Long Bay Petit

[Danpelligrino]

@Danpelligrino thanks for the feedback. I'd love to know more about your chemical journey. What soaps you tried and what did you eventually land on etc. I get that it's not going to be a fairy tale with this petit in terms of CPH. Im trying not to be niave about it and have asked a lot of owners what their real world number are. I have my eye on synergy chemicals but also will be looking at blendco, these are the two soaps my distributor suggests. Curious what your bay length is and what real world numbers you are seeing?

Initially I was running Cul-Mac stuff. The chemical that we liked was Ultramaxx. We were running it as one step and it seemed to work.
Then recently it was no longer available. So we started running a chemical that they make called Aftershock. We were getting a lot of complaints with that. So we switched to Thunder and Lighting.

Then I tried out Synergy, specifically Wildfire, and some of their ultra concentrates. I wasn't particularly blown away. But I wouldn't mind trying their stuff again. Because if im being honest I think we had an issue with the machine when we tried their stuff and we weren't washing as well as we could have been.

Now we are using Chem Quest chemical, and we have been for the past year. Select 35 and Lift off as well as an alkaline boost.

I have another Petit at a different location and at that location we are using Cul-Mac's Bug Fast for 2x passes. Plus a booster chemical.

Both of those current set-ups are working very well. But im still not completely wow'd by anything. If someone could show me a chemical that gets the eyebrows off, I would start using it... no matter the cost.


What I will say about the Petit, is that even 10 years later, it's still pretty reliable. I don't have any experience with the Oasis machine like the other guys are talking about, but I like the Petit a lot. We've washed around 200,000 cars on the machine.

It doesn't break a lot and when it does it's pretty communicative about the problem.

 

[AnalyticWash]

It doesn't break a lot and when it does its pretty communicative about the problem

+1

Chasing problems on an IBA because it doesn't communicate problems well is the difference between you loving and hating your machine.

 

[8th Street Car Wash]

Initially I was running Cul-Mac stuff. The chemical that we liked was Ultramaxx. We were running it as one step and it seemed to work.
Then recently it was no longer available. So we started running a chemical that they make called Aftershock. We were getting a lot of complaints with that. So we switched to Thunder and Lighting.

Then I tried out Synergy, specifically Wildfire, and some of their ultra concentrates. I wasn't particularly blown away. But I wouldn't mind trying their stuff again. Because if im being honest I think we had an issue with the machine when we tried their stuff and we weren't washing as well as we could have been.

Now we are using Chem Quest chemical, and we have been for the past year. Select 35 and Lift off as well as an alkaline boost.

I have another Petit at a different location and at that location we are using Cul-Mac's Bug Fast for 2x passes. Plus a booster chemical.

Both of those current set-ups are working very well. But im still not completely wow'd by anything. If someone could show me a chemical that gets the eyebrows off, I would start using it... no matter the cost.


What I will say about the Petit, is that even 10 years later, it's still pretty reliable. I don't have any experience with the Oasis machine like the other guys are talking about, but I like the Petit a lot. We've washed around 200,000 cars on the machine.

It doesn't break a lot and when it does it's pretty communicative about the problem.

I don't run a touchless, but my ChemQuest rep was talking about their "strongest" chem being "Plazma". Could reach out to your rep and see if they could do a trial run?

 

[washnshine]

I don't run a touchless, but my ChemQuest rep was talking about their "strongest" chem being "Plazma". Could reach out to your rep and see if they could do a trial run?

I think ShinePro is using this too and likes it.

 

[Blanco]

What is unique about the Typhoon that enables it to wash faster than a Petit that a Petit doesn't have?

It has 4 arms. It washes all 5 sides of the vehicle in a single pass. There is no wasted time on every pass for the machine to stop so that the arms can wash the front and back of vehicles. Speed also has to do with configuration. When an typhoon is configured right your top wash will be 3 min. If you configure a petit to replicate the oasis in passes you are looking at a 6 minute wash. The only reason a petit is capable of a 3 minute wash is because they use half the amount of passes, layer chemicals on 3 at a time, and have less chemical/HP functions.

 

[washnshine]

Another nice thing about the Typhoon is the onboard hp wheel and rocker blaster option.

 

[AnalyticWash]

When an typhoon is configured right your top wash will be 3 min. If you configure a petit to replicate the oasis in passes you are looking at a 6 minute wash. The only reason a petit is capable of a 3 minute wash is because they use half the amount of passes, layer chemicals on 3 at a time, and have less chemical/HP functions.

I have a 6 pass top wash setup on a Petit. It runs 3min from Stop light to Go light.

If you are going to talk about another machine, at least be slightly educated on it...






If there are anymore sales people in this room will you please

 

[Blanco]

I have a 6 pass top wash setup on a Petit. It runs 3min from Stop light to Go light.

If you are going to talk about another machine, at least be slightly educated on it...






If there are anymore sales people in this room will you please

If you going to comment maybe you should read what I said because once again

YOU JUST PROVED MY POINT.

