Pap's Mobile Carwash #bookit

From the archive. Originally published on migmol.com on 2019-04-16, recovered and republished here in 2026 at its original address. Unedited except for formatting.

At the core of it, what Pap’s Mobile Carwash provides you is better use of your time. When you go to your neighborhood carwash, you don’t know how many cars are in the queue and even if there’s no queue, you’re left to wait while the crew washes your car. And yes, for some people going to the carwash actually means a bit of me-time, but if you’d rather spend time waiting elsewhere or doing something more productive, then a by-appointment carwash home service might be worth trying out.

I downloaded and used the Pap’s Mobile Carwash app to book my appointment. The app was pretty straightforward and an hour after booking, the crew arrived in an interesting-looking ‘souped up’ tricycle. The crew brought their own water pump and cleaning apparatuses. You do have to provide them with water and an electric outlet, but in the case that you don’t have an outlet, they actually also have a generator in their trike.

They had a 2-man crew and were pretty thorough with the cleanup. They did a pre-rinse, doused my car in foam, rinse, and even did a final drying. The package I got (which was the most basic one) also included a vacuum-service and tire-black. They also sprayed a ‘signature scent’ in the car after the vacuum.

Excluding the time it took us to figure out where to get the water and plug their extension chord, the whole thing took around 30 minutes.

Depending on your local car wash, the rate is actually pretty good. It’s definitely cheaper than the carwash services in mall parking lots which offer the same convenience. They also have the option to pay using a credit card so that adds points for convenience as well.

Disclaimer: I later found out that my building doesn’t allow washing cars in our parking level so that should be another consideration for this home service.