Blendco Users

[dclark3344]

This is Brent McCurdy- former co-owner of Blendco and current co-President of Blendco. You don't have to believe me- do a comparison- a real chemical comparison...[/QUOTE]

YOU are not blowing smoke up a bunch of newbies on here so take a lesson and listen be thought a uninFOrmed president instead of removing ALL doubt. YOU must think WE are ALL WRONG and STUPID. even Forest Gump could tell if you watered down the syrup. When you hook up a bucket of Automatic presoak $180 and it last 300 cars ($.60) a car for just the surfactant not the tire and wheel or alkaline or triple shine or clearcoat protectant. When the THICK stuff lasted 1000 to 1200 cars. YES I got new longer hose tips and I think if I had a 10 foot one that went all the way to the foot valve and took a lighter to the end to shrink it down I might could make it work. I think a little consistency on Blendcos part would be best BUT there are many other places to look ONE of the former customers has told me he switched to KO chemicals and has had very good results.
Brent take a note when most of us has a customer that tells us that something is not working the way it normally does: FIRST we go check it out in the bay where they are complaining about and WOW we thank them for letting us know then we get them restarted in a bay that has all the functions working or we give them money back if it is something that affected all the bays. That is what makes us successful. WE want to know when something is not working right instead of denying the FACTS.

 

[rph9168]

At the risk of taking an unpopular position I think one has to look at the bigger picture. Gas prices almost doubled. I am not aware of any chemical company with an increase anywhere near that. To be sure it is a good idea to keep your supplier on their toes when it comes to cost all things considered your chemical costs are only a small portion of your overall operating costs. A chemical increase of 5% would translate into just a few pennies per wash at most. If you trusted your supplier in the past you should be able to count on them now. I would share my concerns to let them know how you feel. Unless you have performance issues, I would be reluctant to change over a slight increase in cost.

 

[rph9168]

One needs to be careful when talking about cost. As many here on the Forum have said, the real cost is your cost per car not the cost per gallon. I have had the opportunity to talk with an operator that switched from Blendco to the product line some are suggesting. Not only were the cleaning results affected but after looking at the cost of using more than twice the dilution of the cheaper product he discovered it was actually a higher cost per car. I think you should at least give your Blendco guy a shot at the problem.

 

[ProCarWashes]

Costs

I saw several price increases last year. What I think is going on, is these distributors are not selling as much equipment and are relying on chemical sales to get them through this down turn. In one letter, it sited high oil costs. OK, now that the oil has retreated, where is our reduction? Do you think its easy for us operators? If the manufactures don't think we carry much weight, they may be in for a surprise. No one, and I mean no one likes price gouging. I also mark my buckets and take car counts. I use to get 1200 washes per bucket. Now its less than 900. You do the math. I can remember in the early days of my career, I talked to an old timer about his wash that he had been running for years, I ask him what soap he used. "Tide, Its good enough for my wife, its good enough for me." I though he was nuts. Maybe he wasn't so nuts after all. I'm not happy about any of this.

 

[dclark3344]

RPH and Galen,
Performance is the main issue which has doubled our cost on top of the price increases. I am sure in the short run they will see a nice increase in sales, until the diligent operators who watch their cost take action. Severa month ago I started the process in asking others on the forum what they were using. I have tried the simonize track 2A and completely did away with the alkaline tip on my self serve high pressure. It cut my alkaline usage by 2/3 and I got a better product and performance. I have tried the JBS concentrate Fonic wash high pressure (20 pails, 5 free and free shipping on Kleen-rite monster soap sale THANK YOU, $45.71 a pail) and have just as good results with better show and scent. I do use more product than I did with the ORIGINAL blendco but not that much more with the thin version we get now. Been working on this since the end of last year and did not want to say much until I was sure and at the risk of my competitors catching on. All my competitors have switch to blendco with in two years because they were trying to keep up with me. I have not lost any market share and am doing 20% better this first half than I did last year. I have also cut my cost after the post from waxman got me thinking about money saving ways. I do give much better service than any of my competitors and I respond to every concern.

 

[MEP001]

Did anyone consider that it might be the distributors watering down the product and not the manufacturer? Ask for a sample to compare.

 

[dclark3344]

Benji 1

A little late to get the good stuff at a decent price. Their products have always been premium price but were worth the difference until recently. Read the other post on self serve and here under automatics. Just like everthing else there are always others stepping up to the plate to do a better job while the best get think there is no need for improvement and try to cut quality. Just like Government Motors, Goodyear, Walmart, and now Blendco. Profit magin is more important than Quality. Then the companies leave the door wide open for Toyota, Michelin, Target and Kleen-rite. My moto give every customer the BEST product and service ALWAYS at a fair and competive price and your business will steadily grow, but you must be consistent and always looking for ways to improve. We were the first in our market to offer credit card and fleet services in the bays and vacs. The first to offer triple shine, the first to offer Rain-X in the automatic and self serve the first to have a glass face vendor. Are you a leader getting the first fruits or a follower getting the scraps and crumbs.

 

[dclark3344]

MEP001,
It appears to be a wide spread problem that I noticed some time back and started taking action to stop the hemorage. The buckets all come sealed with 2 safety seals one over the spout and one in the spout after you pull it out of the lid with the cap on it.

What kind of soap do you use????? come on and share your knowledge with the rest of us.

 

[Earl Weiss]

1. I am not a propoent or advocate for Blendco.
2. Couldn't help but notice a comment that the switch to KR also included a reduction in tip size.
3. Did anyone simply try to reduce the tip size with the Blendco to see if effectiveness changed?
4. Just thinkin' perhaps there was a worn tip or temperature viscosity issue.

