Touchless over friction

[Dale Shahi]

I currently have Belanger freestyler IBA and considering replacing with touchless, for those who have made the switch,was it a good decision?how did it affect wash quality,customer satisfaction,repeat maintenance cost, overall revenue? I appreciate hearing about your experience

 

[soonermajic]

1. Why would you replace your Feestyler?
2. Touchless will NOT clean as good. I dgas what anybody says!
3. If surrounded by tunnels, you are wise to switch t Touchless

 

[Dale Shahi]

It is very harsh system on cars, new electric cars like Tesla not using it , pick up trucks with ball hitch not removed , entrance brush tuck in it and vend the shaft , I replace so many of those, even I have sign to remove , some customers they don’t read it

 

[kentadel]

Devils advocate here. I have been in this business since 1990. Soft touch and Touchless. Installed wash equipment from Alabama to Wyoming. Made the decision to go touchless only at our washes years ago. You need to do everything right for a superior touchless wash in my area, and many areas, but it can be done. We have a wash that requires a long wash time to get desired results. 30 miles away we can almost cut that wash time in half. We have customers that drive 20 miles to use our washes, passing a Tommy's tunnel and several other tunnels and soft touch washes. To be fair there may be some who do opposite. I have never regretted the decision to go touchless only. Wash counts are up and maintenance is minimal. Shinepro, Sooner and others on this forum have had great success with touchless. They likely have one thing in common and that is finding good chemistry that works for them.
Good luck

 

[washnshine]

Have you tried touchless washes in your area? Are they able to clean well? Maybe check some out and talk to operators and see what they are doing and what level of success they are able to get so you can have some sense of what to expect. I don’t have experience running touchless washes in a wide geographic area like kentadel, but I’ve seen many touchless washes perform extremely well and I know it takes knowledge, effort snd experience. It’s a great alternative to all the express tunnels that are everywhere.

 

[Greg Pack]

Popularity of touch less is swinging back and gives the owner an opportunity to differentiate from the plethora of express tunnels.

It's easy to beat the dirt off the car with a soft cloth. Be prepared to spend a lot of time,money, and energy to find the right combination that cleans in your area. You may get lucky and have a good chemical rep in your area that has touch less cleaning experience. Touchless cleaning is regional and what works for me might not be the best combo for you. Be prepared to spend a lot more money on your chemicals.

 

[Waxman]

my touchless gets cars very clean. I'm consistently impressed with my wash quality and I'm on site six days a week operating a used car lot and a detailing shop so I keep my eye on car quality. I have a couple of competitors that have soft touch washes. One of them is poorly maintained. The other one is OK, but I went through it with one of my cars and it felt a little too "grabby", meaning it felt like it was maybe too close to the car and it wasn't that gentle flicking sensation i'm used to on friction washes.

i grew up washing cars by hand; thousands of them, so i know how well friction cleans a car. but the touchless cleans so well that i don't even think about friction. Heck I barely even brush wash my personal cars now. I keep them clean enough so that I do a touch free process in the self serve bay and just towel dry afterwards and they look great.

 

[washnshine]

my touchless gets cars very clean. I'm consistently impressed with my wash quality and I'm on site six days a week operating a used car lot and a detailing shop so I keep my eye on car quality. I have a couple of competitors that have soft touch washes. One of them is poorly maintained. The other one is OK, but I went through it with one of my cars and it felt a little too "grabby", meaning it felt like it was maybe too close to the car and it wasn't that gentle flicking sensation i'm used to on friction washes.

i grew up washing cars by hand; thousands of them, so i know how well friction cleans a car. but the touchless cleans so well that i don't even think about friction. Heck I barely even brush wash my personal cars now. I keep them clean enough so that I do a touch free process in the self serve bay and just towel dry afterwards and they look great.

Waxman brings up a great point. A lot of customers still maintain their cars by hand to some extent after the wash. They go to the vac island and wipe the dash, glass, jambs etc. Hand finishing any wash, touchless or not brings the car to that pristine level. So maybe there is some windshield eyebrow left, or some film on the hood - even a partial wipe down of the tough spots can bring the car to the next level with minimal effort after the wash.