About the operator
I Ran the Tunnel
Before I Reviewed It
From 1997 to 2006 I worked at — and eventually managed — Royal Oaks Car Wash in Shoreview, Minnesota. Nine years of tunnel chemistry, brush maintenance, winter salt seasons, and learning exactly what separates a wash that babies your paint from one that just gets it wet.
Since then I've spent 20 years in industrial laundry automation and controls — a different kind of wash, same obsession with machines that clean things properly. But I never lost my soft spot for car washes.
I've now run my own cars through every wash in the Naperville area, plus a few over in Bolingbrook. These are my honest, unsponsored takes: what each place does well, what they charge, and whether the membership is worth it.
How the scoring works
Every review follows the same method: I visit with my own vehicles, buy a wash like anyone else, and score six things — Clean & Shine, Paint Safety, Dry & Finish, Vacuums & Amenities, Value & Membership Math, Operation & Upkeep — on a 1–5 scale. Six dimensions, scored 1–5 each. Overall is the straight average — no weighting, no hand-tuning. Nobody pays for a review, and ad space never affects a score.