standard vac's vs. central vacs

[djswash]

Building an express in an area that is use to the standard vacs that you would find at a self serve. The majority of the express operaters in town use the standard vacs. central would allow for more vac spaces on a already tight space. whats your thoughts

 

[Earl Weiss]

A vac island needs about 30". A vac space needs about 10' per car. So, for every 4 islands you get one addittional space. That means 9 spaces in thearea needed for 8.

I alway wondered why, unless some VFD runs it with less electricity you would want a 20HP vac running so often when only a few spaces are needed. I think Sonny's later thought about this and has a "rocket Vac" or something like that which can be put on a much smaller island. Also , depending on available length of space you could put individual vacs at the head of the space with a longer hose and eliminate the 2.5' between the cars for islands.

 

[Greg Pack]

As said central vacs are fine if you're busy and have several people vacuuming. It's when things are slow and one or two people are running a 25HP without regard to energy costs that makes me cringe. I watched one guy on a slow day push a button a start a 25HP central vac six times. That's nearly forty minutes of vacuum time for his little POS car. There is a lot to like about central, but if I did it again I would want a VFD/transducer setup.

Coleman/Hanna did a little study on energy savings of individual vacs vs central vacs. I'll see if I can dig it up.

 

[robert roman]

If your building new, make sure you get it right the first time.

Crucial to design is the number of vacuum spaces, length, width and orientation.

Angled spaces using the back-in/pull-out parking method is preferred because it has a calming effect on traffic flow on the property and provides customers with better vision and greater safety on exiting the parking space. Angled spaces take up 12' of depth as compared to 20' deep for perpendicular parking.

The space between two rows of vacuum stalls should be at least 28' wide to accommodate two driving lanes and ingress/egress.

Vacuum spaces should be 14' wide to give customers a comfortable environment to work in and around the vehicle. After all, no one likes to work in tight quarters. For example, a typical vehicle is normally 6' wide and 12' wide with all doors opened.

The rule of thumb for the number of vacuum spaces is 25% of conveyor length. In other words, if the conveyor is 100' long, you should plan on having about 25 vacuum spaces.

If you only have enough room for 10% to 15%, you may want to reconsider offering "free" so you don't have a lot of dissapointed customers.

 

[Earl Weiss]

If your building new, make sure you get it right the first time.

Crucial to design is the number of vacuum spaces, length, width and orientation.

Angled spaces using the back-in/pull-out parking method is preferred.

FWIW I think the preferred design is to have spaces where the person can exit by pulling straight ahead. Site constraints may not permit this. But anytime you can avoid having someone back up, that's preferred.

 

[JimmyJaffa]

Robert, I disagree with some of your design criteria for vacuums. We use canister vacuums, we have our parking on an angle, with the vacuum in front of the car rather than on the traditional island style location, we add to the length of the hose to compensate for the distance. As to the width, our spaces are narrower than what you recommend. If people are too comfortable, they will spend all day, especially on a busy weekend. Another point, parking on an angle still requires 18' of depth, not 14'. You can skimp on the distance between if necessary, but I agree that 28' is the best to allow ease of exiting.
Having said all this, around the country, I have seen just about everything that you would think of that would hinder usage, yet the people figure it out, and are happy as bugs in a rug.

 

[Earl Weiss]

The 14 foot wisth is great if you have the room. My spaces are 10' between islands but they are positioned so th car can pull forward so the doors open in front of the Island if needed. Islands are about 30" wide s the overall available space is 12.5 feet. Seems to be adequate.

 

[robert roman]

I made one error in taking from my notes. The linear distance from the curb and the end point of a 20' line set at a 45 degree angle is 14' not 12'.

As a customer, I don't agree that there would be situations where I would be too comfortable with a retail outlet. Most of the time, I only frequent retail stores that I am comfortable with. I believe most motorists fit in this category.

As for spending "all day" vacuuming for free on a busy weekend, that is the down side of offering something for "free." You have to have the ability to deliver on the promise.

Do you believe an express exterior wash would be as well recieved if the highway sign read, FREE vacuums (limit 10 minutes)?

On Tuesday's, our local Denny's offers a "free" Grand Slam breakfast to "anyone" who visits the store from 6am till 2pm. The manager tells me the line is out the door from 6am till 2pm.

I don't believe the reception would be the same if the offer was only for a "free" glass of water. Why? Because it is difficult to monetize a glass of tap water.

Its much easier to impose a time limit on "free" use with coin-operated vacs and POS that dispenses a voucher. How do you monetize a central vac?

 

[djswash]

Thanks for all the repleys, I guess the really question i was trying to ask was is there a perfered style of vacum alot of the expresses in my area use the canister style vacs rather than central. I would perfer central to get more vac
spaces.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Thanks for all the repleys, I guess the really question i was trying to ask was is there a perfered style of vacum alot of the expresses in my area use the canister style vacs rather than central. I would perfer central to get more vac
spaces.

As shown by the responses their is no perfect or single solution. There are tradeoffs. Central picks up more spaces. Maybe. Central uses more HP on slower days. With typical islands between spaces you lose 30 inches for every 2 spaces. With a minimum 10 foot space you get 5 in the space of 4. With Canisters at the head of the space and longer hoises you lose zero.

If you go with central vacs and have the chance, check out car wash express in Co. has a sweet set up. In ground vaulted seperators and a shutoof valve for each outlet. You can clean each without shutting down the system and the dirt doesn't have to get pulled all the way thru the piping.