Looking for what works, Titration wise, with Blendco

[Greg Pack]

A local chemical supplier wanted to use my site to test blendco and I agreed to a trial. He set it up yesterday and we washed a few cars. We started out at 35 drops. At that strength it is not cleaning as well as I hoped. We cranked it up a bit more and I'm going to be watching it this weekend. I have been told that you can increase the alkalinity as high as you're willing, but I'm sure cost is an issue at one point.

I'm curious to what you guys are running, both alkalinity and surfactant wise, to get the results you desire. Also, is there just a point where it just is too cost prohibitive to go any higher on the alkalinity?

I guess I'm looking for that sweet spot where I'm cleaning well, but my jaw won't drop when we do cost calcs.

Tire cleaner numbers also appreciated........

Thanks in advance

 

[tobaccofarmer]

Supersat powder without any tip on a 0.57 injector which is as much product as you can draw was still not near strong enough to clean properly here. The cost is too high and the mixer they have just keeps mixing before the powder has a chance to dissolve and be utilized completely, which allows undissolved product to be wasted. With what you know, Im sure you will soon be disappointed? What surfactant did they set you up with?

 

[JIMT]

We use Liquid Friction from Cul Mac in Detroit on our high pressure auto. The titration is 28 drops of A2 acid in a 5 cc sample.
JIMT

 

[Whale of a Wash]

We have alot of gumbo soil and road film everyday of the year, and my vector is at 26 drops and works perfect. I use the tire Ha along with the alkaline.
My guess is that different water and soils and road film must combine to make a soap good in one part of the country a dog in another area. The last soap i used was ecolab at 13 drops and couldn't do a thing but probably works ok somewhere. I also have ready to put online their new powder that is even stronger and i think $129 a box, but a slower dissolver it's HA powder, so doesn't work consistent in really busy washes.

 

[Buzzie8]

A local chemical supplier wanted to use my site to test blendco and I agreed to a trial. He set it up yesterday and we washed a few cars. We started out at 35 drops. At that strength it is not cleaning as well as I hoped. We cranked it up a bit more and I'm going to be watching it this weekend. I have been told that you can increase the alkalinity as high as you're willing, but I'm sure cost is an issue at one point.

I'm curious to what you guys are running, both alkalinity and surfactant wise, to get the results you desire. Also, is there just a point where it just is too cost prohibitive to go any higher on the alkalinity?

I guess I'm looking for that sweet spot where I'm cleaning well, but my jaw won't drop when we do cost calcs.

Tire cleaner numbers also appreciated........

Thanks in advance

CFCW, I use them at about 30 drops for presoak, I'm curious if what you were using prior was working better and what it was?

 

[Greg Pack]

Just had time to watch a few today. I cranked alkalinity up to over 50 drops and even 75 drops to see if any strength was the "silver bullet" I've been looking for. For what few vehicles I watched it does no better than my existing setup and possibly not quite as well, but it is too early to render judgement. I dialed it back down and switched from lo/hi to hi/lo to see if that helps with the road film on the paint. Hopefully the weather will be agreeable tomorrow and I'll get to watch quite a few cars wash.

In my existing setup I use a cheap booster, a mixture of sodium and potassium hydroxide. It has noxious fumes if you get a whiff of the atomized mixture in the bay. The blendco powder does not. One must also be careful with the NaOH because it can be applied too strong. I've never damaged a painted factory finish, but have seen unprotected black anodized trim on a few vehicles be affected by it when conditions were not right. An application of cleaner wax to the trim will repair the damage. My understanding is the Blendco solution is safe to apply at virtually any strength. I'm assuming is is a sodium metasilicate based alkaline powder but if anyone knows more about it let me know.

I must say I glanced at the product names but did not take note of them. I know a happy blendco owner in a neighboring state and told the rep to get me what he's got.

I do like the tri color product- it's colorful, breaks well, and smells great, but because of the poor foaming of Coleman's 2.0 tricolor system we're applying with a yellow hydro tip which I think is stronger than most people have to.

Haven't seen any cost analysis yet......

 

[kentadel]

CFCW, I started out using hph powder, and could not get enough drops of titration, so I am now using Ha powder. Also you may have to try different surfactants. I have seen people use presoak 2000, Automatic presoak, or grape, etc. Your Blendco rep needs to spend a day with you to get it dialed in. Blendco may not be for everyone, but it sure works for me. Keep us informed on how your doing.

 

[Gabriel]

We have used 29 drops for about 9 years with good results.

 

[norton]

When I used Blendco my rep had me using a powder called total power. He said it was designed for truck washes and was a little stronger. It also had some surfactant blended into the powder so we used a lot less of the liquid surfactant.

 

[Gabriel]

I agree with Norton, that is a very good set up. After I settled on one system that worked in my particular area I have never changed it.

 

[Waxman]

What's the big deal about finding a decent foamy polish when Kleen Rite's Low ph foam polish looks great, works great, smells great and is concentrated and inexpensive?

I've heard alot about Blendco and some good friends use it, but this thread is leading me to believe that if something works well at an acceptable cost per car, then the customer and wash owner should be happy enough, right?

I think an acid may be a magic bullet for some, for example, but I won't use it in my touchfree for many reasons.

 

[Gabriel]

It is most likely that different automatics in different locations perform better or worse with any of the products on the market. If that were not true we would all just buy the same product and everyone else would be out of business. What is acceptable to one operator can easily not be acceptable to another. If you like it--use it. That is a decision each owner has to make based on their own automatic set up and what works for them.

 

[JustClean]

Just had time to watch a few today. I cranked alkalinity up to over 50 drops and even 75 drops to see if any strength was the "silver bullet" I've been looking for. For what few vehicles I watched it does no better than my existing setup and possibly not quite as well, but it is too early to render judgement. I dialed it back down and switched from lo/hi to hi/lo to see if that helps with the road film on the paint. Hopefully the weather will be agreeable tomorrow and I'll get to watch quite a few cars wash.

In my existing setup I use a cheap booster, a mixture of sodium and potassium hydroxide. It has noxious fumes if you get a whiff of the atomized mixture in the bay. The blendco powder does not. One must also be careful with the NaOH because it can be applied too strong. I've never damaged a painted factory finish, but have seen unprotected black anodized trim on a few vehicles be affected by it when conditions were not right. An application of cleaner wax to the trim will repair the damage. My understanding is the Blendco solution is safe to apply at virtually any strength. I'm assuming is is a sodium metasilicate based alkaline powder but if anyone knows more about it let me know.

I must say I glanced at the product names but did not take note of them. I know a happy blendco owner in a neighboring state and told the rep to get me what he's got.

I do like the tri color product- it's colorful, breaks well, and smells great, but because of the poor foaming of Coleman's 2.0 tricolor system we're applying with a yellow hydro tip which I think is stronger than most people have to.

Haven't seen any cost analysis yet......

Hi CFCW,
any update on Blendco? Do you still use it?

 

[Greg Pack]

I am still on Blendco on one of my three automatics.

I increased alkalinity all the way up to 50 drops with no noticeable increase in performance. For me, it seems that the cleaning hit a level of sharply decreasing returns at around 35 drops. It is cleaning comparable to my prior setup but without the noxious smell. I have a very good pricing arrangement with my distributor so the cost was very reasonable IMO. I think .60 is my total cpc on my eight dollar wash which includes lo/hi,tire,trifoam,and ccp

The other blendco products seem to be OK too. I am using a product called finisher on my fusionx as a mitter(brush) lube. It greatly improves the drying process. As far as premium CCPs, I like warsaw's weathershield better than durashield.

Overall, it is a good product and I would recommend operators unsatisfied with their current setup try it.