Looking at taking out a soft gloss Max 5 and going Petit

[Dustinw]

Having never owned a touch free what soaps are you using that really does a good job of breaking down the grim on cars?

I have gone through several touch frees recently and none of them have done much other than getting the dust off.

Is there a soap out there that truly breaks this stuff down or is friction the only way to go?

 

[washnshine]

There will be a learning curve going from friction to touchless. No one soap is magic and will work in all locations on all soils. You need a good chem rep in your region who knows how to set up your machine to clean. If you are successful and competitive with friction, you may not want to switch, unless you are having problems resulting a decrease in customers. You will be able to clean a wider variety of vehicles - shapes and sizes with touchless, but you will have more consistent and thorough cleaning - particularly on dirtier cars and certain soils with friction. If one method of cleaning was clearly better in all situations and circumstances, the other type would probably not be made, or at the very least not prevalent!

 

[ShinePro]

Tell us where you are located and we will be better able to answer your question
Like washnshine said
Every region has its own set of issues!

 

[Dustinw]

thanks for your response. I am in the SE. My Ryko does fine but there is a tunnel in town along with several other brushes. I want to be different plus with a touch free I can speed my through put up. Next thing is I was 50% trucks and the trailer hitches kill my brushes I just spent $2k on brushes and I swear half I have lost what seems like half of them in just a couple months.

I think my biggest downfall is through put. On busy days I struggle to keep up which turns people away. Plus I will run a membership with touches.

 

[ShinePro]

SE - that helps
You should be able to clean cars down there in a touchless easy!
One of the reasons I like touchless is the fact I can wash any pickup truck on the road!!!!!!
And I wash a shit ton of them!
Dually’s - flatbeds- four door cab with a 9’ flatbed is my biggest truck I have come thru.
I m a WW Razor owner.

 

[washnshine]

If throughput is a top priority, check out several machines - they are not all the same speed, as you know. You do have to make sure you have sufficient dwell time on a touchless too. Also, check out the top/ most involved package time for a machine - not just the basic. Hopefully, a large percentage of your washes will be your top wash and make sure you know how long that will take. Also - you probably already know and do this, but your dryers need to be drive through after the machine if they are not already.

 

[Greg Pack]

I'm in the southeast and touch free cleaning in my area is challenging. I can clean about 85% of the cars in touchfree, and that's because they are frequent customers. The car may look shiny and clean to the casual eye but there is still a film you can swipe on the surface.There is no magic bullet that I'm aware of. I've tried many brands and still try new products hoping to find the one that works on nearly every car. I've even tried a couple of HF acid-based solutions. Ironically the more rural areas with dirt roads all around are easier to clean because the cars get visibly dirtier quicker and as a result the customer uses the wash more frequently. I'm in a nice neighborhood with good roads and people go weeks without washing and a subtle buildup of road film happens. I tell people that if they wash less than three times per month I recommend friction units. If you had room I'd consider adding a touchfree but if you have a successful, busy friction unit I'm not sure I'd get rid of it. Your chemical cost will rise significantly too with touchfree, probably double if not triple, negating the cost of brush replacements and the occasional damage claim.

 

[STXCW]

thanks for your response. I am in the SE. My Ryko does fine but there is a tunnel in town along with several other brushes. I want to be different plus with a touch free I can speed my through put up. Next thing is I was 50% trucks and the trailer hitches kill my brushes I just spent $2k on brushes and I swear half I have lost what seems like half of them in just a couple months.

I think my biggest downfall is through put. On busy days I struggle to keep up which turns people away. Plus I will run a membership with touches.

We thought the same thing about tunnels a few years ago. Put in 4 TF's next to our frictions. Frictions wash 3 to 1. We will stick to friction in the future. Our PDQ frictions wash at least 80k cars before needing to replace brushes, and we wash a lot of trucks.

Make sure your brushes aren't set to aggressive causing premature wear.

 

[washnshine]

I was also going to suggest checking brush pressure if you are getting premature brush wear. Also, if you ever reload with a new friction machine, consider something with flexible shaft couplings or amp/pressure sensing capabilities- that will help to protect from excessive pressure on the brush and on the cars.

 

[DiamondWash]

Like an Oasis I5, almost went that route, but no distributors in our area so we went with WashWorld.

 

[Dustinw]

I'm in the southeast and touch free cleaning in my area is challenging. I can clean about 85% of the cars in touchfree, and that's because they are frequent customers. The car may look shiny and clean to the casual eye but there is still a film you can swipe on the surface.There is no magic bullet that I'm aware of. I've tried many brands and still try new products hoping to find the one that works on nearly every car. I've even tried a couple of HF acid-based solutions. Ironically the more rural areas with dirt roads all around are easier to clean because the cars get visibly dirtier quicker and as a result the customer uses the wash more frequently. I'm in a nice neighborhood with good roads and people go weeks without washing and a subtle buildup of road film happens. I tell people that if they wash less than three times per month I recommend friction units. If you had room I'd consider adding a touchfree but if you have a successful, busy friction unit I'm not sure I'd get rid of it. Your chemical cost will rise significantly too with touchfree, probably double if not triple, negating the cost of brush replacements and the occasional damage claim.

I lose customers due to the speed of my machine on busy days , I can't clean tire and wheel worth a damn.

 

[Dustinw]

We thought the same thing about tunnels a few years ago. Put in 4 TF's next to our frictions. Frictions wash 3 to 1. We will stick to friction in the future. Our PDQ frictions wash at least 80k cars before needing to replace brushes, and we wash a lot of trucks.

Make sure your brushes aren't set to aggressive causing premature wear.

I had a PDQ brush at another site and I couldn't handle how slow it was.

 

[washnshine]

The PDQ frictions are notoriously slow.

 

[Greg Pack]

I lose customers due to the speed of my machine on busy days , I can't clean tire and wheel worth a damn.

Well, with a petit you still won't clean wheels worth a damn but at least you can do it much quicker

 

[STXCW]

The PDQ frictions are notoriously slow.

We have an average wash time of 5:34 with 2 side brush passes on the top wash. This is on the 2 brush unit. Longest wash times being 7-7:15 with a 4 door super duty long bed on the top wash. 3 brush unit is slightly faster.

I've seen a ton of sites that are 9+ minutes but the programming is horrible with so many wasted passes and cycles speeds way to slow.

Trend report yesterday shows

Bottom at 3:31
Middle at 3:59
Top at 7:02

Avg of 5:34

 

[Dustinw]

Well, with a petit you still won't clean wheels worth a damn but at least you can do it much quicker

damn really!!