You just rinsed the last of the soap off the car. So why is your lower back already dreading the next half hour?
Written by Dale Whitaker, Car Care & Garage Writer
It's Saturday morning and the car is rinsed, beaded with water from the roof down to the rocker panels. You fold an old bath towel to kneel on, pick up the drying towel and get down on the concrete for the lower doors.
By the time you stand back up your knees ache, and the sun has already left spots on the panels you haven't reached yet.
So you blame the years and buy a bigger towel. Keeping a car nice at your age just costs more, you figure.
A towel can only dry what it touches. It drags whatever grit the rinse missed across the clear coat, and it can't get into the mirror housings, the grille or the lug nuts. So the water it misses comes out later, as streaks down a door you already dried.
Once the water comes off with moving air, drying stops being the worst part of the wash. Until then you keep paying for a clean car with your knees and your back.
Same truck, two very different backs
Take two men on the same street who both wash their trucks on Saturday. One is 35. He towels his off in twenty minutes and goes straight to mowing the lawn. The other is 63, dries the same size truck with the same kind of towel, and spends the afternoon in his recliner with a heating pad behind his back.
Both trucks come out shiny. The kneeling and the reaching across the hood are what cost the older man his afternoon.
Most of us learned to dry a car from our dads
Sunday morning, a bucket of soapy water and a tan chamois that lived folded in a tin on the garage shelf. That is how a lot of us were shown, and back then the chamois was the best thing anybody had.
We kept the habit. Fifty years on, most of us use a microfiber towel and still bend, wipe, wring and repeat until every panel has had a hand on it.
That's how you end up on that folded bath towel by the rocker panel, wringing out the drying towel for the fourth time while the sun spots the panels you haven't got to yet.
Couldn't a better towel fix this?
I tried that first. I bought the big waffle-weave drying towels, then the plush twisted-loop ones the car forums swear by, and a silicone water blade for the glass. The car dried a little faster and my back felt no different.
A better towel soaks up more water per pass, and that's all it changes. It still needs a man bent over at the doors and down at the wheels, wringing it out every few panels, which is the part that hurts.
What it takes to dry a car without touching it
You need moving air with real push behind it: enough to sheet water off a hood and blow it out of the seams a towel never gets into.
It also has to be light enough to hold up with one hand for a whole car, and it can't overheat and quit halfway down the driver's side. The cheap cordless blower I had before did exactly that.
For the last month I've dried my car with the VortexHaus MACH, a cordless blower small enough to sit in my palm that runs on the drill batteries already in my garage. The towels have stayed in the cupboard.
What my VortexHaus MACH did on the first wash
The blower alone weighs about 0.7 lb. With my DeWalt® 5Ah pack clipped on, it feels like a decent cordless drill, and I can hold it in one hand for the whole car without my wrist complaining.
It puts out more than 2.2 lb of thrust. That's enough to push a sheet of water across the hood and off the edge, and to blast it out of the mirror housings and the grille. Nothing touches the paint at any point, so there's no grit dragged across it and no swirl marks.
The grip stays under 90°F even on a full battery run. When the pack gets low the MACH shuts off before deep discharge, so my battery comes back with charge left for the drill.
See if the MACH runs on the batteries you already own
Check AvailabilityThree things I have noticed on every wash since
1.
Nothing touches the paint
The air does all the drying, so no towel drags leftover grit across the clear coat. If your car has a ceramic coating, it comes out spot-free without anything rubbing on it. I still think about the swirl marks I put in my last car with a chamois.
2.
It gets the water a towel can't reach
Mirror housings, the grille, the badges, the lug nuts, the gap around the trunk lid. I hold the nozzle up to each one and watch the water run out before I put the car away.
3.
Off my knees for good
I dry the roof, the glass and the hood standing up, and the doors with a slight bend. I still crouch for the wheels, but I don't kneel on the driveway anymore, and the blower is light enough that one hand does the whole car.
What you get with the VortexHaus MACH
Over 2.2 lb of thrust from a body that fits in your palm, enough to push the water off the hood- About 0.7 lb before you clip the battery on, so one hand handles the whole car
- Under 90°F at the grip on a full battery run, so it stays comfortable from roof to wheels
- Five electronic protections with LED alerts, and it stops before deep discharge so your pack lasts
It runs on DeWalt®, Makita® or Milwaukee® 18 to 21V slide-in packs, the same ones that run your drill. The battery is left out on purpose, because most owners already have packs. You pick your system when you order and use what you've got.
