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Adding friction in my tunnel

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RAATCB

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I have a full service hand car wash. We wash appox. 150 to 200 cars per day with two guys washing cars. When cars come in not too dirty, the cars most of the time come clean. But when cars come in dirty after a rain storm, most cars are still slightly dirty. I can't ask more from the soap washers that are washing the vehicles. I have tried new guys and retrained on how to wash a vehicle but still vehicles come dirty.

I was thinking of adding a motor city rocker panel brush after the guys wash the vehicle to pass the side again. That is mostly where the vehicle is still dirty.

Does anyone have any ideas for me? I was thinking electric drive because I do not have much power available. Are those motors reliable?
 
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washnshine

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RAATCB said:
I have a full service hand car wash. We wash appox. 150 to 200 cars per day with two guys washing cars. When cars come in not too dirty, the cars most of the time come clean. But when cars come in dirty after a rain storm, most cars are still slightly dirty. I can't ask more from the soap washers that are washing the vehicles. I have tried new guys and retrained on how to wash a vehicle but still vehicles come dirty.

I was thinking of adding a motor city rocker panel brush after the guys wash the vehicle to pass the side again. That is mostly where the vehicle is still dirty.

Does anyone have any ideas for me? I was thinking electric drive because I do not have much power available. Are those motors reliable?
Click to expand...
What part of the cars are left dirty - only the sides/rockers? You said "mostly" the rockers, but are there other parts?

Is it dirty sections of the car that look like they have been missed, or is there a general film left on the car?

Are you high pressure prepping? Are you using a presoak followed by high pressure?

Do you towel dry? Does the towel dry take care of anything left, or is the dirt too heavy/prevalent?

Are the employees missing the lower parts of the car because it is difficult/tiring to bend to reach them? Are you using wash mits? Will switching to a boars hair brush help them to reach to the lower part of the car?

A set of low wheels will certainly help, but I'm assuming you hand wash because you have a customer base that prefers that type of wash. Once you add the side wheels, you are no longer purely a hand wash.


Just a few thoughts before you start to automate your line.
 
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washnshine said:
What part of the cars are left dirty - only the sides/rockers? You said "mostly" the rockers, but are there other parts?

Is it dirty sections of the car that look like they have been missed, or is there a general film left on the car?

Are you high pressure prepping? Are you using a presoak followed by high pressure?

Do you towel dry? Does the towel dry take care of anything left, or is the dirt too heavy/prevalent?

Are the employees missing the lower parts of the car because it is difficult/tiring to bend to reach them? Are you using wash mits? Will switching to a boars hair brush help them to reach to the lower part of the car?

A set of low wheels will certainly help, but I'm assuming you hand wash because you have a customer base that prefers that type of wash. Once you add the side wheels, you are no longer purely a hand wash.


Just a few thoughts before you start to automate your line.
Click to expand...
1. The sides/bottom especially when the vehicle is black, you can see all the spots that were missed by hand washing.
2. It is a combination of film and dirt. When the vehicle is washed, if any spots are missed you will see it when it is being towel dried.
3. Our procedure is: Pull vehicle in tunnel, brush the wheels, high pressure rinse the vehicle/wheels, prep brush with extra long and large hog hair brushes. Then the employee fires a roller, it goes threw a pre-reclaim rinse and soap arch, then it is hand washed with wash mits. (We are prepping and hand washing)
4. We do towel dry ( we are a full service car wash) If some small dirt spots are missed the guys will just wipe it off. If the car is too dirty we will bring it around again to wash (which I am so fed-up with)
5. The employee's do miss the spots. Why? many reasons: Lack of care, a lot of tiring labor, minimum wage. The list goes on and on. If a car comes in dirty and if any spots were missed by either the hog hair brush or wash mitts, you will see it when the car is pulled out of tunnel.
6. I am located in Los Angeles where everyone has this perception a machine wash will scratch their car. We have been a hand wash car wash for 16 years. It is getting harder because labor is getting more expensive and it is hard to find employees that will do that job. All my competition is hand wash. I wanted to add rocker brushes for now to clean the spots my employees miss and which are most noticeable when customers see their vehicle come out of the tunnel. I slowly want to introduce customers to the whole automatic equipment. Rocker brushes do not looks super aggressive I believe to a customer. Once we do install them I want to see if it helps with the cleaning process and see if I hear any complaints about it. If it all works out and customers do not mind it. I want to slowly add more equipment until I can eliminate the hand wash procedure.

Thank you for the questions you asked. Please let me know your thoughts. It all helps

6.
 
John J Spokas

John J Spokas

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3. Our procedure is: Pull vehicle in tunnel, brush the wheels, high pressure rinse the vehicle/wheels, prep brush with extra long and large hog hair brushes. Then the employee fires a roller, it goes threw a pre-reclaim rinse and soap arch, then it is hand washed with wash mits. (We are prepping and hand washing)

What is "a pre-reclaim rinse and soap arch"?
 
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washnshine

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Rocker brushes will look super aggressive to your customers - anything that spins fast and creates that amount of noise will be perceived as "tough" on the car to clientele that is paranoid about anything touching their car, as yours seems to be.

Perhaps the most mild piece of friction equipment in terms of perception, would be a mitter with a very soft material - like microfiber, but that will not help clean rockers.

I'm sure you are frustrated if with prep, hand wash and towel dry, you still have to send cars back through - I'd be fed up too.

If you want to add some automation, but are concerned with customer perception of friction, what about a high ph touchless type presoak application followed by a set of side blasters - parallelograms or oscillating zero degrees - whichever you want. Let your guys mit the car after that and even if there is anything left, it will not be too much for a towel dry to remove. The touchless portion will probably get most of your cars about 90% clean- your hand washers will then have some leeway if they get sloppy with the remaining 10% of film that is left for them to clean up. Follow that with the towel dry and that should cover most dirt issues you are running into.


Good luck - I'm sure there are many other suggestions that could help you out.
 
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RAATCB

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washnshine said:
Rocker brushes will look super aggressive to your customers - anything that spins fast and creates that amount of noise will be perceived as "tough" on the car to clientele that is paranoid about anything touching their car, as yours seems to be.

Perhaps the most mild piece of friction equipment in terms of perception, would be a mitter with a very soft material - like microfiber, but that will not help clean rockers.

I'm sure you are frustrated if with prep, hand wash and towel dry, you still have to send cars back through - I'd be fed up too.

If you want to add some automation, but are concerned with customer perception of friction, what about a high ph touchless type presoak application followed by a set of side blasters - parallelograms or oscillating zero degrees - whichever you want. Let your guys mit the car after that and even if there is anything left, it will not be too much for a towel dry to remove. The touchless portion will probably get most of your cars about 90% clean- your hand washers will then have some leeway if they get sloppy with the remaining 10% of film that is left for them to clean up. Follow that with the towel dry and that should cover most dirt issues you are running into.


Good luck - I'm sure there are many other suggestions that could help you out.
Click to expand...

Customers will not be able to year the rocker brush touching the cars. They will only see it if they are watching their vehicle going thru the tunnel. I was planning on putting the rocker brush right after the guys hand wash it. The auto high pressure cleaning sounds good, but eventually we will need to put friction in our tunnel. It is just the matter of when. The State might pass a $15/hour law by 2020. Right now the wages are $10/hour plus the burden of tax and workers comp. By adding this brush, I want to introduce it to customers and hear feedback. It doesn't looks nearly as aggressive as a top brush or wrap around.
 
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