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Carwash Pit Cleanout sensor

bbohica

New member
Would love some advice and input from this community. I just started a new job and they have asked me to develop a sensing product that can tell how full the pit is and when it needs to be emptied, instead of just sending a truck out to clean it every month and cleaning a 1/4 full pit. I think it's a cost savings measure.

Do you all use something like this? Does it exist already?

I'm assuming a carwash pit is not like a septic system in that it isn't full of water all the time, it is just solids?

Any reason a simple time of flight distance sensor wouldn't work well to check the depth?

Are there any gotcha's I need to look out for in designing such a thing?
 
I have my 1x4" fits perfectly through my grates and I have marks on the wood showing how many inches below the drain the mud is.

Sounds like a solution looking for a problem
My thoughts as well, solution looking for a problem. But when a big chain carwash center has a few thousand stores, and tell us they would buy this thing if we had it, we're definitely going to investigate making it!
 
My thoughts as well, solution looking for a problem. But when a big chain carwash center has a few thousand stores, and tell us they would buy this thing if we had it, we're definitely going to investigate making it!
What car wash chain has a few thousand sites?

Mister has 500 and they’re the biggest in US from what I know.
 
We use a 4’ wood stick with measurement marks. We sample 3 areas of each pit as mud can move and the levels vary by location. That said if you can make a sensor I can attach to the drain pipe in the pit to know how much space exists before drain is blocked that could be helpful.
 
To answer some of your original questions, a car wash pit is typically a settling pit, and is constantly full of water. The exit drain is typically high in the pit, allowing solids to fall to the bottom.

As our industry grows beyond mom and pop locations, this type of equipment is becoming more important. I can see a use case for it but I'm not sure how exactly you would monitor the level of solids under water.
 
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