Potential new SS Option?

[bigleo48]

Saw an ad for the new Karcher power squeegee WV50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8dy-4vV-zs

It got me thinking that this could be applied as a SS option. Perhaps even using my existing 3-motor air shammee's suction end, if it was mounted in a canister, or just in a powerful shop vac. Manufacturing the head would be the only somewhat difficult part, There would also be winter freezing issues.

Comments?

 

[robert roman]

Gimmicks like hand-held air-dryers and electric squeegees might help a bit.

However, I believe a good move for self-service operator is to go with express format and expand the customer base.

Here, more in-bay automatics may be the best investment.

 

[MEP001]

Gimmicks like hand-held air-dryers and electric squeegees might help a bit.

However, I believe a good move for self-service operator is to go with express format and expand the customer base.

Here, more in-bay automatics may be the best investment.

 

[bigleo48]

Robert,

I'm talking a couple of thousand dollars, not a couple of million.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Seriously???

That's like telling a guy with a vending machine route, to improve business he should build a McDonalds

 

[MEP001]

Saw an ad for the new Karcher power squeegee WV50
It got me thinking that this could be applied as a SS option. Perhaps even using my existing 3-motor air shammee's suction end, if it was mounted in a canister, or just in a powerful shop vac. Manufacturing the head would be the only somewhat difficult part, There would also be winter freezing issues.

Comments?

The original concept seems pretty dumb. The window and sills have already been made wet by the cleaning process - what does it matter that the small amount left on the glass is squeegee'd off? Same with drying the car with a squeegee, it's not going to help vacuuming up the water vs. letting it fall on the wet floor.

I'd be very hesitant to supply something like this for customers to use. The silicone squeegees supposedly safe for paint still leave fine scratches from every bit of dirt and dust that isn't removed. It seems like a gimmick that came and went - I used to see people use them, and haven't seen anyone use one in about a year.

 

[Buzzie8]

That's like telling a guy with a vending machine route, to improve business he should build a McDonalds

I love it!

 

[robert roman]

Since I once managed a vending route, I would not suggest building a McDonald’s to improve a vending route business.

Instead, I would suggest investing in contactless payment readers, touch-screen POS, healthy food choices, machine upgrades (people want/expect state-of-the-art technology) and coffee (specialty and gourmet).

My suggestion to convert wand bays into more in-bays is consistent with the trends.

The wand business has taken on the chin and instead of recovering after the recession the segment continues to decline.

The industry is offering mini-tunnel as solution but I believe self-service operators have more to gain by going with more in-bays less wand-bays.

 

[Earl Weiss]

I'd be very hesitant to supply something like this for customers to use. The silicone squeegees supposedly safe for paint still leave fine scratches from every bit of dirt and dust that isn't removed. It seems like a gimmick that came and went - I used to see people use them, and haven't seen anyone use one in about a year.

Whaat he said.

 

[bigleo48]

Robert,

No argument here and it is something we are looking at (converting a SS bay to another IBA), but that would still leave me with 7 SS bays)...so a different discussion if you will.

Back to MEP and Earl...I agree with your comments too. I'm always looking at new ideas for my carwash and I do have unused functions on my coin box. I like to trow it out there and see what you guys come up with that I didn't think about.

 

[robert roman]

By more in-bays, I mean a “lot” more like converting 8 wands into 4 + 4.

I would be glad to debate the pros and cons of this strategy.

 

[bigleo48]

Robert,

I have one standalone IBA that does well...I wish I had two. Here to change over a SS bay to an IBA (a decent one), I'b be looking at $150K per bay. So to add three more I'd be looking at $400k plus. Hard to imagine I could recoup that, not to mention the difficulty in adapting the property and traffic flow, etc. But if I did I would have the ability to process about 15 cars/hr/bay...or 45 cars/hr. I think I'd be better off modifying my 50' IBA building to a mini-tunnel for about $200k (or less) and have almost the same throughput, no reconfigure of property and keeping my 8 wand bays.

 

[robert roman]

The last mini-tunnel project I worked on was a 5-touch hybrid, installed nearly $300K.

45’ to 50’ conveyor operating unattended 25 cars per hour is no problem.

More requires attendant to herd cars through.

Generally speaking, the shorter the mini, the more difficult it becomes to achieve the theoretical capacity of the system.

For example, the best we could get out of the 45’ mentioned above was 35 cars an hour, attended. I have another client with 60’ mini and he manages a best of about 45 cars an hour.

As for attendant labor, figure $35,000 to $40,000 per annum and treat this as a fixed cost.

Given the current level of carwash equipment spending, I would suspect you would be treated like royalty (discount) if placing an order for three in-bays.

Four in-bays would provide total capacity of 45 cars an hour, unattended 24/7, but more importantly it would allow for volume pricing for express format.

What happens to wands? Interestingly, when cutting back number of wands for more in-bays, we see average revenue per month per wand-bay for remaining wands increase “significantly.”

I believe one of the reasons for this is lower cost (perceived) is more important for wand-bay users than total time involved.

 

[MEP001]

What does your last mini-tunnel project have to do with adding a unique function in a self-serve bay?