I have tried several pre-soaks during my short time in the car wash business, about 10. My favorite so far is Extreme by Scotch Plaid.This also can be used as a high pressure detergent which I like and have used it for that. Some are not dual purpose. Does anyone else use this product that has a comment about it? I'd be interested in your top pick of tried and tested pre-soaks. My wash is self-serve.
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Pre-soaks Your Favorite?
- Thread starter CCAR
- Start date
Earl Weiss
Well-known member
Use KR Summer Breeze pre Soak.
Was using their purple passion but had snot build up issues.
$59.95 for 5 gallons but try to load up during their buy 3 get one free sale.
Dilute it direct with Hydrominders and ultra lean tips at about 600/1
Was using their purple passion but had snot build up issues.
$59.95 for 5 gallons but try to load up during their buy 3 get one free sale.
Dilute it direct with Hydrominders and ultra lean tips at about 600/1
MudMoney
Well-known member
I 've been using Scotch Plaid extreme presoak for 12 years ,great on grasshopper guts and winter road grime salt.Mine is preheated in the tank and have had no build up issues anywhere.I also use their scotch pine concentrate in hp cycle customers like how it cleans and smells nice too.Also like that I'm billed instead of using a credit card !
MEP001
Well-known member
I mix 3 parts Scotch Plaid Extreme with 2 parts of the hyper pine presoak. I use it in both the auto and self-serve. The hyper pine stuff puts on a great show and smells nice but doesn't clean well enough on its own, and the Extreme by itself costs too much and has no color.
Earl Weiss
Well-known member
Please explain why you prefer this.
I use extreme and also like it. It is private labeled by my distributer. I boost it in the IBA by adding a small amount (1%)of a proprietary caustic mixture through a hydrominder dual tip eductor( I boost ALL alkaline presoaks). Overall, I like the product. It is plenty foamy and has a pleasant smell.
I have also used extreme as a SS foam brush when it gets cold to enhance cleaning performance.
Will have to get some hyper pine and try the aforementioned blend.
I have also used extreme as a SS foam brush when it gets cold to enhance cleaning performance.
Will have to get some hyper pine and try the aforementioned blend.
Earl Weiss
Well-known member
Heck, with a credit card, depending on your billing cycle you can get at least that long, + mileage.
I have used Blendco supersat off and on for years. It seems to clean the best. I hate that it is so expensive. I just tried Simonize Big Bang and it worked well but after doing a volumetric study I realized it was costing over .70 a car and Blendco was around .60 a car at 20 drop titration (my automatic is a presoak hog using about 12 oz of product on each car). I really want to find a product that works as well as Blendco that is not so terribly expensive. Let me know more about your caustic boost. I am considering taking a less expensive chemical mixing a 50lb bag of caustic soda with 55 gallons of water and boosting a less expensive product with a dual tip hydrominder. I know I need to keep an eye on the titration if I do this but it seems like a viable option and could keep my pre-soak costs down while getting the same result.
Where do you get this caustic mixture? I have heard of others on this forum doing a similar thing. I assume that you are doing this because you want the product to work better? Couldn't you take a really cheap product and add enough caustic to make it work, like foamy brush soap?
I got on Scotch Plaids web site and I don't see hyper pine presoak. There is one that is called dyna pack pine under presoaks. Is this it?
Caustic plays a big role in most alkaline presoaks, but there are other ingredients in a quality product- solvency, surfactants, etc. Having said that, I had a owner of a pretty large tunnel chain told me that the best tire cleaner they used was back in "the old days" when they managed the locations themselves, and was a mixture of Dawn dishwashing detergent and sodium hydroxide.
As RPH mentioned, caustic has its' risks. I wouldn't use the caustic if I could get away with it. If you are cleaning to your satisfaction with an off the shelf one drum product I would stick with it.
bigleo48
Active member
I've been using Film-Away product from Transmate in both my SS bays and my touchless IBA. The people at KR turned me onto to this product.
It's currently $341 for a 55 Gallon drum (cheaper than Transmate distributor rates) and about twice a year they have a buy 3 get 1 free sale and they have free shipping with any pallet orders (for 55gal drums is a pallet).. Since I get all my other stuff there, it makes it handy too.
It's currently $341 for a 55 Gallon drum (cheaper than Transmate distributor rates) and about twice a year they have a buy 3 get 1 free sale and they have free shipping with any pallet orders (for 55gal drums is a pallet).. Since I get all my other stuff there, it makes it handy too.
Earl Weiss
Well-known member
In my SS use the KR Summer Breeze.
In my tunnels the KR low PH conditioner. Works good nice smell.
Are you using that as a single pass in your iba? What part of the country are you located in?
