2 IBA'S, one paystation???? Does anybody do this.

[Brucedvm59]

So I have 2 PDQ touchless washes, with 2 access units paystations. I want/need to upgrade my paystations. I don't like being tied in to PDQ, so I am looking at my options. I wonder if anybody has one paystation that serves both IBAs? Seems to make sense, also customer gets first available wash. Does anybody do this? What paystations do you guys use and recommend. In the process of implementing a monthly membership plan. Thank you for your help/advice/scorn

 

[Axxlrod]

How would a single paystation keep an accurate stack for both machines?

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Dakota Hoskins put two IBAs in an old tunnel, linear, not side by side. He uses one pay station for both. He’s had it running for maybe six months. I’m not sure how it’s working out.

 

[Wash4Life]

Dakota Hoskins put two IBAs in an old tunnel, linear, not side by side. He uses one pay station for both. He’s had it running for maybe six months. I’m not sure how it’s working out.

If I'm picturing this correctly, does that mean that the second one is blocking the first?

 

[washnshine]

If I'm picturing this correctly, does that mean that the second one is blocking the first?

I’m thinking that too. The only thing I can figure is if the first car always gets the most forward machine, you can then accept a second car in the rear machine. But you can’t accept a third car until the rear machine finishes, and that car would then get the most forward machine. So it seems to me that sometimes you can have two cars washing simultaneously, but not always. I’d just want to make sure that my package timing was right so that there would never be the chance of having the rear customer finish and have to wait for the first customer to finish in order to leave.

 

[JLanman]

Dakota Hoskins put two IBAs in an old tunnel, linear, not side by side. He uses one pay station for both. He’s had it running for maybe six months. I’m not sure how it’s working out.

We built the stacking process for this wash. Our tech manages the intake from the pay station and sends the wash request to the appropriate machine based on availability.

You could technically do the same with the original request in this post, but if they are side by side you would likely need a double gate system or some type of directional sign to indicate to the customer which lane they are supposed to be in.
I would also think you would need to be able to stack several washes prior to the wash entry, maybe at least 1 wash per bay so you could have 1 in each bay, 1 staged at each bay door while you had 1 at the paystation.

Would need more information, but probably doable.

 

[Waxman]

just because something can be done doesn't necessarily mean that it should be done. I think you guys are asking way too much of the customers as far as their ability to use the equipment properly. I always try and keep things very simple and not confusing for the customers and I can see this really confusing the customer is quite a bit.

 

[JLanman]

Yep, I think for something like this to work you would likely need a physical barrier, like the two gated lane approach to make it extremely obvious or damn near impossible to chose the incorrect lane.

 

[DakotaHoskins]

Yes, so the stop light has to be on for 3 seconds in the far bay for the next car to come into the machine behind it. The car always deques to the most frontward bay first.
There is a digital tv in the bay and speaker that display messages. The programming allows for a car being “trapped”. The stop light stays on if the car in front isn’t finished yet and the digital sign says please waiting. Drying area busy.

The concept is working great and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again now that all the programming is worked out. I hired a programmer on UpWork to make the plc program that makes it all work. He wasn’t a carwash guy and before opening I realized I had to go a different direction. I enlisted help from Jim at Touch4Wash. Without Jim I’m not sure this would have happened. He made the stacking modual. I also made a 2nd plc program to handle the non-stacking items. I attached some pics of the site.

If one bay goes out of service the que is automatically shifted to the working bay. Even if one machine goes down with 4 cars already paid past the gate every customer still gets there wash in the working bay.



Here is a link to the video it was too large to upload.

1683492670.mp4

drive.google.com

 

[Brucedvm59]

How would a single paystation keep an accurate stack for both machines?

I was thinking that try to figure a way so that after they hit the paystation, a gate would open to the next available bay....................... maybe I am crazy

 

[Wash4Life]

just because something can be done doesn't necessarily mean that it should be done. I think you guys are asking way too much of the customers as far as their ability to use the equipment properly. I always try and keep things very simple and not confusing for the customers and I can see this really confusing the customer is quite a bit.

That's a great point. I myself come from the school that most customers aren't too bright. We have four touch-free in-bay automatics at one of our sights. I often have this conversation with customers:

Customer: Are the automatics open?

Me: Yes.

Customer: Nobody is using them.

Me: Nobody else is here.