Updating Car wash tunnel

[liftheavy]

Hello People, It has been almost 9 months since I started seeking advice here and learn about in-bay automatics

We have finally signed a contract for Washworld Razor Edge and we are in to 6 weeks of site preparation for new equipment.

While site is getting ready, I want to seek advise for which soap company to use to get the best results. My equipment distributor deals with Ver-Tech labs and NCS chemistry while I was leaning more towards chemquest or JBS or Simoniz. I just don't want to buy chemicals online I want a company that does visit site at regular intervals and evaluate wash results. We are located in New Jersey.

congrats. most reputable chemical rep come out to the site on a monthly basis. vertech is a good line, so is chemquest and simonize. although people will talk sht about ncs all day, my experience has actually been very good, but i know most of the ncs chain of command. at the end of the day, chemicals are gonna do what chemicals do. it's the reps that make it magical. make sure once you do sign on with a rep that they do a volumetric so you know exactly what your cost per car is.

one advantage with ncs is that if you sign a chemical contract with them, they will give you some credit (20-30k) for marketing materials. since TSSCWS is under them, everything on their site you can get for free.

 

[AnalyticWash]

it's the reps that make it magical.

A rep can only do so much with a garbage product. No offense to the reps but half of them have half a brain.

one advantage with ncs is that if you sign a chemical contract with them, they will give you some credit (20-30k) for marketing materials. since TSSCWS is under them, everything on their site you can get for free.

I feel like anytime you have a product where you make someone sign a contract and incentivize them with credits to use it, its probably overpriced and likely not all that great when compared to competition.

 

[aminanish]

We are converting from Hand car wash to IBA and this is my first, so I am curious to learn before the meet with chemical company.

Proper set up of the wash cycle for Razor Edge ( fully loaded with all options)

Triple Foam Wash package

High PH pre-soak
Low PH pre-soak
High pressure wash
Triple Foam conditioning
High Pressure wash
Spot Free Rinse

Is the above proper wash cycle to get cars clean?

I watched a Master Class video on YouTube sponsored by Kleenerite corporation in which Low PH pre-soak was 1st step

My car wash Menu will have 4 Wash packages.

Triple Foam, Carnauba Wax, Ceramic and Graphene Where would they fit in a wash cycle?

What should be the chemical cost 10-15% or 15-20%?

 

[liftheavy]

I feel like anytime you have a product where you make someone sign a contract and incentivize them with credits to use it, its probably overpriced and likely not all that great when compared to competition.

i actually went from vertech to NCS and my chemical cost is lower and quality is pretty much the same

i have used diamond shine, arcadian, qualchem, stinger, and vertech in the past. now am using NCS.

 

[Roz]

We are converting from Hand car wash to IBA and this is my first, so I am curious to learn before the meet with chemical company.

Proper set up of the wash cycle for Razor Edge ( fully loaded with all options)

Triple Foam Wash package

High PH pre-soak
Low PH pre-soak
High pressure wash
Triple Foam conditioning
High Pressure wash
Spot Free Rinse

Is the above proper wash cycle to get cars clean?

I watched a Master Class video on YouTube sponsored by Kleenerite corporation in which Low PH pre-soak was 1st step

My car wash Menu will have 4 Wash packages.

Triple Foam, Carnauba Wax, Ceramic and Graphene Where would they fit in a wash cycle?

What should be the chemical cost 10-15% or 15-20%?

That will clean however there are more variables than just the chemicals when it comes to touch free washing.

Dwell time
Strength of the Lo and Hi pH
Quality of the chemicals
Application or pass speed will influence above numbers besides the injector and tip used.

Hi vs Lo pH first or second is a great debate that happens on the forum every year. No one correct answer as the order usually depends on the local conditions found in vehicles. Organic vs inorganic dirt on cars.

Experiment with the package to see what order and pH strength works best for you. We titrate our pH passes to know their strength plus we error on the side of stronger vs saving a few pennies in cost as a clean vehicle is most important to generate repeat business and to expand your customer base.

With the specialty products like triple foam having a good show is as important as the chemical outcome. Customers are happiest when they cannot see out their car windows.

Razors are great machines when used effectively. Very owner/operator friendly. Make your packages easy to understand the deltas. Lastly are you using onboard or off board dryers? You may want a product prior to SF that has drying agent properties. Some higher end products with Graphene or Ceramic often will help with the drying process too. Or you can get a drying agent only which will cost less.

Keep in mind that your package costs is more than the Chemcials as water and sewer can cost most than the chemicals in some areas. Our bottom two packages have 4-5 complete passes (varied by season) and our top two add a complete pass to the package. On the razor you should consider using the bug/desalt option if you have it on the top package as they can drive 50% or more of your purchases to the top package.

Ask your WW rep for assistance or guidance too as many will have experience in the area and know what other customers are doing. Overall chemical costs are usually 10-15% the cost of the package but not a hard/fast rule. You can use the car counts on the razor written on a container to get rough cost numbers or do a draw test on 5-7 cars per package. All depends on how crazy you want to drive yourself obtaining numbers.

 

[aminanish]

I spoke to my distributor, the starter pack chemicals will come from synergy chemicals. so for now we will be using synergy chemicals and putting hold on Ver-tech and Chemquest.

Also I spoke to him about upgrading Razor Edge to Hyper force only if he can deliver on time per schedule. Any delays due to unavailability of Hyper force, we will stick to Edge. It's a 15k upgrade.

We cancelled the bill acceptor on Portal Ti+ as I read on the forum that some people are having problems with cassettes. that will save us about 3k

so net upgrade will be 12k if it gets delivered on time.

