ICA Convention Intriguing things - Wish List

[Kevin James]

We were not able to attend the ICA convention this year. For those who were able to attend the ICA convention what jumped out at you that you absolutely have to have or put on your wish list.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Nothing at all jumped out at me. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but wasn't last year either when I found the Dixmor display for the ACW.

 

[soapy]

Sonny's mini tunnel was interesting but also found that other companies can put together similar packages. A few companies had taken a roll over concept and combined it with a mini tunnel. Istobal had a operting version on the floor. Basically you take the soap, rinse and wax functions off the IBA gantry unit and use arches mounted ahead and behind the friction machine. Car pulls through a soap arch and then stops and gets a IBA friction cycle. Then is told to pull forward through arches for rinse, wax and SF. Then a drive through dryer. Speeds up the wash a bit and lets you cycle more CPH. ELiminates the need for a correlator and conveyor. Not as fast as a mini tunnel but quicker than a regular IBA.
I was really looking for a class that would teach me how to counter act the Indian rain dances that seem to be working to well in my area right now.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

Blendco was intriguing. While i use their products for IBA. Still using KR's for SS.
They did reverse engineering on JBS and KR, and others. With a 5 of alkaline and another 5 gal pal. You can make your own KR soap or others they will reverse engineer for $200. With blendcos patended type mixer--Rents for $25 a year. You can make your own KR soap for $39 a pail. They even suggested selling it to others in your area. Now that could save us about $30 a pail. I am not sure if it works, but they say you can even make it better than what you are buying from them. A good thing to check out.

 

[car washing systems inc]

The only problem with the superblend 100 is that it does not have an onboard pump so if your water pressure goes up and down while you are mixing the soap your mix will not be constant. We are blendco distributors and we ordered the superblend 400 for our company, it may be better if you purchased the product from your local blendco distributor ready to go then you dont have to buy the start up package of chemicals. Just my 2 cents. After we get our system up and running i will post to let you no how it is working.

 

[Doug P.]

Mars had a bill validator with a bill recycler on it. If you put in a five or ten it will give you bills back for change over the vend price. I don't think I would want it in my bays, but it is an interesting concepts for vacs, vending machines and paystations. It wasn't much larger than a regular mars validator and would hold about 30 bills in the recycler. When customers deposit ones it sends them to the recycler until it is full. I also saw the fragramatics led replacement for the fragrance display for the first time. I had heard about them on the forum but saw them in person for the first time. I will be replacing mine asap.

Doug P.

 

[MEP001]

I'd like to see the Mars recycler validator made to work in a changer and set up to never give more than $10 in coins at once.

 

[Randy]

I saw a couple of new things at the ICA convention that were worth taking a second look at.

The Coinco Vantage validator coupons can now be printed from the Coinco web site. [B]http://coupons.coinco.com/[/B] They have made it very easy to add your art work or any other information before you print the coupons. I think these would be great for weekend specials etc. They charge 15 cents per coupon or 90 cents per page.

The most interesting new system was the high speed credit card system from Genesys. [B]http://www.getcryptopay.com/[/B] It’s a wireless credit card system that is encrypted at the reader. There are only 3 wires to connect in the coin box, 24 volt Hot and Common and one wire to the timer. No computer in the equipment room. Total cost for a 4 bays car wash $1750. Genesys Technologies has been making electronic parts and times for the car wash industry for years.

I looked at the Mars Recycler validator and found it to be a nice unit. The only problem I see with in a car wash environment is security. You need to have a 3 1/4” X 4 1/4” hole in your equipment for the bezel to stick out of the equipment that it’s mounted in. The recycler only comes in MDB, it will only work in vending machines and bill changers that are MDB.

Nothing else really jumped out and said buy me first. Kleen-Rite had there show specials. Hamilton had a few specials on ACW's, HTK's and DAN systems. .

 

[mac]

So what were your overall impressions? Was the show as large as others? Were there a lot of people there? Did there seem to be people buying? You can usually tell if there's buyers there by how bored the salespeople are. Was it still as expensive as the last one in Orlando? Were exhibitors offereing hard to pass up deals?

 

[rph9168]

I heard estimates of attendance anywhere from 2,500 to 3,500. If I were guessing I would say it was closer to the lower number. Most of the vendors I talked to were generally satisfied with the Show. It seemed to me that with the exception of Sonny's that there were fewer people manning the booths. Maybe fewer distributors attended or they brought fewer company people. They said that most of the attendees seemed like interested buyers. Some feel that the Show needs to do something to appeal to more people.

