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Home made alkaline soap for in bay automatic

Mayer9941

New member
I have a touch less in bay automatic wash and was considering making my own soap. Has anyone attempted to go this? If so what products did you use?
 
There have been several posters over the years who have expressed and interest in trying this and I have never seen one follow up with a message that they were successful. Theoretically, you could take the sds sheet of any chemical you like and emulate it, but chemical manufacturers are very careful not to post exact percentages and often list some things as “ trade secret”, so you never would able to copy something - and rightfully so.

This is something I would leave to the professional chemical companies. Save money by doing your own repairs, plumbing, electrical, do your own clean up, pits, etc. Don’t try to save money is a specialty area like this. It will end up costing you money and business because you will not be able to compete with CSI, JBS, Simoniz, Quest, Chemquest etc. it’s not even worth trying.
 
I bought this book one time https://www.amazon.com/How-Formulate-Compound-Industrial-Detergents/dp/1588988686. It had some basic information about various cleaners. A car wash would use would basically be similar to an all purpose cleaner or degreaser.

Car wash detergents on the surface are not overly complex comprised of usually a surfactant group, a solvent, and an alkaline or acidic builder. Although the concepts are simple there is a lot of tweaking that the companies do to make the products more effective and also to keep the products stable. With all the time you spend doing that you could likely get you presoak and tire cleaner costs down 75% or so from retail. Now, do the math on your annual P&L and honestly ask yourself if that is worth the time or trouble and aggravation. Some people, including myself get bored and want to play chemist so I understand that, but in the end I decided to expend my energy elsewhere.
 
if you want to do this to try and save money I think there are better ways to save more money or make extra money elsewhere within the car wash business. If you're doing this because you need some thing as a hobby, I would suggest a more worth while pursuit.
 
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