 

[Blanco]

We cancelled the bill acceptor on Portal Ti+ as I read on the forum that some people are having problems with cassettes. that will save us about 3k

Are you talking about a bill acceptor or bill recycler?

 

[aminanish]

Here are pictures of our updated car wash. We are still not open for business yet but very soon.

 

[Roz]

Looks nice. Great idea for the Clearance size and placement although I would also place a bar or something before the entrance so you can avoid a serious mishap.

 

[liftheavy]

you've come long ways from what that site used to look like? i will not lie without any updates i thought you had abandoned the project, but its awesome you persisted and the site looks great!

you dont have to answer if you dont want to, but what was the rough cost of the project?

 

[aminanish]

you've come long ways from what that site used to look like? i will not lie without any updates i thought you had abandoned the project, but its awesome you persisted and the site looks great!

you dont have to answer if you dont want to, but what was the rough cost of the project?

Absolutely. It may start a long debate after posting the costing but this is the single most important piece of information for someone who wants to update the car wash.

Washworld Razor edge - with all options available, high velocity dryer, 2 vacuums, Portal Ti+ , 30 Ft ft in-bay natural gas heater, installation & removal of old equipment and sales tax $329k

Plumbing includes moving line from in-bay to new mechanical room plus copper pipes ( WashWorld recommended ) running natural gas line etc around $11k

Electrician includes moving lines from in-bay to new mechanical room and connecting every piece of equipment plus exterior lights and more around $40k

Contractor was roughly $65k. It includes work other than car wash also. Roof repair for 2 buildings.
FYI the contractor took care of the complete project from start to finish and was available at the site every single day.
My work on the project was nothing more than writing Checks.

Concrete and Paving - $31k

FYI we are located in NJ and we have higher labor costs compared to some other states. Everyone was paid what they asked for and no negotiations were done.

 

[Chemcrazy]

Looks Great! If you can in the future let us know how the synergy chems work out in terms of performance and cost per car. I almost tried them a few years back. Currently using a mix of NCS and JBS for my Washworlds.

Looks nice. Great idea for the Clearance size and placement although I would also place a bar or something before the entrance so you can avoid a serious mishap.

Yes, I’ve found a clearance bar and small canopy with lighting over the kiosk to be a great help in minimizing problems.

 

[washnshine]

Are you using their polymer presoaks, a two step- what is your cleaning setup?

 

[aminanish]

So I am new to this IBA model, I am letting Washworld Distributor who is also a distributor of synergy chemicals use what they think is the best.

Wipe Out with Ignite (booster) for high Ph
Salt Eraser for Bug a salt
Reaper for Low ph
Unicorn - Triple Foam
Glisten Max - Carnuaba Wax
CeramiShield - Caramic
Nano Ninja - Graphene
Aqua dry - drying agent
Brite n White - Wheel Cleaner

Process - High pH, Bug a salt, Low Ph, HPR, carnuaba Wax( foam n Flow), Triple foam, HPR, Graphene, Drring agent and SFR

How important is dwell time to get maximum cleanliness?

I don't think we have any dwell time between the steps

 

[aminanish]

During dry test run, HPR was not spraying any water, water is getting to machine but it stops there only for HPR, Distributor called Washworld and they said it can be bad solenoid, do you guys know what could have gone wrong?

 

[Roz]

During dry test run, HPR was not spraying any water, water is getting to machine but it stops there only for HPR, Distributor called Washworld and they said it can be bad solenoid, do you guys know what could have gone wrong?

Can be a loose connection or wire.

Can be some substance inside the solenoid that prevents normal opening and closing.

 

[regansf]

WTH kind of an iBA only does 5cph?
I got a Petit that will do 16 on top pkg & a Razor Edge that will do 13.
An Oasis Typhoon will do 20cph, on top pkg & wash the hel outta the car!

Hi Sooner, what are the passes you are running on your Edge to get 13 cph?

 

[AnalyticWash]

So I am new to this IBA model, I am letting Washworld Distributor who is also a distributor of synergy chemicals use what they think is the best.

Wipe Out with Ignite (booster) for high Ph
Salt Eraser for Bug a salt
Reaper for Low ph
Unicorn - Triple Foam
Glisten Max - Carnuaba Wax
CeramiShield - Caramic
Nano Ninja - Graphene
Aqua dry - drying agent
Brite n White - Wheel Cleaner

Process - High pH, Bug a salt, Low Ph, HPR, carnuaba Wax( foam n Flow), Triple foam, HPR, Graphene, Drring agent and SFR

How important is dwell time to get maximum cleanliness?

I don't think we have any dwell time between the steps

Unicorn (a tri color Pre-soak) is the wrong product to use as your Triple Foam if that is your setup order. You also don't need a drying agent if you are applying graphene before SFR. Hold your distributor accountable and tell them to get it right. I am 100% sure on this.


I'll reiterate:

No offense to the reps but half of them have half a brain.

It might be more like 85%

 

[Chemcrazy]

So I am new to this IBA model, I am letting Washworld Distributor who is also a distributor of synergy chemicals use what they think is the best.

Wipe Out with Ignite (booster) for high Ph
Salt Eraser for Bug a salt
Reaper for Low ph
Unicorn - Triple Foam
Glisten Max - Carnuaba Wax
CeramiShield - Caramic
Nano Ninja - Graphene
Aqua dry - drying agent
Brite n White - Wheel Cleaner

Process - High pH, Bug a salt, Low Ph, HPR, carnuaba Wax( foam n Flow), Triple foam, HPR, Graphene, Drring agent and SFR

How important is dwell time to get maximum cleanliness?

I don't think we have any dwell time between the steps

Process is your top package sequence?

 

[aminanish]

Process is your top package sequence?

Yes