What's new

PreSoak streaking

Roz

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 29, 2017
Messages
1,335
Reaction score
767
Points
113
You need to familiarize yourself with your injector setup. I use hydraflex injectors on two autos and they want 180-200 psi inlet pressure going into the injector. Some people love injection systems and I like them but there are variables that affect the concentration of solution which aren't readily apparent to a casual observer. You need to titrate your chemicals occasionally too because you can't measure the cleaning strength of presoaks reliably any other way.
titration is important as you cannot rely upon the chart tip colors to accurately tell you the strength.
 

Roz

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 29, 2017
Messages
1,335
Reaction score
767
Points
113
Touch free presoaks require good coverage to achieve necessary strength so you cannot rush the trolley too fast. We have been experimenting with various speeds on our razor and see the difference if we run it too fast. We also have increased our dwell time to 20 sec from 15 which as gotten rid of eyebrows consistently. Our dwell time is divided evenly between lost LP1 and LP2. Seems to deliver a better result.
 

soonermajic

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
3,384
Reaction score
869
Points
113
Location
texas
You will not reach the flow rate required for a Petit to properly disperse PS onto the car with good coverage. They use such a large nozzle you need higher pressure and more flow. If you wanted to run lower pressure (to an extent) you could but you would need to slow your PS passes down.

For Petit: Spec for the LP pump with 1 injector on is 200-225PSI on the LP pump. I have seen these wired backwards before and they were only reaching about 160psi.
Im pretty sure Petit supplies the lp pump, for the PS, 3x foam, etc...
 

toddmullens

Active member
Joined
Mar 9, 2008
Messages
260
Reaction score
28
Points
28
Location
Little Rock Arkansas
You will not reach the flow rate required for a Petit to properly disperse PS onto the car with good coverage. They use such a large nozzle you need higher pressure and more flow. If you wanted to run lower pressure (to an extent) you could but you would need to slow your PS passes down.

For Petit: Spec for the LP pump with 1 injector on is 200-225PSI on the LP pump. I have seen these wired backwards before and they were only reaching about 160psi.
set the pressure too high and you will have issues with additional solenoids opening after the initial solenoid opens. For instance the top presoak solenoid might not open properly after the side solenoid opens on startup.
 

water guy

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 28, 2015
Messages
819
Reaction score
265
Points
63
Location
Texas
Touch free presoaks require good coverage to achieve necessary strength so you cannot rush the trolley too fast. We have been experimenting with various speeds on our razor and see the difference if we run it too fast. We also have increased our dwell time to 20 sec from 15 which as gotten rid of eyebrows consistently. Our dwell time is divided evenly between lost LP1 and LP2. Seems to deliver a better result.
What brand of chemical and are you doing hi ph low ph
 

Keno

Well-known member
Joined
May 30, 2022
Messages
747
Reaction score
479
Points
63
Did you get this figured out? We are looking at a petit for our new site
 

Keno

Well-known member
Joined
May 30, 2022
Messages
747
Reaction score
479
Points
63
This is an end user issue so don't hesitate to purchase the machine based on this thread.
We like what we see with this machine, going to check it out closer in Nashville. This is going to be a higher volume site, so looking for throughput.
 

Keno

Well-known member
Joined
May 30, 2022
Messages
747
Reaction score
479
Points
63
I tend to agree with AnalyticW, butnitnis not totally fixed.
Have you at least narrowed down your issue? That's one of the things I have reservations about Petit, how clean can the car get with how fast the machine moves? Does the machine sacrifice cleaning for a faster throughput? What is being sacrificed to increase wash speed? My gut says something is being sacrificed, but what? That touch-free PS needs dwell time to work. Maybe they have a revolutionary machine that doesn't "cost" anything to speed things up, ie lower cleaning ability or something else, but I'm skeptical.
 

Greg Pack

Wash Weenie
Joined
Sep 3, 2007
Messages
4,391
Reaction score
2,169
Points
113
Location
Hoover, Alabama
Have you at least narrowed down your issue? That's one of the things I have reservations about Petit, how clean can the car get with how fast the machine moves? Does the machine sacrifice cleaning for a faster throughput? What is being sacrificed to increase wash speed? My gut says something is being sacrificed, but what? That touch-free PS needs dwell time to work. Maybe they have a revolutionary machine that doesn't "cost" anything to speed things up, ie lower cleaning ability or something else, but I'm skeptical.

