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dog wash and ice/water machine?

jack954

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i am considering adding these as i believe my location is good and have the room on my lot. my problem is that i have absolutely no idea what kind of money they could bring in and i’m not interested in what the salesman estimate. if anyone on here has either and would be willing to talk to me privately it would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Greg_T

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Our dog wash is a good part of the business. Looking at our sales report for the last 90 days, the dog wash has revenue of 55% of our average carwash self service bay. And it is much less maintenance and much lower capital cost. Our particular design means that it only needs to be cleaned once a day, and still is very clean and presentable. We would strongly recommend based upon our experience. (For context, we are a 3 SS bay + dogwash in Heyfield, Victoria, Australia, rural town of about 1500-2000 people).

IMG_20190311_112030.jpg
 
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Back 40

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We just installed an ice/water vending machine on Jan 26. Weather has been horrible for it since and we haven’t done much advertising but it’s used daily and I am watching the daily avg slowly and steadily increasing
 

sparkey

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I have a water vendor that does exceptionally well. Sometimes there is a line waiting to fill their jugs.
 

Toms PTcarwash

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I don't have either, but here is a beer distributor just up the road from my house that has two water dispensers. There are ALWAYS people filling water jugs, even when I drive by late at night.
 

Dan-Ark

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We have recieved notices about water quality issues from the water department serving one of our locations. It has always tasted bad, but never occured to me that a water machine at the wash might be in demand. Any reccommendations on brand? there is a huge Ice machine vendor in town, so I would probably lean toward water only.
 

sparkey

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We have recieved notices about water quality issues from the water department serving one of our locations. It has always tasted bad, but never occured to me that a water machine at the wash might be in demand. Any reccommendations on brand? there is a huge Ice machine vendor in town, so I would probably lean toward water only.
This is the water vendor I have. https://www.costereng.com/window-water-vending-units/
 

Greg_T

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Please excuse my ignorance, but water vending units aren't something that I'm familiar with in Australia. Are these used in some areas because the water available from the town main supply isn't suitable for drinking? Or is there some other reason why people are seeking to buy water?
 

MEP001

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Around here, the water units are popular in areas where the municipal water is excessively hard or doesn't taste good. In Shiner Texas, for example, the water smells and tastes like rotten eggs.
 

coman93

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I have ice/water vending machines at my locations. Two of the locations provide a small return, one location is a high revenue machine. Initial entry cost was high but after they are paid for, the revenue stream is nice. If I would recommend a company, I would have you look into Kooler Ice. Location will determine the amount of success of the machine.
 
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Toms PTcarwash

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Please excuse my ignorance, but water vending units aren't something that I'm familiar with in Australia. Are these used in some areas because the water available from the town main supply isn't suitable for drinking? Or is there some other reason why people are seeking to buy water?
I of course can't speak for everyone, but where I live, all municipal water is safe for drinking. It seems many people (including my wife) think that if water doesn't come out of a plastic bottle it's not good to drink. I even have a seven stage RO system at home that feeds my refrigerators and ice makers always with less than 5ppm TDS and multiple carbon taste and oder filters on the outlet of the RO membranes, and my wife still buys bottled water!!! I have shown her tests of the bottled water versus our water and even my spot free water at the carwash, both have less TDS than the bottled water, to no avail. I still drink out of the garden hose if I am hot and working outside during the summer.

I guess your answer is many people in the US are spoiled and believe if it's not bottled, it not good.
 

Greg_T

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I of course can't speak for everyone, but where I live, all municipal water is safe for drinking. It seems many people (including my wife) think that if water doesn't come out of a plastic bottle it's not good to drink. I even have a seven stage RO system at home that feeds my refrigerators and ice makers always with less than 5ppm TDS and multiple carbon taste and oder filters on the outlet of the RO membranes, and my wife still buys bottled water!!! I have shown her tests of the bottled water versus our water and even my spot free water at the carwash, both have less TDS than the bottled water, to no avail. I still drink out of the garden hose if I am hot and working outside during the summer.

I guess your answer is many people in the US are spoiled and believe if it's not bottled, it not good.
Thanks for the background. I can't be sure, but it just doesn't seem like it would be a success here in Australia, at least not in our area.
 

sjb

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God willing, and supply change SNAFU’s minimized, we should be operational with 2 new self service dog washes by 4/15/22
These units will be under a canopy in front of of an 8 bay SS in Atlanta… I’m getting kinda excited once I get past the infrastructure challenges!
 

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mjwalsh

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sjb ... stay positive!

Hopefully, your new adventure in Atlanta with the much milder weather than North Dakota where I am ... will work out. It appears like you went with all the latest bells & whistles ... including the PLC version. Also a bit more intricate than like low pressure selections in most self service car washes ... with individual pumps for each specific shampoo-liquid selection by the end customer. It looks like if you use other than their specific shampoos etc ... your warranty will be voided???

I remember back when ours was in the design- building phase ... how the local news media was trying to rush us a bit too much ... which we were wise to resist opening prematurely!

It sounds like your upcoming original opening will somewhat co-inside with our re-opening of our 10+ old PLC driven dog wash. Ours is definitely a bit more on the homemade-ish side. William Pitzer ... the founder of this Car Wash Forum ... when he visited Bismarck ... when it was pretty much brand new approximately 10 years ago ... can attest to.

We get a lot of compliments on how our tubs are big enough to turn larger dogs around while they are still in the tub & the fact that the end customer (back saving) can adjust the height a range of up to 16". Hopefully ... Evolution has thoroughly great internal programming instructions on the included PLC. That could make your operation possibly more versatile & less dependent on the specific PLC that Evolution chose to use.
 
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jack954

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back40, how is the new ice/water machine doing as we are well into summer? also, which unit did you purchase?
 
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