HW04 • 20L HDPE WITH GRIT GUARDComing soon
20L Wash Bucket with Grit Guard
A heavy duty 20 litre HDPE bucket with a grit guard that sits in the base. Dirt you rinse off your mitt drops below the guard and stays there, away from your paint. Buy a single bucket in Black, Orange or Lime, or take the Two Bucket Kit and get the full wash and rinse set up in one box.
Read the full details ↓- Car wash checklist for beginners: kit list and golden rules
- Weekly car wash checklist: the Sunday Service printable
- Sunday Service: the weekly two bucket wash routine
- A dropped mitt is a dead mitt: what to do when your wash mitt hits the ground
- How to wash a black car without swirl marks
- The two bucket method: 20 questions answered
- Two bucket wash kit: what you need and what you can skip
- How to wash a motorbike with the two bucket method
- The two bucket method in winter: washing a salty car safely
- What size bucket do you need to wash a car?
- Wash mitt or sponge: which is safer for car paint?
- The three bucket method: do you need a wheel bucket?
- Do grit guards work? What they do and how to use one
- One bucket or two? What the second bucket actually does
- The two bucket method: how to wash your car without swirl marks
Full details
Choose your pack
- Two Bucket Kit: an orange WASH bucket and a black RINSE bucket, each with a grit guard and a snap on lid for storing your kit between washes.
- Single bucket: one 20 litre bucket with a grit guard insert, in Black, Orange or Lime.
Why two buckets
With one bucket, the grit you rinse out of your mitt goes into the shampoo and back onto the next panel. A second bucket of clean water takes it first, and the grit guard keeps it on the base. That is the two bucket method, and it is the simplest way to stop washing swirl marks into your paint.
How to use
Use two buckets, one with shampoo and one with clean rinse water. Shampoo in WASH, clean water in RINSE. Load your mitt in WASH, clean one panel, rinse the mitt against the guard in RINSE, then go back to WASH.
- Pre rinse and snow foam first, so the loose dirt is gone before the mitt touches the paint.
- Push a grit guard flat onto the base of each bucket.
- Add shampoo to WASH and fill it. At 1:200 a full 20 litre bucket takes 100 ml. Fill RINSE with clean water.
- Load the mitt in WASH and clean one panel at a time from the top down, in straight lines with light pressure.
- Rub the mitt against the grit guard in RINSE after every panel, squeeze it out, then load it again in WASH.
- Change the rinse water if it turns cloudy. Rinse the car and dry it straight away.
The full method is in our guide to washing your car without swirl marks.
Common questions
What is the two bucket method?
A way of washing a car with one bucket of shampoo and one bucket of clean water. You rinse the mitt in the clean water after every panel, so the dirt you remove does not go back into the shampoo or onto the paint.
Do I need both buckets, or will one do?
Both. With one bucket the dirt from the mitt ends up in your shampoo. One bucket or two has a test you can run on your own car.
Do grit guards work?
Yes, if you rub the mitt against them. The guard gives you a surface to scrub the pile on and keeps settled grit on the base of the bucket. See do grit guards work.
Is 20 litres the right size for a wash bucket?
Yes. It covers the grit guard with plenty of clean water above it and holds enough to wash a whole car without a refill. See what size bucket you need.
How much shampoo goes in a 20 litre bucket?
At 1:200 it is 100 ml in a full bucket, or 75 ml if you fill it to 15 litres. At 1:100 it is double that. Always follow the label on your shampoo.
Do I need a third bucket for the wheels?
Only if your wheel brushes get rinsed in a bucket. Then a single bucket in a different colour keeps brake dust away from your paint. See the three bucket method.
What are the lids for?
Storage. The kit buckets come with snap on lids, so grit cannot settle inside between washes and your mitts and bottles have somewhere clean to live.
Care
Rinse out after each wash and store out of direct sun. Kit buckets store with the lids on.
