Istobal Washes? Who owns one? FLEX5??

[Greg Pack]

Bump for more input from istobal owners. A friend of mine just bought two of the three brush units. Its a nice looking unit, but slow as configured from the factory. Top wash was 11:15 though. I think we have tweaked and got down to 9:00. We are trying to figure a way to get wash times down even further and I get the sense they have a way of doing things and don't like to stray from that. Does a great job washing though, just bring a book with you.

 

[Fatboy769]

Greg Pack, sent you a message.

 

[carwashireland]

Istobal makes good equipment, and I have clients that are satisfied with the product.

I like FLEX5 because it mirrors classical 5-brush design (simple) but has added benefit of contour drying.

Use high quality chemical and water and right combination of wash material, and a five minute wash will produce almost the same quality as mini-tunnel.

If you need more than 10 cars an hour, I would look into Istobal’s express in-bay M’NEX27 which has two rollovers working in separate bays (wet and dry).

WashTec has also entered the express in-bay segment with SoftCare² Takt which has two gantries placed in series that allow two vehicles to be washed and dried in parallel.

I’m not sure either is available in U.S. but looks intriguing.

I have one of these Washtec Tact machines near me. Nice machine and does a great job!

 

[mac]

Greg the wash set up that came with the machine was only put there so they could test it before it left Bristol, VA. You can configure it however you want. If you put a lot of passes on a wash it can take some time. Couple of things to check are the gantry speed and doing two things on one pass. When the brushes are turned on for a pass the speed can't be changed. Any other pass though you can change it. Check to see that the speed is set to max on the other passes. Depending on what options were ordered with the machine you may be able to do two things on one pass, such as wax and spot free rinse. Don't be afraid to play with it, just make sure you write down all of the settings before you start pushing buttons.

 

[Greg Pack]

Thnaks Mac, we are playing with the programming a bit. Do you feel two brush passes are necessary for cleaning? My fusion X seems to do fine with just one brush pass.

 

[mac]

That is really a matter of setting up the wash packages. If the vehicle isn't too dirty one friction pass will do it. Maybe offer that on the lowest priced wash. There are a lot of things this machine will do that almost no one seems to know about, For instance you can tell it to profile the windshield and hood on a return trip, but the factory techs say that may take off an antenna. You can have it make a "bug pass" where it just scrubs to the top of the windshield and then returns to home. We have been setting them up to apply a carnauba wax that is buffed in. It produces a car that looks almost hand buffed. And those operators are getting $14 for that package.

 

[Greg Pack]

Thanks Mac, On the top wash we are doing two passes of brush, one is to apply the carnuba product. The only problem with a recipe I'm wanting to try is that both brush passes start from the front, so we can't take advantage of the tilt programming. Based on my limited observation I think cleaning would be fine with a cleaning pass with brushes straight and the buff pass tilted (which I'm hoping might take of any deficiencies in cleaning). I wondered if it is possible to actuate the tilt function independently by using an auxillary output and just jumping a wire over to the tilt function, but I don't know if the CPU is looking for different torque parameters for a tilt pass vs non tilted pass. Hope that makes sense.

All in all it's a nice, modern looking machine. There are a few things I would like to change (like wheel brushes look too low for SUVs)but there is compromise in anything.

 

[mac]

Not sure I understand the tilt issue. If turned on it tilts when going from front to rear only. I stopped selling the wheel brushes. They do a fine job but are easy targets for drivers. Went to the spinning nozzles that stay inside the gantry. Gives you more room for the driver and does a good job if you put on a good tire cleaner.

 

[GreenMachine]

I am looking on upgrading my current wash machine to the flex 5 but If there is no phone support for the Istoball equiptment then I am only left with a local distributor and the talent or lack of talent they have.

 

[Fatboy769]

I am looking on upgrading my current wash machine to the flex 5 but If there is no phone support for the Istoball equiptment then I am only left with a local distributor and the talent or lack of talent they have.

Sent you a PM.

 

[Greg Pack]

Hey Mac,

I understand your hesitation on installing the tire brushes. I have had my tire brushes struck several times by customers driving over my huge aluminum rails on the fusion X. Have you considered installing plastic bumper blocks for guide rails instead of the tiny ones on the Istobal machines?

 

[mac]

Good question Greg. The standard little square rails are really a poor design. The main reason they went with that(although they do offer others, including some with flashing LED lights) was for the wheel scrub photo eyes. Those are located low on the frame to better detect the wheels, so regular rails wouldn't work. I have gone to doing away with rails all together and use blue reflectors. Have not seen any increase in people hitting the gantry and maybe a little less. With the spinning high pressure nozzles you can put any rail or reflector there and just have the spinners stay on the length of the car. It really gets your attention when they go down the whole car.

 

[Greg Pack]

Gonna keep this thread alive.