You do compromise if the machine runs too fast. Despite some claims of perfectly clean cars in a couple of minutes if you watch YouTube videos you'll find many washes run about four or five minutes. Still relatively fast. This is a picture of an obviously very dirty car that went through a petit. The proposed solution was obvious, slow the machine down. I can tell you from personal experience my wizard would do a much better job, but it is much slower. Just my high pressure pass alone is close to 90 seconds on my truck.
 

Attachments

Last edited:

AnalyticWash

Active member
Joined
Feb 26, 2020
Messages
260
Reaction score
230
Points
43
Have you at least narrowed down your issue? That's one of the things I have reservations about Petit, how clean can the car get with how fast the machine moves? Does the machine sacrifice cleaning for a faster throughput? What is being sacrificed to increase wash speed? My gut says something is being sacrificed, but what? That touch-free PS needs dwell time to work. Maybe they have a revolutionary machine that doesn't "cost" anything to speed things up, ie lower cleaning ability or something else, but I'm skeptical.
How dirty are your cars?

Touchless cleaning is the equation of chemistry + water impingement. Petit machines create high impingement. You need to figure out your chemistry piece. This was the biggest challenge I had with my first Petit.

With a Petit you will need to run a little different to get fast results. When you are at the Petit booth in Nashville walk 30 feet and talk to the Synergy Solutions guys and you will learn a lot. Ask them how Petit sets up a Petit.
 

Keno

Well-known member
Joined
May 30, 2022
Messages
747
Reaction score
479
Points
63
You do compromise if the machine runs too fast. Despite some claims of perfectly clean cars in a couple of minutes if you watch YouTube videos you'll find many washes run about four or five minutes. Still relatively fast. This is a picture of an obviously very dirty car that went through a petit. The proposed solution was obvious, slow the machine down. I can tell you from personal experience my wizard would do a much better job, but it is much slower. Just my high pressure pass alone is close to 90 seconds on my truck.
This is kinda what I was figuring. Our top wash on a Mark VII aquajet 300 puts out a clean and dry car in 6.5-7 minutes. Petit numbers are for cleaning only in a long bay where drying is separate, so another car is in the wash bay while the first car is drying. I'm pretty sure a aquajet 700 would be very similar to a petit in those same circumstances and I know the wash quality on a mark vii is very good.
 
Last edited:

Keno

Well-known member
Joined
May 30, 2022
Messages
747
Reaction score
479
Points
63
How dirty are your cars?

Touchless cleaning is the equation of chemistry + water impingement. Petit machines create high impingement. You need to figure out your chemistry piece. This was the biggest challenge I had with my first Petit.

With a Petit you will need to run a little different to get fast results. When you are at the Petit booth in Nashville walk 30 feet and talk to the Synergy Solutions guys and you will learn a lot. Ask them how Petit sets up a Petit.
It is unknown how dirty the cars will be at this point. Site is a busy 8 Bay SS that we are considering to add a touch less to. It is a blue collar area with dually trucks, which is another reason we were looking at the petit. White collar people drive past on the way home from work, so might be able to get the ceramic coated cars and tesla also.

Still in the research stage which will be continued at show, but being able to wash dually vehicles would be a huge plus. We will be talking to all the touchless people at the show and the chemical people also.

What is synergy solutions? What do they do?
 

HeyVern

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 27, 2021
Messages
402
Reaction score
461
Points
63
My top wash is just over 4 minutes and gets cars clean. Over the winter, I had it down to 4 minutes because I didn't have to worry about mud and bugs. I wish I had made my bays longer with a separate drying area, that would help throughput a lot. The Petit is really easy to program all of the passes and dial the machine in. You do have to use good chemicals as well.
 

AnalyticWash

Active member
Joined
Feb 26, 2020
Messages
260
Reaction score
230
Points
43
Petit numbers are for cleaning only in a long bay where drying is separate, so another car is in the wash bay while the first car is drying. I'm pretty sure a aquajet 700 would be very similar to a petit in those same circumstances and I know the wash quality on a mark vii is very good.
incorrect.

Stop light to Green light (no undercarriage or dry included) you can do 2 minutes on a Petit all day long (4 passes). Add UC and dry and you can quickly do the math on equipment throughput. You don't need a long bay to get higher CPC.
 

Keno

Well-known member
Joined
May 30, 2022
Messages
747
Reaction score
479
Points
63
incorrect.

Stop light to Green light (no undercarriage or dry included) you can do 2 minutes on a Petit all day long (4 passes). Add UC and dry and you can quickly do the math on equipment throughput. You don't need a long bay to get higher CPC.
My mistake, will talk with them at the show and see which way we decide to go.
 
Top