Need New Equipment Recommendations

[SplashCarWash]

As a newbie to the business and opening a new 3 bay (2 self serve / 1 automatic) car wash in mid-upstate New York, I would appreciate some advise on equipment. The sales rep I am working with initially suggested Carolina Pride for the 2 Self Serve and the Reflex light touch / high pressure for the automatic. He is now suggesting we look at the J Coleman Self Service / Fusion X Automated as a turn key solution with radiant floor heating from another vendor and So Brite for reclaim. The entire installed package is roughly $350K, plus a So Brite reverse osmosis for another $16K. Since I am starting from scratch and given the winter weather, salt and dirt roads...

Question 1. Who makes the best equipment for the money for both self serve and Roll Over Automatic?

Question 2. Does $350K for a turn key solution with nearly all available med/high pressure features, foam etc, excluding hot water furnace, sound reasonable?

Question 3. If using So Brite Reclaim, does is make sense to get the Rev Os system for spot free rinse? My town water has a fair amount of particulate matter and high clorine since it still is drawn from aquifers.

Please excuse the long post. Any Help would be appreciated.

 

[Reds]

I think everyone has different opinions as to which equipment is "best". If you want to look at JC SS & a JC Water Wizard (touch free as opposed to the fusion, which is friction), I am about 2 hours from you. I have a 3 yr old WW and one brand new WW with all the bells & whistles. You're welcome to come check it out - 10 miles south of Binghamton. As to friction vs. touchfree you will find people on both sides of the fence. Regarding spot free, personally I would not go without it.

 

[SplashCarWash]

Thank you for your reply. Yes there are many opinions and schools of thought. It is my understanding that the industry trend is moving to a light touch friction/high pressure combo, particularly where there is a high instance of mud, dirt etc., as is the case where I am south of you in the northern Catskills Mountains. I am told that the Fusion X is both high pressure touchless and light cloth touch, or combination thereof. Mark

 

[mac]

Hello Splash and welcome to the biz. A few things sound a little strange already. Almost every sales rep out there handles one main line of equipment. They may do one line of automatic and another one for self serve, but rarely more than one of each. I suspect that he isn't a real rep for either company, but is working with the real reps. The other reason I suspect this is that the price quoted to you seems real high. 350K plus 16K for the RO seems way overpriced. An RO for an auto and two bays os self serve would at most be 10K, maybe even a little less. Unless they are plating all the equipment with platinum, I can't see how an auto and two bays would cost that much. 250K should be about the installed price of this, including the RO. I would shop around some.

 

[MikeV]

I agree with Mac, 350k is way excessive for that amount of equipment. 200-250 is more in the ball park. I'd be very leery of this guy.

 

[Greg Pack]

The Fusion X is one of the most expensive autos on the market. If I recall it is basically a water wizard 2.0 with brushes added. I believe the auto alone with the bells and whistles be about 150K If it is a loaded package with installation, sales tax, etc, I could see where the package could list at over 300K. I'm not defending the cost, but I'm just saying that it might be legitimate list prices this guy is quoting.

 

[briteauto]

Splash,

I know exactly where you are located and you are in a spot where you have distributors to your east in Orange County, to your north in Syracuse, and to your northwest in Rochester and Buffalo. You are in a fairly close proximity to a lot of distributors and brands of equipment and tons of installations in a very similar climate to what you will be dealing with with the winters and the salt etc. All I can say is visit many many locations and talk to many many people.

I am not sure who you are tallking to, but just keep in mind you have a great deal of options - not saying they are all perfect, but a lot of people don't have that many feasible choices.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Mike

 

[Doug P.]

I am sure you can have a very successful location with a combination rollover, but I want to play devils advocate and give you another perspective. When many people see the brushes on your machine they will not use it if they want a touchless wash. You can have very good signage but the visual image of the brushes will scare away some touchless customers. If you have the room I feel like a friction machine side by side with a touchless machine is a very good business model. You can have a big sign over the touchless that says touchless or brushless and label the other one as softtouch or whatever you want to call your friction machine.
I have been in the biz for 26 years and I installed my first friction machine 4 years ago. In my opinion friction is a far superior wash but a third of my customers will not take their car through one. Good luck on your project.

Doug P.

 

[AdamA]

As far as friction vs. touch free...I wouldn't worry about the direction of thae market and look at YOUR market. Personally I have (3) good friction tunnels on the same street, so a friction in-bay would get killed! Is my touchless as fast as their tunnel? No. Can touchless always clean as well? No. Is 100% of the touchless market in this area better than some tiny % of the friction market on this street? You bet!

If there were 3 touchless rollovers on my street I would put in a friction tunnel...skip the religious war and do what makes sense for your market.

$16,000 for an RO is insane. I bought one last week. will sell it to you, with a full backup, throw in a free hot tub and used car...well you get the idea. Check out Wood Bros. Wall mounted is nice to save space.

Hope this helps,

Adam

 

[bigleo48]

Heck, I'll even throw this one in the mix....why a 2&1? Can two self-serve bays even be worth opening? I mean the revenue from 2 SS bays is not enough to justify the expenditure (IMHO). I'd change that to a friction and touchless dual IBAs and forget about the SS bays (after a careful biz plan).

Don't forget about the vacs, vending & petwash. The rule here is to extract as much money from a location as possible...so as many profit centers as possible.

BTW...spot free machine from Kleenrite for a two & 1 is about $6k. I have one and they are good quality and would only require a small reservoir.

My 2 cents...BigLeo

 

[RykoPro]

Mac wrote: "Almost every sales rep out there handles one main line of equipment. They may do one line of automatic and another one for self serve, but rarely more than one of each. I suspect that he isn't a real rep for either company, but is working with the real reps."

This may be true.
Ryko, unlike many other companies, does make a self serve, tunnels, touchless IBA, friction IBA, combo IBA, dryers, automatic truck wash, activation systems along with many other supporting products like chemicals, R.O.'s and reclaim systems just to name a few. The Ryko system can network all of your equipment together so the customer can use their credit card and use everything onsite including vacs and vending machines with a single transaction. I would get a couple more quotes and consider the previos advice given by other operators.

 

[mr-gte]

PLEASE read Coleman's section on the forum
You are welcome to contact me for a Coleman self serve reference.
Who is your distributor in NY?