Well, let's see how many I can pi$$ off with this little warning. There is a guy in south Florida named Mark Zelenak. His company is called Magic Karwash Service. If you are using his chemicals you are getting serviced all right. And not even getting kissed afterwards. Let me give you just one example. Went to a wash in a rural town in south FL that was using this guy for chemicals. They finally got tired of him and asked me to start changing over chemicals. On the self serve presoak he had the largest tip you can put in. It dilutes at 4 to 1. Yes, you read that right. Cleaned everything out and got it working just fine with a 150:1 tip. The owner couldn't believe it. He showed me the presoak on the automatic, a touchless Mark 7. He had put a 55 gal drum online two weeks ago and there was maybe 15 gallons left in the drum. So he went through 40 gallons in 2 weeks in a place that does 15 to 20 cars per day. If anyone wishes to challenge me on this, please do. I'm easy to find. To me, this is the kind of cow excrement that gives the whole industry a bad name.
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another warning about a bad car wash service guy
- Thread starter mac
- Start date
Our town, I have no idea who you are and have never met you. Since you are here though, I assume you are in the business and have some grasp on operating expenses and how equipment should perform. In this case his chemical costs were maybe 8 to 10 times normal. The presoak chemical I put online at first did not work because the idiot, a Mr. Zelenak, never bothered to see why there was hardly any soap coming out, mostly just air. There were issues with the solenoid manifold, which I fixed. So the cars were not coming out clean and his costs, in a rural community, were 6 to 10 times normal. Would you put up with that? I mean 40 freaking gallons of automatic presoak to wash maybe 200 cars. This borders on criminal and I have grown to the point where I don't care if I hurt someone's feelings that is screwing people in our business.
To clarify, I put our presoak on his self serve. His automatic, which I haven't touched yet, is the one that used about 1/2 gallon per car. This guy started out in his illustrious career as a car wash tech with the Barry Boyd gang delivering chemicals. When Boyd's techs quit he was simply promoted from delivery guy to head tech. Remember, there are absolutely NO standards in our industry for anyone that sells, installs or services the equipment that you all depend on to make a living. That is why, when I see a cockroach, I will swat, stomp, kick, or pee on it till it's gone. I would also bet anyone a nice crisp hundred dollar bill, that he will not respond either here or at my office. Cockroaches.
Well, cost per container is meaningless to me, but there is a certain percentage of operators in the industry that are focused entirely on that, not cost per car. I had a very close friend that absolutely refused to pay over $300 per drum regardless of dilution ratios or viscosity. He could buy a drum of local home blend for $180 but had no idea how many cars he could wash with it. You see hints of that here in many chemical discussions.
But yeah, you had me a Barry Boyd, That man left a wake of trouble behind him in Alabama and other parts of the Southeast
But yeah, you had me a Barry Boyd, That man left a wake of trouble behind him in Alabama and other parts of the Southeast
Earl Weiss
Well-known member
