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Petit 360 or Typhoon owners sound off

V

ViperACR

New member
I am looking at replacing two IBA machines and I am considering several but the Petit 360 and the Typhoon are my front runners mainly because of speed. I have two Kartchers now that are kind of like me, tired, old and slow. They want to retire even though they clean well. I have a high volume site that could really use the speed on many days but I still need to clean the way my customers have become used to. I am looking for operators that have had or still have either of the two mentioned and would like to get some feedback about their experience with them, especially that have had them for several years. Thanks in advance for any help with spending this much of my money.
 
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I have a site with Petit 360s They are just a little over a year old but my experience so far has been very positive. I also chose them for the speed. But they have also been very reliable and any issues we have had ,have been taken care off by Tom and his staff promptly.
They are a great group of people to work with. I don't sell them I am just a satisfied customer.
 
I have a typhoon that we installed in 2005 or 2006. Overall it has been a good machine. We had to engineer around some short comings of the version we have such as poor presoak delivery and temperature. I know they have addressed those in newer versions. My recommendation would be to look more towards the 360. My reason is simple, there are a LOT of moving parts on the typhoon. There are a LOT of hoses on the typhoon. When hoses start getting wear marks on them it is a PITA to change them all. If you blow a 1” high pressure hose on a Saturday you better have an exact match on hand and you better have a lot of patience to get the job done. There are also a lot of hydraulic hoses and motors that will seep and be messy.
I have always found the Petit 360 to be interesting, however I have never been through one that I thought did a great job or delivered a great ‘show’. That I believe has more to do with how it was set up rather than the capabilities of the machine. For whatever reason, they all seem to be set up with a single step presoak. From a maintenance stand point the 360 looks to be a slam dunk. Just my $.02.
 
I just installed an Oasis XP and am very impressed with the speed and wash quality. Less moving parts than a typhoon but still a faster wash than most. Should be a contender for you in my book!
 
Thanks for the views and experience with these machines, please keep them coming.

I did go through a 360i today that is semi local (100) miles away, it had two step presoak and it did a very good job of cleaning my very dirty truck. The owner of that site had over 30k washes on one of his 360s without any break downs or loss of time and that is impressive to me as a Karcher owner. It seems that every 360 owner I have talked to has great things about the machine and the company.

There is an operator near me who has Typhoons and is only using a single step presoak and I really don't like how it cleans. I think I like the Typhoon but again the setup is not optimal in my opinion so that makes it hard to tell how it cleans, it is fast as heck though. With that said it was only 35 seconds faster than the 360 on my mega cab Ram with the top wash at each site. I did go to the Oasis factory and tour it and they did seem like great guys also and the machine looked very simple, again compared to my Karchers that I have had for 15 years.
 
What type of chemicals was the 360i using? I've heard to achieve those fast wash times you have to use some pretty aggressive chemicals with little no dwell time, is Petit Auto Wash the only source for parts?. Also I see they say on their website if you want the maximum cph you would need the stacked pump stand system with 2 cat 3535's per machine.
 
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I was told it starts at $148,000.00 which includes The machine and all Stainless Steel framework, The Controller, 2- Cat 3535 Pump Stations and a VFD Controller, Triple Foam, Fluid Distribution Module.
 
I know that the operator was using KR chemicals 1B and 2A, I am not familiar with those. I have been using Zep for many years in my Karchers. The one thing that I think he had dialed in was that he had slowed the machine down to allow dwell time for the pre soaks. Basically he had one empty pass for each pre soak to allow the chems to do their job. So at the cost of a little speed he gave a great wash and still 4min 15 sec faster than my Karcher with the same wash quality.
I have looked at Mark7, Istabol, Oasis and now Petit and am looking at flights to go to the Petit factory to see what they look like to work on, and also check to see how many proprietary parts are on them. I don't know what they cost yet, neither have I compared them to the LW360 or Razor. The reason I have been looking at the Petit and Typhoon so hard is that I need more cph as I have a great site as well as the fact that people won't wait anymore. There are several tunnels that are so fast and cheap if you get a monthly pass that I have to do something to adjust with the times.
I am not sold on any machine at this time but just trying to do my due diligence so as to not make an expensive mistake.
I have weeded out several for different reasons already, but am open to happy owners of any equipment suggestions.
Thanks again to all, I am a newb here and you all are very helpful with your comments and experiences.
 
I am still confounded hearing people brag about any inverted L machine. Yes, i used to sell Istobals, but am now an owner with one. The high pressure top bar profiles the front, top, and rear. It can even do a little wiggle on the ends. So my auto stays about 14” from the surface. Any inverted L will be close to 5’ away from the hood and trunk, and it takes two passes to do what mine does in one pass. To each his own.
 
mac said:
I am still confounded hearing people brag about any inverted L machine. Yes, i used to sell Istobals, but am now an owner with one. The high pressure top bar profiles the front, top, and rear. It can even do a little wiggle on the ends. So my auto stays about 14” from the surface. Any inverted L will be close to 5’ away from the hood and trunk, and it takes two passes to do what mine does in one pass. To each his own.
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The problem with the profile though is that it is painfully slow, Istobal and other European manufacturers also use H. P pumps that are way undersized. For friction they are great, but for touch free they suck. Here is an example for you. A christ hybrid wash v a Typhoon.
 
I've been kicking around the idea of upgrading my Radius to a 360. There are many things I like about it - mostly the cph. I've read nothing but good about them. I like the fact that not only do they have a great reputation, but it's a somewhat smaller family owned company. I feel you get treated better as a customer.
 
I did take a good look at the Istobal and was very impressed with it, and it did a great job cleaning my Ram. But they can’t do duallys and they are slow as my Karcher when I need faster. I am the only wash now that does duallys in my town and have to keep those customers as there are many that come here. The other thing that will undoubtably bite you with Istabol is their contact bar for collision into unseen things by the photo eyes. Example you have a 1” wide trigger mechanism in the middle of your roof beam that won’t catch a fuel tank handle or anything else thin in the back of a truck and sticking up if it’s not perfectly centered in the truck. I have been contouring with my Karcher’s for almost twenty years and do like the contouring concept.
The Petit uses 5* nozzles so impact even on low height vehicles is still good with enough pump (70 gpm) and good chemistry it cleans well. I have to give my Karchers kudos for the way they clean, but my one time through the Petit made me think it was just as good on my filthy truck, plus the Petit was 4min 15 seconds faster than my Karcher and 4min faster than the Istabol on its top wash.
I sure can’t say the Petit is for me yet but it is worth me going to the factory for further inspection.
Thanks all.
 
I’m not sure that video is a good comparison. That Christ did not do a simultaneous top and side application. And the other machine must have two freaking big pumps.
 
ViperACR said:
Petit was 4min 15 seconds faster than my Karcher and 4min faster than the Istabol on its top wash.
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Rather than how much faster, how fast was it? What exactly were you getting pass wise? I normally time a wash from the time I get the red light to stop and start the wash until the time the next customer could pull in.
 
I have timed all the washes green light to green light. I think that is a fair honest way of timing the wash. I have tried to get good answers for myself, kind of like mpg you can lie about it but it doesn’t change anything. The Petit and the Typhoon are both using two 35 gpm pumps, so really 70 gpm, they better be fast at that rate.
 
Well the pictures at least show what looks like a neat and clean design and installation. Have to agree with Viper. 70 gpm is a lot of water. Any figures for total water usage on a top wash? Curious because many washes also use soft water for everything, which would require a softener the size of a Volkswagen.
 
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