Car Wash Forum
This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Dencar Retrofit Door Paystation
- Thread starter Andyjmyr
- Start date
soonermajic
Well-known member
good question
AnalyticWash
Well-known member
Do you have to do a retrofit? I personally would spend the extra money and get the full size touchscreen.
If your goal is to sell memberships you want screen area to push the message...either an Eco-10 or an EP-13 minimum
If your goal is to sell memberships you want screen area to push the message...either an Eco-10 or an EP-13 minimum
Car_Wash_Guy
Well-known member
I've had Dencar for coming on 4 years. 4 of them at 2 locations. I love them. Customers love them. Easy to use and they sell memberships. Great company ran by car wash owner and operators.
We bought the S2, site controller, vac/bay relays, and large digital menu. It was a disaster for a long while. I could write for an hour about all the issues. As of right now, it all seems to be working okay. (Except the BNR cash recycler jams somewhat easily) They have a really good concept, excellent 7 day a week tech support, and they are constantly improving their products. Please, PLEASE don't let DRB buy them out!! (Ron, Phil, did you hear that?!) 
Also, every Wednesday they hold a Google Meet for learning the system. Yesterday I just learned on that Meet that there is a Facebook group for Dencar:
DENCAR Car Wash Innovators Hub
DENCAR Car Wash Innovators Hub
We got the Dencar ACW door installed early this month. So far it's been a nightmare. The touchscreen randomly crashes and it charges customers' without firing up the washes. We have to reboot everything almost on daily basis. I suggest to hold off purchasing the retrofit door until Dencar can sort this out. It doesn't appear Dencar has a resolution to fix this. You can find a recent post related to this topic on the Dencar Car Wash Innovators hub Facebook page.
Last edited:
Ive heard that multiple times about their big touch screens also. It will freeze and you will have to reboot to get it going. So I dont think it's specific to just the retrofit kit.
Good news is if you absolutely hate it then you can go back and buy the hamilton door kit or a commander and still be ahead 10-20k of a premium dencar model.
It’s a lot easier to swallow a 10k pill then a 45k one.
Last edited:
It makes you wonder why a 20 year old ACW pairing with the Crytopay readers is way more reliable than this…rebooting the whole system isn’t a big deal when you have someone on site. But it becomes a real problem in the after hours when it decides to go down by itself and keeps charging customers without giving the washes. This exactly what happened to us. How are you going to handle all these refunds and chargebacks if it happens so randomly and frequently?
Hamilton ACW's/Goldine are bullet proof even compared to their HTK/Commanders.
I dont know how good you are at electrical and it sucks after buying a new paystaion kit that you even have to think about this but it least you can reset from anywhere doing the following....
If you put a 110V relay on wire coming from your breaker that feeds your paystaion and wire it normally closed. You can then hook up a smart plug to the 110V coil. Meaning every time you give power to your smart plug from your phone it will disconnect the power to your pay station. Turn the smart plug off and the paystaion will have power again/reboot.
I can draw your a diagram if you would like. It's more simple than it sounds. Won't fix the charging customers issue though.
Last edited:
Tried the smart plug and timer to reset the touchscreen. It didn’t work. My understanding from other operators is somehow some signal or data get lost on the way transferring from the pay station back to the Dencar server (not hosted locally in the car wash). As a result, it fails to fire up a wash. I think Dencar really needs to take this seriously if they want to stay relevant.
Was the smart plug controlling the touchscreen or the entire power to the paystation?
Here’s the pic how the hardware looks like for the ACW retrofit door. First impression all hardware are built solid. We used the smart plug to control the touchscreen only. But then you have many other network devices associated with it. When I said I had to reset everything, I meant we needed to power cycle the touchscreen, the sea level I/O and the network switch. The latter two components are placed in the Petit control panel and the office respectively. Unlike the HTK, the Dencar retrofit door doesn’t host its server on site.
Attachments
AnalyticWash
Well-known member
This is a known issue and from what I have heard, Dencar are currently not selling any of the retrofits units until they figure out a solution to the problem. This only impacts units that have the PAX IM30 credit card reader/screen.
Their regular (larger screen) models do not have this issue as they are run on a different system.
I don't think this only impacts the retrofit door but other product lines as well. If you have an access to the Facebook Dencar group OurTown mentioned above, please check this latest post "WHEN DO WE ACTUALLY GET SOME ANSWERS AS TO WHY THESE PAYSTATIONS ARE HANGING UP, NOT FIRING WASHES AND VIA GUARD IS HORRIBLE!!!!!". A number of S2 operators reported the same problem too.
AnalyticWash
Well-known member
Well my best guess here is network issues. Their solution requires processing a lot of things in the cloud. Car wash equipment installers are generally not networking experts.
What problems have people been having with Via Guard?
Carwashclubber
New member
Going Dencar is our absolute worst business decision. From keep-it-in-the-cloud to subStandard components from China, Phil &Ron while good guys...got way over their skis. Ya wanta see the little guys win, but they gear is simply too fragile for this biz.
Carwashclubber
New member
Our worst biz choice yet. Are they pretty, yes. Can Ron & Phil talk the talk, hell yes. Is the unit reliable, no. Is it easily repairable on-site by yourself, no. Are you locking yourself into a closed software ecosystem, sadly yes.
