SudzCity
New member
Hey all — Tom here. We run Sudz City Car Wash: 5-bay self-serve in Lawrenceville, IL and 2-bay in St. Francisville, IL. Not selling soap or equipment. Just sharing a few things that keep coming up on our sites and on this board.
1. Check valves / HP backfeed before you blame the pump
If a soap or wax tank slowly fills with water, or a bay loses prime after sitting, don’t start with a full pump rebuild. Solenoids only block in one direction — they are not check valves. High-pressure backfeed (spot-free side is a common suspect) can dilute tanks overnight. Isolate one bay at a time, confirm there’s a real check on the discharge/HP path where chem meets pressure, and watch for debris holding a valve open. We’ve wasted hours on Hydrominders and pump heads when the leak was a bad or missing check upstream.
2. Hose chafe and boom routing
HP hose that rubs a boom arm, trough edge, or black-iron stub will fail on a weekend when you’re not there. Look for shiny wear spots and kinks at the boom. Longer runs to far bays also freeze first in winter if weep is light or restricted (small hose at the boom, kinked gun, weep that doesn’t actually trickle). Fix the rub and the weep path before you swap another unloader.
3. Metering bleed when a bay is “off”
If tire cleaner or presoak disappears with the bay idle, think solenoids stuck open or debris on the seat — and confirm the pump/Flojet isn’t ghost-cycling into every bay. Change or clear one bay’s solenoid first so you know whether the problem is shared supply or a single valve. A strainer on the pickup side has saved us more than one “mystery” chemical dump.
None of that is magic — it’s the same leak-ladder / triage walk we use when a bay drips or a customer calls about low pressure.
I put our real notes into a Self-Serve Bay Ops Playbook (~120 pages, $29 PDF) for fellow self-serve owners only — leaks, hoses, metering, winter weep, bay uptime. Not a customer wash package.
If useful: https://sudzcitycarwash.com/playbook
(Goes through to Gumroad: https://sudzcity.gumroad.com/l/gvqhui)
Happy to answer questions either way. Hope the bays stay busy.
Tom / Sudz City
sudzcitycarwash.com
1. Check valves / HP backfeed before you blame the pump
If a soap or wax tank slowly fills with water, or a bay loses prime after sitting, don’t start with a full pump rebuild. Solenoids only block in one direction — they are not check valves. High-pressure backfeed (spot-free side is a common suspect) can dilute tanks overnight. Isolate one bay at a time, confirm there’s a real check on the discharge/HP path where chem meets pressure, and watch for debris holding a valve open. We’ve wasted hours on Hydrominders and pump heads when the leak was a bad or missing check upstream.
2. Hose chafe and boom routing
HP hose that rubs a boom arm, trough edge, or black-iron stub will fail on a weekend when you’re not there. Look for shiny wear spots and kinks at the boom. Longer runs to far bays also freeze first in winter if weep is light or restricted (small hose at the boom, kinked gun, weep that doesn’t actually trickle). Fix the rub and the weep path before you swap another unloader.
3. Metering bleed when a bay is “off”
If tire cleaner or presoak disappears with the bay idle, think solenoids stuck open or debris on the seat — and confirm the pump/Flojet isn’t ghost-cycling into every bay. Change or clear one bay’s solenoid first so you know whether the problem is shared supply or a single valve. A strainer on the pickup side has saved us more than one “mystery” chemical dump.
None of that is magic — it’s the same leak-ladder / triage walk we use when a bay drips or a customer calls about low pressure.
I put our real notes into a Self-Serve Bay Ops Playbook (~120 pages, $29 PDF) for fellow self-serve owners only — leaks, hoses, metering, winter weep, bay uptime. Not a customer wash package.
If useful: https://sudzcitycarwash.com/playbook
(Goes through to Gumroad: https://sudzcity.gumroad.com/l/gvqhui)
Happy to answer questions either way. Hope the bays stay busy.
Tom / Sudz City
sudzcitycarwash.com
