get into spots I can’t reach or are difficult.

jca2's avatar

@Pandora: And to add to that, if I use a car vacuum at a car wash or gas station, if it’s $1 each time, and it lasts for three-five minutes, it’s going to be at least one dollar for each side, and each front and back, so that would be at least five dollars right there. It’s almost easier to bring the car somewhere and have it done but the car should be cleaned out first, as far as clutter goes.

Pandora's avatar

@jca2 Exactly but where I live, they charge you an arm and a leg to clean the interior. Where my sister-in-law lives I had my car washed and waxed and the interior cleaned and undercarriage. We went to visit and my husband took a wrong turn and we got stuck in mud when he made a u-turn. The car was caked in mud. We had to be towed out. Anyhow, all that for 40 bucks in GA. Here there needs to be no mud and cleaning the inside is called detailing. Throw in a wash and wax and they will charge you 300. I had it done one time to see how perfect they would make my car look and I still had to go around point out parts they missed. The 40 buck guys in GA, didn’t miss a thing and my husband said they did it real quick. I had to sit and wait for an hour for my car. This is why I do the inside of my cars. Washing and waxing here isn’t so expensive but you would think they sprinkled gold inside my car to do the interior.

jca2's avatar

We have, here, the inside cleaning when you get your car washed, which is a brief wipe of the interior and the inside windows, and I don’t know how much that costs. Then there’s the detailing you can get at a detail place, which is more “detailed” if you pardon the pun, and at least $300. It includes wiping the floor boards and really getting into nooks and crannies, probably with swab sticks and toothbrushes, and probably includes shampooing the seats and mats and making the car look pretty much brand new. I have a steamer, but my interiors are not that grungy. I need a good vacuuming out and maybe the seats could be vacuumed and shampooed. If I had a garage or a bay, I would do it myself.

I don’t know how good a hand held vac would be. Probably not too strong. The vacs at the car wash are ok but the hose is so long, I don’t know how strong the suction is.

Pandora's avatar

@jca2 Car vacs at car places are very good but they are often wide. I assume to make vacuuming faster but not good for small places and If you have a loose earing somewhere that you didn’t see right away, then say good bye to it.

Hawaii_Jake's avatar

Did you do it? Did you use the leaf blower? We want to know the results.

smudges's avatar

I thought of canned air, and wanted to get an idea of the price so looked it up…found these which you may be interested in:

https://www.amazon.com/SIN-SHINE-Compressed-Electric-AD01-Black/dp/B083LNC6NR/

https://www.amazon.com/Compressed-Generation-Electronics-Rechargeable-Destroyer/dp/B083GMMB5C/

Don’t know if they’d be powerful enough for car detailing.

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