You get 90 days to send it back for any reason, even after you've used it, plus a 1-year warranty. If it fails under normal use, the Bulletproof Build promise gets you a fast replacement.
VortexHaus is a US-based brand with a real support team behind it, which mattered to me after a cheap blower that came from nobody in particular.
What it handles on wash day, and after
- Roof and hood
- Windshield and glass
- Side mirrors
- Grille and badges
- Wheels and lug nuts
- Door and trunk gaps
- Ceramic-coated paint
- Snow off the truck
- Clearing the driveway
- Garage and shop dust
- Pollen off the patio
- Bikes and gear
About 0.7 lb bareUnder 90°F at the gripFive protections, LED alerts90-day money-backHow it fits into a wash day
1. Wash like you always do
Bucket, mitt, hose. Keep your soap and your routine exactly as they are.
1. Wash like you always do
Bucket, mitt, hose. Keep your soap and your routine exactly as they are.
2. Clip on your pack
Slide on the same DeWalt®, Makita® or Milwaukee® battery that runs your drill.
2. Clip on your pack
Slide on the same DeWalt®, Makita® or Milwaukee® battery that runs your drill.
3. Top down, gaps last
Roof, glass, hood and doors, then the mirrors, grille and wheels. The towel goes back in the cupboard.
3. Top down, gaps last
Roof, glass, hood and doors, then the mirrors, grille and wheels. The towel goes back in the cupboard.
What it does while you dry the car
- Pushes water off paint and glass without touching them
- Blows water out of mirrors, grille and lug nuts
- Stays under 90°F at the grip for a full battery run
- Stops before deep discharge so your pack comes back with charge
VortexHaus MACH versus a drying towel
| Feature | MACH | Drying Towel |
|---|---|---|
| Dries without touching the paint | ✓ | ✕ |
| Gets water out of mirrors and the grille | ✓ | ✕ |
| Clears water from the lug nut recesses | ✓ | ✕ |
| Nothing to wring out halfway through | ✓ | ✕ |
| Leaves ceramic coatings spot-free without rubbing | ✓ | ✕ |
| Clears the driveway and garage too | ✓ | ✕ |
| Nothing to launder after the wash | ✓ | ✕ |
What other owners say after a wash
"I went through two blowers before this one, and both got hot and quit before I had finished one car. I did my whole truck with this one and the body was barely warm when I set it down. It runs on my DeWalt® packs too, which is why I bought it."
"I did a lot of research for my truck. My worry with the small ones was heat in the hand, and this one doesn't get hot. It dries the truck quickly and leaves no water spots. Good-looking tool, too."
"I read reviews for a long time before picking a small blower and kept landing on this one for the cooling and the battery protection. Glad I did. It stays cool, and it never runs my Milwaukee® packs down to nothing the way my cheap one used to."
"I bought it to dry our car and now my husband uses it more than I do, on the garage floor, the deck, even the dog beds. It's light enough that my wrist isn't sore afterward, which I could never say about the gas blower."
From the VortexHaus team
Try it on your next wash
Use it on your next few washes. If it isn't for you, you have 90 days to send it back for any reason, even used.
Check AvailabilityWash the car the way you always have. Then leave the towel in the cupboard, clip your drill battery onto the MACH and dry it without getting down on your knees, with nothing touching the paint and no water left hiding in the mirrors. After one whole car done that way, kneeling on the driveway with a towel starts to look like a lot of work for nothing.
The VortexHaus MACH is a cordless hand blower for drying vehicles and clearing dust and debris. It works only with genuine DeWalt®, Makita® or Milwaukee® 18 to 21V slide-in battery packs and is not compatible with 12V, 40V, FlexVolt® or stem-style packs. The battery is not included.
DeWalt®, Makita®, Milwaukee® and FlexVolt® are registered trademarks of their respective owners. VortexHaus is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by these companies, and their names appear here only to describe battery compatibility. Grip temperature figures come from independent lab tests of the MACH.
This page is an advertisement from VortexHaus. The story and the people pictured are illustrative, and individual results vary. Customer reviews are paraphrased from verified reviews on vortexhaus.com, with names changed.
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