D&S 5000 not cleaning on one presoak!

[dogwasher]

I have two DS 5000 units(1 year old) and I'm having the hardest time cleaning cars on one presoak, the last two weeks I started using blendco, just after the install of the Blenco soap it cleaned my black truck well and now its not doing so good..they keep coming out to adjust the soap but still not corrected. Customers are complaining and Im sick about it. Any input out there would help!
Also anyone else with a DS unit could you tell me what your cost of soap is per car?
Thanks

 

[MEP001]

Did you not get any good tips from this thread?

 

[dogwasher]

Read all the posts... So you think I should just sell a two step pre soak after most the customers from the last 10 years are used to buying the single soak. Try to chang there ways and ask them to spend more money in this economy.
You can only give so much dwell on a D&S.
What would be a better soap than Blendco?

 

[MEP001]

What were you using before you switched to Blendco? Did it work? Why did you switch?

 

[dogwasher]

Mep, I have tried three other soaps, one of them was Warsaw. Out of the three I believe the blendo did the best job but that was the first week now the blendco is not doing so good even after all the soap is at its recommended adjustments.
Im not sure if the road grime changed or the soap has changed?

 

[dogwasher]

I guess a better question is if you own a DS unit what soap are you using and how well does it clean on the single soak?

 

[MEP001]

Did you titrate the Blendco to begin with? You might test it again to make sure the concentration hasn't changed.

I used to work for a distributor that sold D&S, and we always sold Scotch Plaid's Extreme touch-free presoak with them. It works very well but it's very expensive.

 

[Red Baron]

I have (2) D&S 5,000's and use Warsaw chems with good results - it does take some tweeking, as with all chems. I titrate my Wonder Plus 534 at about 40 drops in the summer and boost it to 50 in the winter. I also use their Lemon Elixir to clean the chrome & glass.

I was tempted to switch to Blendco at a time when I was having trouble cleaning black vehicles, but researched threads here and found the same problems with all brands...tweeking is a must.

Sometimes a black vehicle won't get clean no matter what you do. Maybe they have dirt from another area, maybe tree sap, maybe ??? Sometimes they just need to go scrub with a foamy brush, and that's what I tell customers. You can make yourself crazy chasing chems trying to clean that 1 car out of a hundred that doesn't get clean for whatever the reason.

 

[BayWatch]

My question would be what has changed in the last few weeks that was different from the first week or so when it did work? Was it rainy then or now? Was it cold then or now? Where do you get your water from? Well, lake, river? Have you checked your water hardness? I know that around here, once a year, we have problems with the water. I know when it will happen and how long it will last. Just something the city does with the system. I just think you might be blaming the chemical too quickly. Something has to be affecting the chemical or altering the conditions of your inital setup. I've spent hours titrating chemical for someone before I remembered to check the salt in the brine tank. Filled the salt and went home.

 

[dogwasher]

I'm not blaming the chemicals or the machine, just trying to see what kind of info I can get from this site, its always been very helpful.
I guess were going to try to up the Surfactant a few CCs and see what happens.
Everything else is in order.

 

[rph9168]

The real cleaning comes form the Super Sat solution. The surfactants are mainly there for sudsing with a little cleaning. If you want to boost something to improve cleaning try the SS solution.

 

[briteauto]

Sometimes a black vehicle won't get clean no matter what you do. Maybe they have dirt from another area, maybe tree sap, maybe ??? Sometimes they just need to go scrub with a foamy brush, and that's what I tell customers. You can make yourself crazy chasing chems trying to clean that 1 car out of a hundred that doesn't get clean for whatever the reason.

Keep in mind - the problem with film or soil remaining on the car is not because the car is black. It is not just black cars that are not getting clean they all are not clean - you just might not be able to see it as much on another color, but the dirt is still there.

Red Baron is right - you just might have to use the brush on these vehicles.

Also - I knew an operator who liked the Ardcadian chems - for whatever that is worth.

 

[Waxman]

I've found that if I play around with dwell times and volumes of soap I can get alot of different products to clean well. The trick is finding the combinations that are the most cost effective and satisfying to customers.

If you are saving $$ on soap but getting lots of complaints, you aren't saving anything.

I play around with different soaps from time to time. So far, anyone promising big savings has disappointed me due to poor quality washing at a soap concentration that actually saves $$. Of course putting on less soap saves $! However, a clean car is what you're going for and is the reason customers repeat washing at your place.

I'm testing a soap right now. I've tweaked it up a little and will tweak it up a little more today, probably. I use 2 hi ph passes now, and 10 seconds dwell on each. First pass is much stronger than second.

FWIW, try a sample of C.A.R. Products 'Lightning', a hi-ph presoak. Fairly economical and great cleaning power at about 6 oz per car. I get very clean cars using this product and lots of dwell.

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