High Ph / low Ph / bugs

[JustClean]

Hi all,
I am new to the touchless machines. I also have a brush machine for over 5 years. I searched the forum and found plenty of different views about high ph / low ph also depending on the soil and where you live. Anyway, I still try to optimize my touchless and maybe someone on this forum is able to help.

Our climate is like Florida. Road grime, dirt, etc. is no issue but BUGS are.
This are the settings:
High PH
HP rinse
Low PH
HP rinse
High PH
HP rinse
3x foam
wax
HP rinse
RO

All with bug passes.
The titration is: 35 drops on the High PH and 30 drops on the low PH.
I feel I shouldn't go any higher to prevent damage. Although other car washes in my area using Blendco titrate with 45 drops.

I tried 2x High PH with plenty of soaking plus no low PH so I thought I also could get rid of one HP rinse but the cars were worse.

Changing chemicals is the last resort as I want to support my distributor.
Any ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[robert roman]

“Any ideas would be much appreciated.”

“Changing chemicals is the last resort as I want to support my distributor.”

Is the distributor paying your bills or the customer?

“Our climate is like Florida. Road grime, dirt, etc. is no issue but BUGS are.”

So, what is the constraint - the machine or chemical or both?

If the chemical can clean dirt, I suspect the constraint is the machine.

Since you did research, you know alkaline solutions are better for cleaning dirt, grease, proteins, oils and other organics.

Acids are better for removing calcium, rust and other minerals.

Bugs, like love bugs, are acidic. Without a car-care appearance condom, the acid will eventually penetrate the clearcoat and create an etching.

This implies an alkaline solution (touch-less) or soap plus friction and then protection like wax or sealant.

Because the overall design objective of touch-less in-bay, most in-bays do not clean bugs very well regardless of chemical.

Of course, you could burn bugs off but there would be consequences – flash, haze.

If dirt and grime are no issue, leave well enough alone.

Offer a hand-prep for $3.00, sell rain-x or double bond and make some money.

 

[Greg Pack]

Just my thoughts. I have found that Blendco at the level of titration you mention does a pretty good job. If your unit has bug pass capability, i.e an extra high pressure pass, trying moving it as late in the wash cycle as you can. All the wetting, tri color foam, etc, allows the bug to "soak"

A free self prep station at my auto entrance allows customers to take care of the bug problems themselves, and is quite popular.

 

[robert roman]

Free self prep stations are quite popular everywhere because they are free.

However, when many self-service operators are hard-pressed to find good margin expansion opportunities, giving it away for free seems like a fairly liberal idea.

Offering hand-prep and online profit centers and forward-thinking marketing can boost average sales by $3.50 or more. What’s not to like?

 

[JustClean]

Thank you for your thoughts.
Roman: Unfortunately in my area with the low amount of customers a hand-prep is out of question due to costs.
Cfcw: Blendco are good chemicals and they seem to get the bugs off. If I can't get to the same level with mine I will switch. However, my chemical manufacturer is very open to changing the chemicals to whatever I want/need as long as it is a product improvement

 

[Waxman]

try 2 hi ph passes with no hp rinse in between.

if that doesn't work put out a free prep setup as suggested.

 

[bigleo48]

Just Clean,

You don't mention any front swipes. For bug season, I do an Alkaline swipe and as many as three HP front swipes on my top wash.

 

[KwikClean]

Just wanted to throw a few things out there: Make sure you have adequate dwell time for the presoaks to soak into the bugs; make sure your softeners are working (assuming you have them being a touchless wash); and especially with cooler outside temps coming around, make sure your heating your water All these factors should aid in better bug removal.

 

[briteauto]

try 2 hi ph passes with no hp rinse in between.

if that doesn't work put out a free prep setup as suggested.

Ditto -

Put all your chemical on before any HP. Two, three passes, double on the fronts, whatever. Get all the chemical on and let the dwell time set before any HP water hits this area. That is the best way to maximize the treatment of the front end bugs with your current chemicals. If road film and grime are not a problem (lucky for you) set your equipment up to cater to the bugs.

Incidentally, I think no HP passes between chemical applications is also the best way to go even if you do have heavy road film on your cars.

Rinsing anything off and then putting chemical on the car will only dilute the application.

 

[JustClean]

Thanks for all the answers. I'll give them a go and see how it goes