I am not taking any shots at anyone in particular but I am tired of manufacturers and some distributors claiming that a customer will load their car into an automatic while another is exiting through a free standing dryer. I have been at automatic locations from coast to coast and in very rare occasions does a customer even begin loading into an automatic while another is exiting through a free standing dryer. Normally they wait until the bay is completely cleared before entering.
I am not referring to the relatively new setup where the dryer pass is made in the area beyond the automatic in a separate space or bay. This set up seems to expedite the process a bit and does increase throughput somewhat but again, not as much as is often claimed.
While I would agree that a free standing dryer will improve throughput to a degree, the time gained by a free standing dryer is much less than many would have you believe. In reality what it saves is the time a dryer pass would take minus the time it takes a vehicle to exit the free standing dryer.
I tend to agree. The exception were some washes I visited in the Northeast. The washes were 70'+ with three overhead
doors. After the wash an overhead
door opened and the vehicle pulled thru and parked, the oh
door closed behind them. They then got the on board dryer treatment. Another car could then load into the wash behind them. When the car in the
drying section was done, an oh
door would open and let them out. It seemed to work well but the equipment/building cost had to be comparable with an exterior tunnel which would give more throughput (with employees). I saw a few of these that had 2-3 of these bays side by side. Sometimes giving a choice of friction or touchless. The owners simply did not want to deal with employees and chose this setup over an exterior tunnel.