Had a sales person recently tell me their stuff would save me $ becuase I could turn down the pressure on the Flo Jets using less volume. They were right, except i could also turn it down for what i was using and not suffer quality issues.

I have tunnels and SS . In the last year have had 3 different product line sales people attenmpt to match KR for price and effectivenss on Soap, Sealer wax, and triple polish. I use others tunnel wheel cleaner, and drying agent. Also use Viper Shine and Rain X.

No one has been able to touch KR on the products I use. Some of the more experienced guys don't even try. One salesperson was lucky to escap alive.

 

[MEP001]

The buckets all come sealed with 2 safety seals one over the spout and one in the spout after you pull it out of the lid with the cap on it.

The bucket lid could be removed completely and replaced.

What kind of soap do you use????? come on and share your knowledge with the rest of us.

What I use is not relevant to this thread, however I mix two of Scotch Plaid's presoaks to provide both a colorful show and safe, powerful cleaning.

 

[Brent M]

Diycarwash

I appreciate your passion- it is passion to excellence that created the marketplace for us in the first place- the passion to look for something different and something better. Regarding the higher usage- I can't explain except for to tell you that in warmer temperatures the viscosity of the product will go down- it will be thinner and more usage could easily be noted. We appreciate the opportunity the forum offers to operators but I think you can imagine that suppliers sometimes may not get a fair shake in everything that is said and we are limited in how we can respond. Rest assured Blendco and the DuBois deal were all done to catapult us into a higher market share and not to reduce quality or make customers less satisfied. You can be sure that we want to address EACH and EVERY customer issue if given the opportunity.

 

[ProCarWashes]

soap

Like I have said in the past that Blendco is a premium product. And make no mistake, It does what they say, it cleans well. But mind you, there are other products out there that do well also. The distributor sets the pricing. Which in most cases is also premium. I do like the way Blendco cleans. I was one of the first on here to use it. I've been with them a long time. And I believe most operators are reluctant to change soaps when they have one working well on their system.

 

[diycarwash]

Turbo,
How long have you been using Blendco? Have you noticed the products are thinner and you are using more?
Thanks,
David

 

[diycarwash]

Brent M,
I think we have determined that you products are thinner than they use to be. I don't expect you to admit it, but we all know. I don't want to change products. I want Blendco to get there act together and fix this problem. ASAP! I want the 1200 cars per bucket again! Its up to you to get this fixed. Thicken it back up or lose market share. Your choice.
David

 

[JGinther]

1. Viscocity is by no means an indicator of quality of product... It is only an indicator of the type of chemicals in the product. As a matter of fact, you can even thicken up any product with salt - which will not improve cleaning. Most would not like to have salt added to make their product wash more cars - they would like to know that they were using too much (wasting) product instead. So the question is...why were they using so much product in the first place?
2. If a product that gave you 1000 cars in winter does happen to be very viscous, you will have to change the tip when the raw product warms up. It is the nature of the beast.
3. Any manufacturer that puts product usage PER CAR on the pail, would be totally crazy to make their product actually require usage of 4 to 5 times the amount stated on the pail. If this were the case, every single product would look and work terribly, and everybody would think that that product manufacturer is sub-standard.
4. If a product is manufactured incorrectly, any manufacturer/distributor worthy of a good reputation will remedy the situation.
5. There are much fewer chemical related causes for product usage changes than there are equipment and environment related causes. For example: Pressure gauge failure, air regulator failure, pump unloader path clogged, pressures set wrong, dilution tips falling out, etc.

 

[rph9168]

MEP, I have learned a great deal from your posts but I doubt that one could remove the lid from a 5 gallon bucket without there being obvious signs of tampering or replacing the removed lid with a new one. Those lids cost almost as much as the bucket so I think it would hardly be cost effective to replace them after diluting the product.

As I mentioned in another post, there are several variables that can effect product usage, many of which others have also mentioned. Before switching products I would recommend that you check all those out to make sure something else may be causing an increase in chemical usage.

 

[ProCarWashes]

soap

I agree with 9168's logic. A Blendco system must be monitored constantly for opium performance. Kind of a pain in the a$$ if you ask me. We are in uncharted territory right now, and cost of supplies are a major concern of mine.

 

[Brent M]

testing

I would be happy as one poster suggested to keep an open mind that some product could be out of spec and be thinner than it should be. In fact I would request that anyone suspecting an issue should send us some product and we will run a viscosity on this vs our standard. Otherwise I don't think I can convince the unconvinceable and as you may be aware some of the postings that a supplier can make get edited or removed (which has already happened to me on some of this issue) so its a bit of an unfair exchange.

 

[Gabriel]

I have been using Blendco fro almost 10 years and all that I can say is that we have not and do not intend to make any changes other than within the Blendco product line up. Blendco has have been great for us and their products continue to perform at a very high level. We have not experienced any change in strength or titration of their products. Month in and month out they continue to give us good performance, satisfy customers and supply great products. I would be checking my equipment, tips, lines, mixing blocks, and other reasons for any cleaning problem. Blendco has never failed to address any problem that we have had and those have been extremely few. Mostly an update on equipment or a change in titration. We still use them and like them.

 

[Gabriel]

Blendco has good products. Before making some ill advised decision contact Blendco, give them a try, test the products, calculate per car cost and cleaning results. After you do those most important things you will likely have the system installed and eleminate 90% of your troublesome equipment room and chemical problems. We use them and we like them--tried and tested for many years with great results. Sure, we change a few things when new fragrances and powders are made available, but no other product has offered us the ease of use and consistancy that Blendco has for the past 10years. We actually tested over a dozen other products before settling in with Blendco.