What's new

What Happened to Power Rain?

carwash00

New member
Joined
Feb 18, 2014
Messages
19
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Sarasota
Ok, does anybody know what happened to power rain? it's like they fell off of the face of earth. :confused: same with Specialty Equipment (Futura), Magic Wand, Superior, AND A-OK... I Presume all of them went out of business, but what do owners do about parts??
 

JGinther

Zip-tie engineer
Joined
May 31, 2008
Messages
743
Reaction score
170
Points
43
Location
Loveland, CO
Ok, does anybody know what happened to power rain? it's like they fell off of the face of earth. :confused: same with Specialty Equipment (Futura), Magic Wand, Superior, AND A-OK... I Presume all of them went out of business, but what do owners do about parts??
Funny you mention that.... Those are all the companies that didn't really have much proprietary parts.... Hmmmm. So maybe there is a method to the special parts rip-off madness.
 

robert roman

Bob Roman
Joined
Sep 11, 2007
Messages
2,200
Reaction score
1
Points
36
Location
Clearwater, Florida
“…..what happened to power rain….(Futura), Magic Wand, Superior, AND A-OK...?

Following collapse of mortgage lending, self-serve turned into a spare parts and service business due to lack of equipment spending.

“….what do owners do about parts??”

Unless you want to get into the junk business, I would cut my losses and buy a machine from one of the remaining suppliers that have a good chance of being around in ten years.
 

carwash00

New member
Joined
Feb 18, 2014
Messages
19
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Sarasota
True. Its just sad that so many companies have gone under, and great people have lost their jobs. I Was just thinking about Magic Wand because theres this Magic Wand neXus at a Texaco right off of I-75 that worked flawlessly, had medium volume and had barely any downtime, and it randomly closed around the time when Magic Wand went under. I just checked up on it about a week ago and the gantry is just falling apart after not being touched for two years... Doesn't Istobal and 3B Industries still make parts for old Magic Wands?? What about Futura? There are many still operating here that are fine, but who services them? Im sorry if im bugging you with all of my questions but this stuff is just fascinating to me, lol.
 

mac

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 3, 2007
Messages
3,558
Reaction score
792
Points
113
Magic Wand was bought by Istobal USA. You can still get all the parts (well most all) from the same phone number. The others have vaporized.
 

robert roman

Bob Roman
Joined
Sep 11, 2007
Messages
2,200
Reaction score
1
Points
36
Location
Clearwater, Florida
“Magic Wand….Texaco right off of I-75…worked flawlessly had medium volume and had barely any downtime, and it randomly closed around the time when Magic Wand went under.”

Don’t look to carwash equipment manufacturers for answers, look at demand side.

Shell USA revitalized its carwash network in 1999. Formula Finish included “conveyor,” standard architecture (i.e. gray/yellow color), proprietary chemical and CSI focus.

The pilot program was tied to Shell’s acquisition of Texaco assets when Dutch Royal Shell decided to upgrade the combined fleet of 24,000 gas sites. Texaco program was named “Star” carwash.

Fourteen years later, Big Oil is out of the retail gas, c-store and carwash selling business and wash volumes at many gas sites in Florida have been squashed from recession fall out.

This is probably why you find a brand/machine like Magic Wand in gas-branded c-store and

“….gantry is just falling apart after not being touched for two years...”

“What about Futura?”

I say there is no future market for it.
 
Top