Razor cleaning

[aca carwash 2]

I have a new Washworld Razor. I have it set up as one pass presoak, one pass bug assault, one pass presoak, arch rinse with extra pass on front and rear, lava, trifoam, arch rinse, drying agent,rain ex, spot free, blowers.

my tips are set as:

Blue coral citrus presoak Tan
Blue coral booster gray
Zep low ph first step light blue
Zep heavy duty bug remover brown
Blue Coral drying agent orange
Armour all concentrated polish brown
Rain ex online protectant brown
Armour All extreme shine wax brown
armour all citrus sealant tan


I don't have a filtration kit, either does my chemical rep.

water quality is good and pre soak heater is set at 102 which installer recommends not to ruin pump.


I am getting a film on every car where you can wipe your finger and see on every car, does anyone have any recommendations on changes I can make to help cleaning ? This is happening on cars with good wax coating.


I run through the M1 I also installed new and everything comes off.

 

[OurTown]

I don't have a filtration kit, either does my chemical rep.

You mean a titration kit? I would get one from the presoak company pronto. You are in the dark without it.

 

[Eric H]

I have the bug pass as the first thing and I think it is on the Bug-a-Salt pass.(I think that is what its called) It starts by going down the PASSENGER side of the car to the windshield, then back and across the front and then the drivers side to the window and back to the "home" position. It then switches to High PH presoak for a full pass around the car. I sell it as a "buy-up" for $2.00
In the winter I sell "Salt Neutralizer" for $2.00 as a Low PH presoak first pass.

I'd call the ZEP rep and have them come out and do Volumetric testing to see how much actual chemical you are applying to the vehicle. If you are using the same tips as your M1 (I'm not familiar with that machine) I highly doubt you'll get the same results because the proportioners are different.

 

[aca carwash 2]

Thanks Eric, I have contacted the person I get chemicals from. He’s getting a kit for me. What temp do you have your pre soak neater on. I ran my DS 5000 on 130 and it really made a difference. My Razor is set on 102.

 

[Eric H]

What temp do you have your pre soak neater on. I ran my DS 5000 on 130 and it really made a difference. My Razor is set on 102.

I have both sites set to 140 BUT I'm going over over 2 self serve bays to get to the Razor bays, so 32' and 48' additional. i only heat the presoak and Lava wax.

 

[aca carwash 2]

My installer said if I went higher on the temp it would ruin the pump. Is that not the case? I’m sure if I turned it up it would clean much better!!!

 

[Eric H]

I think you should check the specs on the pump...I did replace the impellers on 1 pump but it looked like it had sediment in it from when the city flushed the fire hydrants. I used to run it at 160 but I was having issues with the tankless water heater so I turned it down to 140.

BTW - I was running 1 bay with cold water for awhile and didn't see any issues with cleaning ability. I should probably turn the temp down and save some $$$

 

[aca carwash 2]

What kind of presoak and tips are you using ? I’m even using a booster in my presoak that wasn’t recommended but I used it to see if it would clean better. Incidentally it seems the step one is what does the cleaning because I ran out once and it really didn’t clean.

 

[Eric H]

What kind of presoak and tips are you using ?

I am using the private label product that my distributor (Autowash Maintenance) sells Select Plus by Formula Finish.
Im sure there is something in the ZEP line that will will work for you but I recommend you try the ACF not very secret sauce. Simonize Correct power with some Simonize Foam Additive mixed in. Cost almost nothing to make! I think you apply it at about 10oz per car.
Get yourself a graduated cylinder https://www.amazon.com/Graduated-Gr...r+1000ml+bulk&qid=1552512171&s=gateway&sr=8-4 and learn how to do your own volumetric's. It's fun and easy to do! Then you can calculate all of your chemical costs and use it as a tool to diagnose cleaning issues.

 

[aca carwash 2]

Thank you Eric for taking the time to reply, I appreciate it. I had hoped to get a little more feedback from my chemical supplier......I gues ultimately it’s all up to me.

 

[sparkey]

I run my temperature at 125 degrees through the low pressure pump on the razor. Haven't had a problem in the 6 years I have had it.

 

[APW]

I also run both my Razors on 125 with no problem.

 

[mac]

OK, here's a little cold water slap in the face to start your day. You need a different chemical supplier. SOOO many soap salesmen have no clue as to how to set up chemicals, especially for touchless. And this one doesn't even have a titration kit ! Probably just as well as he wouldn't know what to do with it if he had one. A decent rep will know how to titrate a chemical, do a surfactant flow test, do an analysis of your equipment to make sure all is working well, and then do a cost analysis to show you cost per wash. AND you should be getting clean, shiny, and dry cars. The rep should also show you how to do all of this. It's not rocket science.

 

[aca carwash 2]

My Washworld rep is great, I just made them aware of it yesterday. I called my chemical rep and he’s going to get me a titration kit. I’m sure they will test it. I turned the pre soak tank up from 102 degrees to 125 degrees yesterday. Seems to be cleaning better. Thanks for the input, I wasn’t trying to bust on anyone.

 

[OurTown]

do a surfactant flow test

Mac, what is this test?

 

[Roz]

Is the residue dirt on the car or chemicals from your last chemical pass? Our last chemical pass, a sealant, was showing after customers left the dryer area. While not a big deal since it is a sealant (according to our chemical rep) however customers did not like seeing sealant. We slowed down our last rinse pass by a few ticks and that addressed the residue issue. Our customers love our Razor!

 

[Greg Pack]

Let us know the titration of your high ph chemical. If blue coral is still using Bromophenol blue as an indicator and .5N hcl as a titrant I had success at around 20 drops

 

[soapy]

You can buy a simoniz titration kit for around $15 from Kleenrite. Like Greg said around 20 drops seems to be a good place to start. Most rotary pumps impellers are good to 140 degrees but most chemical supplies have told me that anything over 120 degrees is detrimental to cleaning. Test your solution as it comes out of the applicator to the car. Since pumps vary on output I do not do volumentrics but use a titration kit instead so I know what actually goes on the car.

 

[Officer]

We have a new Razor. Love it. But we noticed presoak wash spotty, almost coating the vehicle like a zebra. We turned the air down from 60 to 38 and it coata perfect for us now. We use JBS Compass products. We apply low ph then high ph followed by bug assault. This is a great way to clean, for us. We eliminated the dwell time in between the low and high ph soaps. It dwells once all the presoaks are applied. Then we ad triple foam on top of the presoak after the dwell time. Then rinse with HP. We’re applying presoak at 130 degrees. Cars come out looking great, but more importantly, clean.

We used Zep when we got into the industry. I couldn’t swallow the prices of 20/gal. JBS is where it’s at!!

 

[pgrzes]

What speed are you running on your first hp rinse? Do you have a soak after each presoak?