White streaks/spots when temps are under 45°

[HCCW]

Every winter when the temps fall below 45°, cars that go through our dryers in the automatic bay come out with white spots and streaks all over their windows and paint. It looks like freeze dried salt water. It stops happening as soon as the temperatures go above 45°. It has nothing to do with any of the chemicals we use as we can turn all the chemicals off and just run the cars through on the soft water and it still happens. It occurred to me today that if we could get dryers for the automatic that use hot air, this would solve the problem. Does anybody know if there’s any companies out there that sell blow dryers for car washes that use hot air?

 

[HCCW]

Sorry, I forgot to pos the second pic.

 

[washnshine]

Not sure what you have going on there. If no chemicals were used and you are getting that, it seems like a water quality issue to me.

As far as heated blowers, most tunnel operators I know will have gas fired heaters in the area around their blowers and blower intakes. Something like a Reznor - but there are many brands out there. It also helps to act as a heat curtain when then car is exiting - then the door closes behind them to keep warmer air in your bay.

 

[HCCW]

Not sure what you have going on there. If no chemicals were used and you are getting that, it seems like a water quality issue to me.

As far as heated blowers, most tunnel operators I know will have gas fired heaters in the area around their blowers and blower intakes. Something like a Reznor - but there are many brands out there. It also helps to act as a heat curtain when then car is exiting - then the door closes behind them to keep warmer air in your bay.

Thank you for the info! It has to be a water quality issue because my other locations don’t do this - and the equipment is all the same. The crazy thing is, the TDS in the water at this location is less than my other locations. Go figure. I thought maybe the water softeners are somehow leaving a little salt in the water? I have no clue at this point. This issue has been the bane of my car washing existence for 25 years, and it’s the only problem at the car washes that I haven’t solved.

 

[Waxman]

I think you should get the water tested and go from there. You could also do a sanity check and wash your car dry it by hand and then take some water out of the tap inside the car wash and dump it on an area and let it dry on the car and see how it looks. That's where I'd start

 

[OurTown]

What is the water hardness and what is the TDS of the spot free?

 

[OurTown]

Do the streaks go away after washing a certain amount of cars at the beginning of the colder season? If so could it be dust from the doors because they sat open during the warm season? If not the doors then maybe the bay heaters? Does the machine weep hard water? If so, maybe that is stuck on and mixing with the spot free. I'm just trying to think of all potential low temperature changes for the season. You said that you ran a wash without chemicals but did you do that by wash programming or shut off valves?

 

[OurTown]

I just reread your post. Try running a wash without blowers to see what it looks like. We had a touchless that ran for 20 years that never had blowers. We would many times run our black car through it, go let it bake in the sun to see if it spotted and never saw anything like yours.

 

[washnshine]

I’ve just never seen this related to temperature. I’ve seen it before on cars, but it’s been regardless of temp. Good advice on the posts above.

 

[HCCW]

I think you should get the water tested and go from there. You could also do a sanity check and wash your car dry it by hand and then take some water out of the tap inside the car wash and dump it on an area and let it dry on the car and see how it looks. That's where I'd start

I need a sanity check! lol, I know what you meant. I did pour the straight soft water we use on my car and let it dry and it doesn’t do it. It only has the streaks and spots if the blow driers dry it.

 

[HCCW]

What is the water hardness and what is the TDS of the spot free?

I don’t know the exact hardness of the water after it goes through the softeners as I only use the test strips, but they come out green. I tested my spot for Rinse yesterday and was surprised that it was at 21. I’m going to change out the membranes today. I like to keep it under 10. I’d say maybe that has something to do with it, but then I checked one of my other locations. It’s not doing the spotting and streaking and it was at a 28. So that’s not it. I’m going to change out the membranes there too.

 

[HCCW]

Do the streaks go away after washing a certain amount of cars at the beginning of the colder season? If so could it be dust from the doors because they sat open during the warm season? If not the doors then maybe the bay heaters? Does the machine weep hard water? If so, maybe that is stuck on and mixing with the spot free. I'm just trying to think of all potential low temperature changes for the season. You said that you ran a wash without chemicals but did you do that by wash programming or shut off valves?

It doesn’t go away, no matter how many cars we’ve washed, it only stops when the temperatures go above 45°. We do have a lot of dust because we’re in Utah, but the doors get rinsed off every two weeks and they already look clean when I rinse them off. Our machine does not weep hard water, it has a blow out. When I washed the car just with water, I didn’t have to shut off any valves or anything like that. I simply put my car in the bay, turned on the hydraulics so the arch would go back-and-forth over it and activated the high-pressure water.

 

[HCCW]

I just reread your post. Try running a wash without blowers to see what it looks like. We had a touchless that ran for 20 years that never had blowers. We would many times run our black car through it, go let it bake in the sun to see if it spotted and never saw anything like yours.

I’m going to try that. I grabbed a bucket of our regular soft water and just dumped it on my car and let it dry outside with no blowers, and there was no spots or streaks, but I didn’t actually run it through the wash and then let it air dry.

 

[HCCW]

I’ve just never seen this related to temperature. I’ve seen it before on cars, but it’s been regardless of temp. Good advice on the posts above.

Aren’t these guys the best? I was just reading all these replies out loud to my teen son while he was driving and he was amazed at what a great community this is. He said it almost makes him want to run car washes. Almost. He has zero interest in taking over our washes and we’re getting old. And he’s our only child! Sigh. Wish I’d had a bad ass girl that wanted to run them. But alas, I couldn’t have kids. We bought our one son 18 years into our marriage. How was I to know he’d be an indoor kitty? I should’ve requested an outdoor handy type.

 

[washnshine]

If he’s a good person you hit the jackpot (and probably had something to do with it along the way). Someone will buy your wash - let him be him and be happy!

 

[AnalyticWash]

Does this happen throughout the day or only in the morning?

My money is on water drip from the doors. Or water condensing in the dryer housings. I have seen this before. It is always this time of the year when it happens.

 

[Kimberly Berg]

Excellent tips and trouble shooting! If the streaks and spots only appear when you use the blow driers, I would focus on the driers. Could they have accumulated dust inside? Do they have an internal filter that needs to be cleaned?

 

[HCCW]

If he’s a good person you hit the jackpot (and probably had something to do with it along the way). Someone will buy your wash - let him be him and be happy!

I know you’re right - he is a good person, we just like to razz each other

 

[HCCW]

Does this happen throughout the day or only in the morning?

My money is on water drip from the doors. Or water condensing in the dryer housings. I have seen this before. It is always this time of the year when it happens.

This in an interesting take. The rear door is always up during the wash and has no moisture on it (the door is a considerable distance from the wash equipment) - but the dryers are inside the bay at this location. This is the only location where they are inside, and that’s because we built this bay longer than normal. Our other dryers are on the exteriors of the buildings. I’ve only seen it happen when the temps are below 45°, it doesn’t seem to matter the time of day.

 

[HCCW]

Excellent tips and trouble shooting! If the streaks and spots only appear when you use the blow driers, I would focus on the driers. Could they have accumulated dust inside? Do they have an internal filter that needs to be cleaned?

Well, we’re much dustier here in the summer and it never happens then. It only happens when the temps drop below 45°. It stops instantly when the temp is above that. Every day in the colder months it will streak and spot until the temps are above 45 and then it immediately stops - only to start back up again as soon as the temps drop back under 45. The streaks and spots are white and look exactly like dried milk. It’s utterly baffling. Right now there’s no dust as everything has been tamped down from rain several days ago.