I'm looking at purchasing a 3 bay manual wash. I know this will very drastically by region but the previous owner's P&L(more like a bar napkin ha ha) has his gas/water costs at $350/mo which I know isn't accurate because the gas/water/sewer bill for my house runs in the 300's/mo during the summer when watering the yard. I'm also looking at adding tankless heaters, are tankless worth the costs and what percent would you expect to save by converting. Thanks in advance as I'm a green pea hopefully near future car wash owner!
Gas/Water Monthly Costs
- Thread starter Flint
- Start date
I'm thinking it's at least double if not triple. The previous owner shut it down for winter as he moved out of town and could not maintain from long distance so I can't sit there and count cars daily either to get a ballpark on car counts.
soapy
Senior Member
My gas bills at 3 washes are around $100 per month April through October and around $600 for the winter months each. Water sewer and electricity is around $750 per month year round. 2 Iba each and 3 SS bays.
Are you running tankless water heater’s or traditional tank heater? Thanks in advance
Eric H
Well-known member
So you are buying building and equipment and NOT an operating business. Try to use that as leverage in your deal.
Comparing water and sewer bills probably isn't a good gauge to assess a business. My rates at one site are $4.00 per unit water and $4.56 per unit sewer. The next city over is $4.20 water and $9.11 sewer. I can't even judge my own sites based on water/sewer bills.
I do use tankless units at my sites. They replaced a million BTU floor heat and water heater combination unit. A million BTU's would fire up any time I needed hot water. The savings were significant in my example.
Thank you!! All good to know! I wasn’t necessarily trying to get a car count off the water usage but more of an idea of monthly nut to crack. Problem I’m having is the property is fairly desirable for redevelopment which is hindering what I think the property is worth. I’m probably going to have to pass on this location as they want 10x the gross from its last fiscal year of operation.
Eric H
Well-known member
Is there a nearby property available to build a stand alone 2 bay IBA? In-bays make about 3-4X what a SS bay will do. IMO, they are a lot less work than a busy SS (and no one wants a slow SS carwash). If you build new, you won't be inheriting someone else's mistakes/headaches. It is probably much more $$ to invest but the ROI is much better.
soapy
Senior Member
I use tankless at one location and a high efficency HTP water heater and the other 2. Tankless have been fine but I like the HTP water heaters best.