You have a 3 minutes wash that consists of only six passes because your layering multiple chemicals on at once and have less functions both chemical and high pressure.

A 3 minute typhoon wash consists of 14 passes.

A 14 pass petit wash would be six minutes long.

Is this too difficult for you to comprehend?

 

[Danpelligrino]

If you going to comment maybe you should read what I said because once again

YOU JUST PROVED MY POINT.

You have a 3 minutes wash that consists of only six passes because your layering multiple chemicals on at once and have less functions both chemical and high pressure.

A 3 minute typhoon wash consists of 14 passes.

A 14 pass petit wash would be six minutes long.

Is this too difficult for you to comprehend?

I don't understand why you're so worked up about this.. Why are you so angry about Petits?

As far as I can tell they're good machines. Oasis machines are probably good too..

I will say however there's a really nice site next to my house with a relatively new Oasis machine and they put out a crappy wash (there's always something broken on it).. and a slow wash as well. That doesn't lead me to believe that the Oasis machine is inherently bad. What matters is always the ownership.

 

[Blanco]

I don't understand why you're so worked up about this.. Why are you so angry about Petits?

As far as I can tell they're good machines. Oasis machines are probably good too..

I will say however there's a really nice site next to my house with a relatively new Oasis machine and they put out a crappy wash (there's always something broken on it).. and a slow wash as well. That doesn't lead me to believe that the Oasis machine is inherently bad. What matters is always the ownership.

im not worked up at all bud. I also never said petits are bad. Not one time. I just explained to car wash guy why and how a typhoon is faster because that’s what he wanted to know.

Anyone reading the comments in this thread can clearly see who gets frustrated and angry because they don’t like the facts.

I completely agree with you. Ownership is key. If an owner wants a petit or a WW or A Oaisis. That’s fine it’s their preference.

 

[Rapidoil]

We met with our city planner and got preliminary approval for our site plan. This was a huge win because the city has a 60 foot wide easement and wanted the sidewalk pushed way into the property, the dashed line near top vacuum. We got them to allow sidewalk next to the road

 

[Blanco]

We met with our city planner and got preliminary approval for our site plan. This was a huge win because the city has a 60 foot wide easement and wanted the sidewalk pushed way into the property, the dashed line near top vacuum. We got them to allow sidewalk next to the road

View attachment 12634

You need to change your approach. A 6 car quene is not going to make it. Unless the site is dead which won't be a good thing for you. People waiting in the street will leave. You need to change your approach with your exit especially if you think the site will be busy enough for two IBA.

 

[Rapidoil]

@Blanco I appreciate your feedback. I just don't have the space on this small lot to do what you are suggesting. The vehicles in that pic are 23' long 8' bed trucks.

 

[eckert16]

Get the vehicles off the street, remove the Vacs if you have to, if your focus is the carwash and your biggest income is from the carwash, then wash cars with your equipment. Your wash line will clog quickly as folks these days can not back up their own cars...and your vacuum folks will block the exit routinely...Ditch the space for the vacs and use it to increase the size (length) of your queue OFF the road.

 

[Waxman]

i see an issue with cars being trapped in line with no way out except thru the wash.

i realize other car washes are set up this way, but it could get dangerous if something goes wrong and cars have to back out into the street.

 

[washnshine]

i see an issue with cars being trapped in line with no way out except thru the wash.

i realize other car washes are set up this way, but it could get dangerous if something goes wrong and cars have to back out into the street.

I was thinking that too - especially with the longer wait times of an IBA. I would want an egress available for anyone waiting in line.

 

[Keno]

...and your vacuum folks will block the exit routinely...

This is going to be a guaranteed occurrence regularly. Vacuumers won't care they are blocking the exit to keep your washes flowing, they will block in a heart beat to get their vacuuming done. We had to remove a few vacuums to prevent this at one of our IBA locations. Ours were on the entrance side instead of the exit, but it will happen, I can guarantee it from experience

 

[Rapidoil]

@Keno good to know. The Parking spot shown above is 24' long and that's an 8 foot bed dual cab truck in the image. Let's hope it will be ok. Site is really tiny.

 

[Keno]

@Keno good to know. The Parking spot shown above is 24' long and that's an 8 foot bed dual cab truck in the image. Let's hope it will be ok. Site is really tiny.

Issue will present itself when people take too long at the vacs, so all vacs will be full and people wanting to vac will wait in your exit lane and block all traffic coming out of the washes. Size of the vac spaces doesn't matter, it's the location primarily and the few available vacs secondary that will cause jam ups on the wash exit. People will sit there and detail their cars, even if not using the vacs. They don't care about your business or other customers. You would almost have to have someone policing vac area and directing traffic on busy days.

 

[Dan kamsickas]

Re-read this thread and it sure appears to me that you're trying to wedge a square peg into a round hole. There have been a lot of points made about the probable issues you're going to have. With all due respect, it seems you're passion for building the site is outstripping the logics of the decision. IMHO, you're underestimating the potential for failure of your project. Sometimes it's better to step back and punt.