I'm new to the forum. I've owned my exterior only tunnel wash for about 2 years. I've never been satisfied with how dry my cars get. Recently a national convenience store chain entered my area and has a 45 second dry stage. Although their caliber of wash probably isn't as good I'm thinking their drying stage is better (longer). I'm in Minnesota and I"ve been told the drying agents don't work quite as well in colder weather. Anyone have any suggestions for me? Also may look at changing chemical companies. Any suggestions?
Drying Agent
- Thread starter tlcaris
- Start date
Find a fast breaking drying agent first of all. Secondly, put warm/hot water water to it and you will get better performace out of any drying agent. The heat given off by the warm water also goes a long way to keeping your tunnel warm as well.
I know there are a lot of expensive drying agents out there that claim to be great. However, the only product I've ever had great success with in drying is one containing mineral seal oil MSO. This is particularly true if you are using reclaim water for your wash process as reclaim makes establishing a bead on vehicles all the more challenging, especially in the winter.
I know there are a lot of expensive drying agents out there that claim to be great. However, the only product I've ever had great success with in drying is one containing mineral seal oil MSO. This is particularly true if you are using reclaim water for your wash process as reclaim makes establishing a bead on vehicles all the more challenging, especially in the winter.
Ben's Car Wash
Conveyor & self service
Drying agents do not work only on the chemical action. They work in combination with multiple factors; pH of soaps, drip/rinse space, RO water, humidity, temp and dryer set up. All of these work in conjunction with each other to produce a dryer car, change one and it will effect the outcome.
The best way to get a dry care is to extend your drip space. You should maximize the drip space (or reduce the conveyor speed if possible) to a min of 16 feet from rinse arch to the first dryer. This allows the "break" of the drying agent to shed the water from the setting arch. Alos be sure that the low pH soaps are used if possible, they will help to set the drying agents. You can't freely change the Humidiy or temp as easily but some big washes do with gas heaters up North that will lower the humitity and increase the temp. Here in Florida, in the Summer early morings are difficult to get cars dry until around 10am.... then the body of the car holds enough heat to react all the way thru the tunnel! In the desart SW I'd imagine it would be the same.... a dry car would be little problem. Conveyor speed and drip space is the big issue in most cases... not the dryer set up.
Look at your layout of the equipment. If you can move the rinse arch of rain curtian (I suggest rain curtians) back 2' and keep a moderate chain speed... you'll get a dryer car than spending $60,000 on a stripper dryer system.
The best way to get a dry care is to extend your drip space. You should maximize the drip space (or reduce the conveyor speed if possible) to a min of 16 feet from rinse arch to the first dryer. This allows the "break" of the drying agent to shed the water from the setting arch. Alos be sure that the low pH soaps are used if possible, they will help to set the drying agents. You can't freely change the Humidiy or temp as easily but some big washes do with gas heaters up North that will lower the humitity and increase the temp. Here in Florida, in the Summer early morings are difficult to get cars dry until around 10am.... then the body of the car holds enough heat to react all the way thru the tunnel! In the desart SW I'd imagine it would be the same.... a dry car would be little problem. Conveyor speed and drip space is the big issue in most cases... not the dryer set up.
Look at your layout of the equipment. If you can move the rinse arch of rain curtian (I suggest rain curtians) back 2' and keep a moderate chain speed... you'll get a dryer car than spending $60,000 on a stripper dryer system.
I appreciate your comments regarding getting my cars dry. There is so much valuable info on this forum. I remember you talking on previous posts about your Simoniz "Double bond" arch. Do you use the Simoniz products through out your wash or something else?
Ben's Car Wash
Conveyor & self service
I use mostly Simoniz products. The only non-Simoniz product presently is actually the drying agent! I currently (and have been for 2 or more years) use Lustra's PEARL at 500:1 on a Dosatron running thru a rain curtian (3 row) with RO water as the last setting rinse arch. I have 3 rain curtians and the double bond halo. Vision Clear is placed on one of the rain curtians and one other is a plain rinse arch. I then have about 18' before the first dryer and the tire shiner is in that area.
You can move the rain curtians above the last mitter to gain space to increace drip space with an extention bar (this removes all the arches from the floor and straps them to the frame over the last mitter)). This is what I did to gain about 3' of drip space a few years back. Often when you need to increase chain speed because of higher volume or longer waiting times, wet cars become a problem. When I became more of an EE (about 30-40% of volume) I re-examind how I processed and dried cars. Now I only run 3 blowers on EE washes (they drive down the road anyway and will blow the remaining water off) and if the drying agent & spot free mix is correct, will spot very little (will always spot on the rear window and side mirror & door where the mirror drips to some extent). The full service washes I run all 7 blowers to get a dryer car to save labor (except the jams, mirrors and rear). Also EE washes are usully LOWER $ so I try to save power by eliminating cost where I can by not running all blowers. I also do not run all the OMNI's on the EE washes as the use a lot of water and power.
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robert roman
Bob Roman
In some respects, a conveyor carwash system is similar to a high performance engine. For example, the operating parameters of the engine (ignition timing, length and diameter of exhaust pipes, fuel intake, etc.) must be calibrated or fine tuned on a dyno by a qualified technician to extract the optimal performance in terms of horsepower and torque.
As such, you may want to identify the chemical suppliers in your market who will send someone to your site that actually has a background in chemistry and hands-on experience with calibrating a conveyor carwash system and not a glorified sales person who will try to solve your problem with rainbows and pixie dust.
Bob Roman
www.carwashplan.com
As such, you may want to identify the chemical suppliers in your market who will send someone to your site that actually has a background in chemistry and hands-on experience with calibrating a conveyor carwash system and not a glorified sales person who will try to solve your problem with rainbows and pixie dust.
Bob Roman
www.carwashplan.com
Earl Weiss
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A few ideas. (I do one or more at various locations as needed. )1. Ditto what Bill said about warm / hot water. I feel I get better action out of the DA if I warm it. The colder it is outside, the more I warm it. 2. Soap residue may counteract the DA affects. If you ad a fresh water rinse a couple of feet before the DA this will help eliminate this problem. 3. A small CAT type pump with V jets for the DA (As opposed to a rain arch) can apply the DA with some pressure to drive it to the car's surface and drive away the water. 4. A second top center jet (You can simply "T" of the first arch) for the setting arch (I use an 80 / 10 jet) seems to improve the effectiveness. (Don't ask me why. Intuitively te whole thing is screwy- to add more water after the DA hlps it all sheet off.)
