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colored led strip lights for IBA

carwashireland

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I am planning on adding led strip lights to give some wow factor to my top mounted foaming wax. I see different suppliers can supply these but was wondering if one is better than the other. The three I was looking at were Kleen rite, Mr Foamer and TSS signs. Anyone have any recommendations. Our washes are all outside so it needs to be as bright as possible!
 

BBE

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We went with the TSS led light bars for both our IBA's and tunnel. Work and look great! 144watt and 288watt are both very bright.
 

soonermajic

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How much were those?
We added an LED RGB light strip for $26, on our LW4000 frame.
 

carwashireland

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Cheap rgb strip

I also spotted what seem like high powered light battens that are used on trucks. These seemed very inexpensive and waterproof!
 

Earl Weiss

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I also spotted what seem like high powered light battens that are used on trucks. These seemed very inexpensive and waterproof!
You have touched upon something I have wondered about for years. There are all sorts of vehicle auxillary lighting options and of course they have to be as weather tight as anything. So, how hard is it to have some sort of voltage converter from 110V Ac to 12 V DC?
 

MEP001

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It's not hard at all to convert to 12V. The cheapest way would be with a battery charger.

I considered trying out a light bar for bay lighting since they're waterproof and usually have an aluminum housing with heat dissipater fins on the back, something you don't see on most LED lights.
 

APW

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I mounted a blue LED in the ceiling in my IBA. I have it coming on with the PS and with my Extreme Shine Wax. I got it from TSS.
 

Mr.Foamer

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TSS is the way to go.
Better quality, better selection and better pricing.
 

APW

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I mounted mine straight above the windshield on the ceiling.
 
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Following the recommendation from (Almaprowash ) I went with the blue light mounted to the ceiling 144 watt and it comes on during the presoak. Definitely provides the Wow factor. I also have the yellow light that I use for the top wax and its not nearly as bright and visible to the customers. I would recommend the blue light from

The horizonatl light is the Blue 144 Watt fom TSS. The vertical one is the yellow

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3k5gl4up7yc5z3k/2017-02-18 18.18.19.jpg?dl=0

 
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Sparkleclean

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We used 2- 288 watt rgb lights from tss mounted on vertical stands on the sides of the exit doors. We have green fir soaps, blue fir sealants, flashing rgb for triple foam and red for dryers. After we added these lights we installed a hot wax retrokit to our 3 g-5 machines, that came with 2 yellow led tube lights from g&g mounted on the overhead bridge itself ( no pictures currently but i can get them) and in addition to those we added another 144 watt yellow light from tss on the exit end of the overhead rack facing down on the windshield along with tss' large flashing simoniz hot wax sign on the wall next to the drivers window. The yellows and flashing sign go on only during hot wax function but these lights completely illuminate our bays day or night! Obviously night time is best and when they are on act as quite the eyecatcher from the street. With help from tss and mean well, the ac/dc inverter company, i built a control box that takes the signals from the digital output cards and turns the lights on accordingly...... overall cost per bay without labor for just the 2 vertical tower mounted lights and controllers was about $ 3,000. Well worth it for us. The yellows and sign were part of a package we added to the g-5units to give us hot wax capabilities, i imagine the lights seperatlry would add maybe another thousand bucks or so. Did we go overboard? Yup! But very happy with the results!
 
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nicolacam

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First of all you need to think about their moisture protection. As a rule, professional car washes use powerful high-pressure devices and the usual moisture-protected fixtures of certain types fail very quickly. I have installed these LEDs for myself https://www.vont.com/product/vont-car-smart-strip-light/ they do a good job. If you want super bright lighting, you need to install 36 watt LEDs to achieve a high level of illumination. Keep in mind the basic concept - lighting system should be easy to maintain, energy efficient, long lasting and the wiring system must be safe to use.
 
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MC3033

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Highly highly recommend against TSS light bars, especially the larger sizes. Quality is very poor, the mounting fails on them. I’ve had better success with the smaller versions.

G&G lights via Mr Foamer are the way to go but you pay a premium. I’ve used many different light bars and the quality on these are far superior (I believe G&G makes them in house vs TSS/Amazon comes from China)
 

ruleofdesign

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There's also the RGB Guidelights from Hydro-Spray. Those are on the floor.
 

Strava

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I wish more people would post pictures of their lighting. I think G&G quoted a 6 fixture IBA package for ballpark 12k. I haven't read a single negative review on G&G's lighting. I'll probably go with them when I'm ready to buy but I would love to see other viable options.
I'm surprised more people haven't tried stuff like this https://www.amazon.com/Ultra-thin-c...th-Driving/dp/B09B99MYHP?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1
 

MEP001

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I had considered something like a driving light bar like that, but between the cost of the fixture and shorter life it doesn't really work out. A color changing light bar might make the difference though.
 
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