Las Vegas is no longer a cheap venue. Room rates are not as reasonable as they used to be and flights are expensive. It seems like they nickel and dime you a lot. For instance in my hotel you had to pay $14 for internet service and $3.25 for a bottle of Coke. The breakfast buffet that used to be $7.99 two years ago is now $12.99. I have been to Vegas many times. This is the first time I can remember that there was no convention at the Convention Center. A guy at the Hilton told me that they have not been fully booked for over a year. I think the economy is really having an effect there.

 

[Sequoia]

Genesys

I agree the crypto-pay system from Genesys was intriguing. I talked to Marty about it for the better part of an hour.

They are not in production yet and it sounds like they may be a few months out.

The ability to mount a simple little swipe device on any of your equipment and be up-and-running with CC acceptance was pretty slick.

 

[mac]

RPH, it probably didn't help to have our community organizer in chief to tell companies not to have sales meetings in Las Vegas. I knew it would be smaller this year, was just curious as to how much.

 

[MEP001]

I agree the crypto-pay system from Genesys was intriguing. I talked to Marty about it for the better part of an hour.

They are not in production yet and it sounds like they may be a few months out.

The ability to mount a simple little swipe device on any of your equipment and be up-and-running with CC acceptance was pretty slick.

Sounds great - keep us posted with updates if you get any. I've been wanting to add CC acceptance to the vacs.

 

[Ric]

The email I got from the ICA said that there were 5500 attendees...? Probably includes the exhibitors. I would like to see the show start traveling to different venues again. Vegas is no longer a bargain destination, nor is it a place to take the family. I quit going a few years ago.

 

[Earl Weiss]

The most interesting new system was the high speed credit card system from Genesys. [B]http://www.getcryptopay.com/[/B] It’s a wireless credit card system that is encrypted at the reader. There are only 3 wires to connect in the coin box, 24 volt Hot and Common and one wire to the timer. No computer in the equipment room. Total cost for a 4 bays car wash $1750. Genesys Technologies has been making electronic parts and times for the car wash industry for years.

.

Anyone have one of these installed?

Always wondered why they could put totaly wireless credit card processing in a taxi for $500.00 (with receipt printer) but for a car wash bay it was so much more expensive.

 

[MEP001]

Always wondered why they could put totaly wireless credit card processing in a taxi for $500.00 (with receipt printer) but for a car wash bay it was so much more expensive.

Because there are hundreds of thousands of taxis using the same equipment. Technology gets cheap when it's mass-produced. Each car wash equipment brand has to spend $20-30,000 to develop their hardware, then they sell a small number of units a month. Those development costs have to go somewhere, and without mass-production the actual manufacture costs per unit are much more as well.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Because there are hundreds of thousands of taxis using the same equipment. Technology gets cheap when it's mass-produced. Each car wash equipment brand has to spend $20-30,000 to develop their hardware, then they sell a small number of units a month. Those development costs have to go somewhere, and without mass-production the actual manufacture costs per unit are much more as well.

While I haven't made an exact study, I think most if not all the technology the car wash industry uses was adapted from somewhere else that was using it before. So, I guess the question is why can't the wireless 12 volt credit card processing technology used in taxis be adapted for the car wash industry? It's not like reinventing the wheel. Perhaps the companies who supply the Taxi industry should supply the car wash industry.

 

[Cory@Genesys]

Anyone have one of these installed?

Unfortunately we don't have any in the field outside of our prototypes, which we continue to test (and abuse...). However we are looking at full production in around 60-90 days.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Unfortunately we don't have any in the field outside of our prototypes, which we continue to test (and abuse...). However we are looking at full production in around 60-90 days.

Where can we see protoypes? I will be in the Denver area next month.

 

[MEP001]

While I haven't made an exact study, I think most if not all the technology the car wash industry uses was adapted from somewhere else that was using it before.

Some of it is, like the individual wireless units; most of it is not.

So, I guess the question is why can't the wireless 12 volt credit card processing technology used in taxis be adapted for the car wash industry? It's not like reinventing the wheel.

It would still take some "reinvention." They don't work anything like a "count-up" system that most of us use.