You guys ever get the sense that although something is functional- a car, appliance, relationship (lol) or whatever, that the best days are behind it and it might be time to move on? I bought my fusion X used six years ago. Its got around 100K wash count and is still working, but it seems like it is requiring a lot more maintenance lately. Although it cleans very well and I have lots of happy friction customers, the fusion X is the most complex IBA I've ever seen. It can be a nightmare to work on. Anyway, I need to decide whether to spend 15K on a thorough rehab and keep the unit another five years or move on to something new. However, I'm thinking maybe the customer needs to see something new. With a new machine it would be a great opportunity to go up significantly on wash price too, from $11 to $15 or $16 dollars . It would make sense for me to get Coleman's Efusion because it is a much simpler version of the fusionX. Coleman units also have very flexible programming that I am already familiar with. But my friend is so far happy with his new M1s. I'm going to carry my wife to his wash and let her check it out. She looks at things from a different perspective. If she likes it, I may try one.

 

[JustClean]

Okay, these are my 2 cents:
I own a Washtec brush machine which is very similar to an Istobal. Here is what I like and what I hate and why I would NOT buy another of those machines again:

I love:
The cleaning quality (gentle & thorough)
You can program every bit and piece of that software
Low energy and water consumption
Perfect for a dealership or rental car company where the staff operates the machine.

I hate:
The narrow guide rails (people drive up and down and then the machine stops during the wash)
The guide rails in general as they are either too low and people drive over them or if you get bigger ones their steel might damage some rims. I replaced mine now with plastic wheel stops for car parks. Too early to say.
The complexity of this German made machine. I.e. why on earth do you need to tilt your side brushes when you can just make the brush strains a bit longer at the top of the brush so it reaches the car? KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid!
All frickin' galvanised: I replaced my contour dryer after the 3rd year of operation already due to rust. Nothing beats stainless.
Which brings me to the contour dryer: It is either me damaging the car antenna or the car antenna damaging my dryer if some idiot doesn't remove it beforehand. It depends how strong the antenna is.
and I have to babysit the machine all the time - not because the machine is bad but my lovely customers are. They go in with everything attached. I am very curios about the www.cubewash.com This would be a nightmare with my machine: safe money for a new brush!

I would rather look at the Washworld Profile Max or if that Cubewash ever gets out and was reliable....

 

[Greg Pack]

Thanks for the input Just Clean, The galvanized frame is a concern, as are the small rails. If these galvanized units were designed &built for the oil market (who has a philosophy of fairly frequent reloading) the galvanized frame might be a good way to save money. However, I will likely keep a unit ten plus years if it performs well. My water wizards are all stainless and I've got one that's nearly 13 years old that is still in good shape. It has well over 100K cars and a reload is not even on the horizon.

As far as the tilt, it seems like if you made the brushes longer on the bottom that it would possibly compromise cleaning on straight sided vehicles (vans and SUVs) towards the top of the vehicle. And the opposite problem would happen if you made the strands on the top longer, with the lower part of the vehicle getting less clean. Anyone have a machine with brushes this way with any input?

 

[soonermajic]

What about the SoftGloss Maxx?

 

[mac]

Greg, know what you mean. I had a Pontiac Montana van that I just loved. Put a little over 300,000 miles on it, while never leaving Florida. Had NO major maintenance problems. All the big expensive pieces were original. So I sold it. Never did find a van as good, and to top it off, Pontiac quit making them. Oh well. On automatics there are sooo many variables to consider when it comes time to buy. It's like that girl in the bar who keeps giving you the eye. (Hey, it used to happen.) You either like it or not. To address the issues justclean brought up. yes, the stupid yellow guide rails are just that, stupid. I quit selling them a while ago and just put down blue reflectors epoxyed to the floor. If a customer is going to drive over a rail, he or she will. Size of rail doesn't matter. Have had no serious issues at any of the places using the reflectors. The brush tilt is done for a simple reason, and it's a good one. Transducers measure the brush motor current draw something like 32 times each second. The machine keeps a very precise pressure on the vehicle. Modern cars are oval shaped when looked at head on. If they put longer brush material on one section it would compromise other areas. The galvanized frame can be an issue in some areas. Istobal does their own process and puts on a real heavy coat, then a heavy coating of powdered paint. But it still ain't stainless. I was going to quote one of their machines to an operator in the Florida keys, but decided not to because of that one fact. Didn't think it would stand the heavy salt moisture. Other places in FL it has not been an issue. Anyway, hope 2019 is a good year to all.

 

[Greg Pack]

What about the SoftGloss Maxx?

Haven't looked hard at other brands, but Ryko is in probably 80% of the C stores around here. I'm not so sure I want the same unit.

 

[mac]

Good point again Greg. They sell to those stores under a large contract usually. And their five brush machine is the same basic design they had in the 1980s.

 

[JGinther]

Uh oh Mac, I got a question for you now: We're people smarter in the 80's?