Ever think about going w a "friction" unit? I have a Tandem by PDQ and it is the busiest of my 3 bays. 2 other bays are touchless. What I've always heard is the longer the tunnel, more efficient the wash. Cost effectiveness with a machine vs mini tunnel would be completely in your favor on a machine install. Would say that you should be able to get a complete setup for under 200k..less if you look into other brands like the WW comparable unit...good luck.
1. I think you are going to have issues mounting equipment to the floor without destroying the floor heat. (Will this affect any other bays?) Then you need to install heat and possibly auto doors to compensate.
still an unanswered question, I guess if we have to we will have an attendant
Obviously I am not familiar with your operation but my thought is since you have doors the water is only on when doors are closed. You also have floor heat which keeps stuff on the floor thawed even if there are no doors. I expect mounting the conveyor and equipment will destroy the floor heat which makes it more difficult to get heat to floor level, plus if you are processing a line of cars the doors may not close at all or for only short burst between cars so both doors will be open with the water running. I speak from experience of having tunnels 3-400K BTU Gas forced air heaters at both ends of a 100 foot tunnel - Plastic Strip door at the exit end. and the other day when it was around 15 degrees having some cloth 25 feet in freezing at the bottom.
