Air machine

[chaz]

Cons: tie up bay while someone just gets air. Air customer needs to wait for bay. Wet floor means wet pants. Would need plenty of signage to draw customers.

In my case it's a toggle choice between air and vac. I notice done customers start to use vac to run timer down, then need to add money to complete vac, that they perhaps had not planned on doing from the start

 

[2Biz]

Cons: tie up bay while someone just gets air. Air customer needs to wait for bay. Wet floor means wet pants. Would need plenty of signage to draw customers.

Correct, but I guess it all depends on how busy your wash is. Also there's no way for me to get air to the vac island unless I wanted to dig up 6" thick concrete. I don't have any vacs against the building either. Still sounds like a great idea to me. I'm just limited on where I could put them.

 

[chaz]

If you are adding a separate coin box and I assume timer, I would be more inclined to install on one of the exterior walls of the E.R., instead of in the bay, you could also mount a large AIR sign. But I would suggest you add this option anywhere you can, not a huge $ producer, but every bit helps

 

[Earl Weiss]

I believe Mr. Hofman has a selection in his bays for compressed air wih a seperate boom and hose. I think he regulates it down to 60psi. It has a trigger gun set up. People can use it to blow out moisture from under trim as well as debris from interiors and engine compartment.

I could see running 2 hoses from the same function. One with an air chuck and one with the trigger gun. Just couldn't use both at the same time if the customers were tag teaming the car.

Biggest difference is pricing. Tire air is typicaly 50 cents for 4 minutes. Bays are 4 times that.

 

[chaz]

Wow. 50 cents for air, cheap. I am $1 for 4 mintues, wit a switch between vac and air. My bays are now $3 for first 4 minutes

 

[MEP001]

Correct, but I guess it all depends on how busy your wash is. Also there's no way for me to get air to the vac island unless I wanted to dig up 6" thick concrete. I don't have any vacs against the building either. Still sounds like a great idea to me. I'm just limited on where I could put them.

I've thought about running a 1/8" air line through the conduit with the existing vac wiring and using an air storage tank instead of a compressor.

 

[chaz]

I like that idea of the air tank, but where would you install the tank, and will the 1/8 line keep up with demand to top off four tires?!

 

[MEP001]

You'd have to have a box for the tank, probably something the size of a conventional air machine, but it would eliminate the expensive and noisy little compressor. No, an 1/8" OD tube won't keep up with demand for four tires, but I've aired up two completely flat tires with a portable air tank filled to 120 PSI. For an air machine that might get used three or four times a day, it might be enough. I would experiment with it myself if I had 100' of tube.

 

[CGCW]

Adding air to location

Chaz,

Thanks for your patience.

I reread your first post & now I actually see the built-in gauge on the KleenRite picture that you linked for me twice now. It looks like the gauge is located in a really good spot at the tip of it based on the picture.

mike[/QUOTE


Does anyone make a coin acceptor with a kip solenoid in it that I can add to the side of my building so I can hook it up to my existing air compressor. I do not have the ability to run air to my vacs without cutting up the concrete but it would be easy to add to the building if the components were available. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[MEP001]

There's no such thing as a "coin acceptor with a kip solenoid in it." If you want to do what you asked, you would buy a small meter box, coin acceptor, timer and solenoid and wire them together.

 

[CGCW]

There's no such thing as a "coin acceptor with a kip solenoid in it." If you want to do what you asked, you would buy a small meter box, coin acceptor, timer and solenoid and wire them together.

Thanks for the feedback, I will see what I can put together from kleenrite. Would any appropriate sized DEMA solenoid work okay?

 

[MEP001]

If it's appropriate sized, it will work okay. A Kip would be more reliable and cheaper.