I’m trying to rectify problems with our drying. This is a problem which has gradually deteriorated and I have been trying to fix for over 12 months. This is quite a long story, so please be prepared for a fairly long epitaph. We run a 110ft Macneil tunnel in Australia using 90hp of blowers and quite a slow line speed of 80cph. I am aware to get a dry car we firstly need a clean car and I'm confident we achieve that. We use a high PH presoak followed by neutral brush shampoo a low PH tri colour polish by Lustra followed by freshwater rinse before Rain X and drying agent and then spot free rinse.
Firstly, we started getting customer comments about drying not being as good as previous. I was of the view it was perhaps weather related coming into winter etc. and also that sometimes people just start looking a bit more closely and become a bit more critical, so I largely ignored it.
The problem then grew to became a very common complaint from many customers which was when I started taking it seriously.
We have tried Ecolab Velocity & Rinse Dry and then Lustra Pearl Black and 421 sealant. If I boost any of the drying agents too much then I create white spots with remaining water on the vehicle.
The quite strange phenomena with all of this is that results are quite erratic. Some cars dry A LOT better than others. We get some really good results where the remaining water spots are very tiny, then some where the spots are quite large and then the worst is when the water rather than bead off the paint seems to sheet and get blown into a large spider web look. In those instances the water doesn’t bead off the surface at all. I understand this will occur on aged and oxidized paint, but it is also occurring on paint in very good condition on near new cars.
Ecolab then ran out of the Rinse Dry product in Aus and had no other plain drying agent to offer so in came the Lustra supplier, full of confidence and changed to their drying agent, 405 Pearl Black and Tropical Sealant 421 and also changed the tri colour from a shampoo conditioner to a polish. Again, some really good results but also some really poor ones. The real problem was, white spotting again became a problem. I stuffed around swapping to Lustrashield as the sealant and then switched back to Rain x without any success.
Finally, I am now trying a Turtle Wax product called Blaze n Glaze as a drying agent/clear coat protectant and Rain x as sealant. Drying results haven’t seemed to change much but at least I’ve got rid of white spots. Of course they are trying to sell me their sealant, Turtle Wax ICE, but I strongly believe it won’t make a scrap of difference?
In amongst all of this, we took all of the dryers apart and thoroughly cleaned the housings and Power Locks and they were VERY DIRTY. I was full of hope that we might be onto something, but again it seemed as though its made stuff all or no difference. We’ve shifted the position of the spot free rinse bar to various distances and tried to get a flash dry, but none of this has worked.
When dismantling the blowers there was quite a lot of rust on the blower turbines. The amount of rust is quite substantial and because I’m desperately trying to find out what is going on I’m questioning could this be the problem? Obviously they still blow heaps of air but does the rust have any effect on the wind pattern due to the roughened surface? I would have thought if it was a big issue they would be manufactured with some sort of anti rust protection whereas they just seem to be zinc coated and quite susceptible to rust. Clearly they operate in a heavy mist environment and rust would be expected, which is what makes me think it is normal for them to rust?
Does anyone have any experience with blowers to know how critical this is?
cheers, one very frustrated operator
Firstly, we started getting customer comments about drying not being as good as previous. I was of the view it was perhaps weather related coming into winter etc. and also that sometimes people just start looking a bit more closely and become a bit more critical, so I largely ignored it.
The problem then grew to became a very common complaint from many customers which was when I started taking it seriously.
We have tried Ecolab Velocity & Rinse Dry and then Lustra Pearl Black and 421 sealant. If I boost any of the drying agents too much then I create white spots with remaining water on the vehicle.
The quite strange phenomena with all of this is that results are quite erratic. Some cars dry A LOT better than others. We get some really good results where the remaining water spots are very tiny, then some where the spots are quite large and then the worst is when the water rather than bead off the paint seems to sheet and get blown into a large spider web look. In those instances the water doesn’t bead off the surface at all. I understand this will occur on aged and oxidized paint, but it is also occurring on paint in very good condition on near new cars.
Ecolab then ran out of the Rinse Dry product in Aus and had no other plain drying agent to offer so in came the Lustra supplier, full of confidence and changed to their drying agent, 405 Pearl Black and Tropical Sealant 421 and also changed the tri colour from a shampoo conditioner to a polish. Again, some really good results but also some really poor ones. The real problem was, white spotting again became a problem. I stuffed around swapping to Lustrashield as the sealant and then switched back to Rain x without any success.
Finally, I am now trying a Turtle Wax product called Blaze n Glaze as a drying agent/clear coat protectant and Rain x as sealant. Drying results haven’t seemed to change much but at least I’ve got rid of white spots. Of course they are trying to sell me their sealant, Turtle Wax ICE, but I strongly believe it won’t make a scrap of difference?
In amongst all of this, we took all of the dryers apart and thoroughly cleaned the housings and Power Locks and they were VERY DIRTY. I was full of hope that we might be onto something, but again it seemed as though its made stuff all or no difference. We’ve shifted the position of the spot free rinse bar to various distances and tried to get a flash dry, but none of this has worked.
When dismantling the blowers there was quite a lot of rust on the blower turbines. The amount of rust is quite substantial and because I’m desperately trying to find out what is going on I’m questioning could this be the problem? Obviously they still blow heaps of air but does the rust have any effect on the wind pattern due to the roughened surface? I would have thought if it was a big issue they would be manufactured with some sort of anti rust protection whereas they just seem to be zinc coated and quite susceptible to rust. Clearly they operate in a heavy mist environment and rust would be expected, which is what makes me think it is normal for them to rust?
Does anyone have any experience with blowers to know how critical this is?
cheers, one very frustrated operator
