Automatic Newbie

[ScottP]

I just installed my first automatic 3 weeks ago. A WW 2.0 with wheel scrubbers. So far so good. No major problems and the distributor has been great. He set me up with Blendco Supersat System. It's doing a great job cleaning the cars. But today I needed more detergent, the bill for a 30 gal drum almost killed me. I checked on Kleen-rite's website to compare prices. Kleen-rite's prices are a third of the cost. I use KR concentrates in my ss and am happy with them. Are there automatic detergents as good as the Blendco products or should I pay the higher price? Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Waxman]

try this

www.carproductsinc.com

I have been very happy with quality and price as well as service.

 

[Greg Pack]

If I were you, I'd resist the temptation to change anything right now. if it's cleaning, I would use it at least through a seasonal change. You may can tweak your usage down a bit and save another 15-20% But I would stick with what's working until you get a good feel for what the capabilities of the product are.

Don't get stuck on drum/container costs. Figure costs per car. Although the rep will do volumetrics, I prefer car counts over a few containers. Take a notebook and write down car counts (accessible in your price & revenue button, option#7) Keep the log and do the math after a couple thousand cars.

 

[rph9168]

Just worked at a site using KR knock off in the Blendco system. It was using almost three times the amount of KR product that the Blendco product used and not doing a very good job. Decent show but poor cleaning. I would give what you have a chance and check cost per car in a month or so. You might be surprised to find out as someone has already said, drum cost is not nearly as important as use cost and performance.

 

[trentu]

"Don't get stuck on drum/container costs. Figure costs per car. Although the rep will do volumetrics, I prefer car counts over a few containers. Take a notebook and write down car counts (accessible in your price & revenue button, option#7) Keep the log and do the math after a couple thousand cars. "

Hard to do cost per car on the Blendco unless you do it over a couple thousand or so. I would write down the total cars washed as above on each surfactant and box of HPH I put into that wash then in about 2 weeks you can get a cost per car. If it costs you more than 15% of your wash price you are paying too much (my opinion).

 

[rph9168]

A Blendco rep can do a cost per car by doing a couple of titrations and volumetrics. For a rep not familiar with the system there is a lot of room for error. I have found that calculations done by someone not familiar with the system tend to be way off. There is no need to wait for a car count and until the product is used. That is also a good time to fine tune if necessary. I have found car counts to give a good ball park number but volumetrics to be much more accurate. It depends on how much of a numbers guy you want to be.

 

[Greg Pack]

I have found car counts to give a good ball park number but volumetrics to be much more accurate. It depends on how much of a numbers guy you want to be.

I like numbers and the volumetrics is all well and good. But the problem is I'm not billed by my rep by his volumetrics calculations. I'm billed by the amount of product I take delivery of.

I've got a friend of mine who owns a few express tunnels and he loves his chemical guy. The guy comes in once a month, tweaks everything, does volumetrics and gives my friend a nice little printed report that shows how much each function is costing him. But when I asked him to go back and look at car counts and the amount of money he paid for chemical during an entire year there was about a 20% difference. Surprise, surpise, the volumetric and that nice printed report was on the low side. My friend is hung up on that cost per car report when a line item in quickbooks, and a calculator would tell him that report is wrong (or little pixies are siphoning chemical out of his drums at night) . Volumetrics seems to me to best case scenario in a controlled environment which can change as soon as the equipment room door shuts.

 

[rph9168]

Sounds like the chemical guy is fudging the numbers. If it is done right it should be very close to actual usage. If, not, you can do volumetrics yourself.

 

[RykoPro]

I have a customer who checks my volumetric calculation constantly at all four of their sites. If ANY of the five chemicals they use goes up (or down) at ANY of their sites, they call me and want to know why. We have been able to maintain .19 per car and still put on a great show. They are checking the cost per car by the actual chemical cost and how many cars they wash. Slight variations (.01 to.02 cents) have been noticed and expained by the fact they are not breaking it down to wash packages and are averaging all the wash levels. Any other changes in cost have indicated problems which were easily repaired. As stated by others, volumetrics are worthless if you are not checking the actual cost. Anyone can give you a cost per car but it means nothing if it is not constantly checked and scrutinized.