I saw on the news earlier in the week that parts of Devon and Cornwall now have water restrictions in place because their reservoirs are a lot lower than they usually are at this time of year. We're only just about to hit May and we haven't had any particularly decent spells of dry/sunny weather yet, so it got me thinking about whether Severn Trent Water will finally succumb to imposing a hosepipe ban this year. Last year we got away with it in Gloucestershire, but if water companies are already thinking about this stuff before the beginning of Summer I started wondering if I should invest in some ONR (or similar) and a number of cheap noodle mitts. I know that people use these dedicated sponges with rinseless wash products, like ShiWarrior above, but nothing can get me to use any kind of sponge on car bodywork again, so it'll be some cheap noodle mitts for me. I don't mind using a sponge on my presentable, but by no means perfect (silver)alloy wheels, but thats all the work I might get a sponge to do these days.
For the usual pollen/Saharan dust/other lighter dirt we get in the summer I might give ONR a try, but I wouldn't use it for cleaning any major dirt. If it doesn't work, it looks like it can be diluted for other uses such as the interior, so all would not be lost. I'd try it out on the E92 first because it needs a proper polish session and it isn't black like the E46 (which has far less swirl marks than the E92 despite me polishing by hand) so any post-wash problems would stand out less.
