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Rinsing in tunnel

briteauto

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In my tunnel, I currently have a fresh water rinse between my ccp/drying agent and before the blower. How are you guys setting this up - are you blowing off the ccp directly, or rinsing it first?

In my IBA, the cycle is set to apply a sfr after the ccp, but since it is a sfr, that is where it has to be, and anything left on the car will dry "spot free" anyway. My tunnel, however, has no sfr, so should I be rinsing the ccp or not?

I ask because it seems as though the fresh water rinse after applying the product inhibits the drying somewhat, perhaps because it is bringing the ph up a bit. The downside to not using a fresh water rinse after the ccp, however, is the fact that any of the little droplets left appear white and spotty (mainly on the glass) - a charactaristic I have found with most products of this type. I have dialed in the concentrations to pretty much the absolute minimum I can use to get a break and have also tried several products. I do not have towel drying at this location, so I would like to improve this - without putting in a sfr system.


I'd appreciate your thougths on this.

Thanks.
 

rph9168

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A fresh water rinse should assist the blower in drying the vehicle since it increases the surface tension and removes the remainder of the ccp. You would also risk greater spotting if you do not rinse the ccp. Since the fresh water rinse is after the ccp pH has nothing to do with it. If you are not getting decent drying it might be your blower set up or you could inject a little drying agent into the rinse to help the blower remove the rinse.
 

Earl Weiss

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In my tunnel, I currently have a fresh water rinse between my ccp/drying agent and before the blower. How are you guys setting this up - are you blowing off the ccp directly, or rinsing it first?

In my IBA, the cycle is set to apply a sfr after the ccp, but since it is a sfr, that is where it has to be, and anything left on the car will dry "spot free" anyway. My tunnel, however, has no sfr, so should I be rinsing the ccp or not?

I ask because it seems as though the fresh water rinse after applying the product inhibits the drying somewhat, perhaps because it is bringing the ph up a bit. The downside to not using a fresh water rinse after the ccp, however, is the fact that any of the little droplets left appear white and spotty (mainly on the glass) - a charactaristic I have found with most products of this type. I have dialed in the concentrations to pretty much the absolute minimum I can use to get a break and have also tried several products. I do not have towel drying at this location, so I would like to improve this - without putting in a sfr system.


I'd appreciate your thougths on this.

Thanks.
Please elaborate. Is the order CCP, DA, Fresh, then blower, or something else?

Is it possible the CCP nd DA are counteracting each other?
 

briteauto

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Please elaborate. Is the order CCP, DA, Fresh, then blower, or something else?

Is it possible the CCP nd DA are counteracting each other?
Earl,

The order is: CCP, DA, Fresh, then blower. The CCP and DA cannot counteract each other as they are on dedicated arches and only one will be active for any given vehicle. For example, my basic wash only activates the DA. Any wash package with CCP only activates the CCP, as that also aides in drying and I do not need the DA - the break is fine. They both all followed by the fresh prior to the blower.

FYI, I am not using an all surface protectant, like a Rain-X or Double Bond. My CCP is essentially, a "higher grade" drying agent that I use for the upper packages that are advertised as using a CCP.

The DA is ViviDry and the CCP is ProShield - both are Lustra products.
 
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Earl Weiss

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Well, If you re getting good results with the DA but not the CCP, then it seems the CCP is not as effective as the DA. So, it seem you can either use DA on this wash as well, or perhaps if there is some soap residue on the car the DA may be more effective at counrteracting it than the CCP in which case you could try a fresh water rinse before the CCP as well.
 

briteauto

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Thanks Earl, that sounds like it could help. The DA may just handle the chemistry of my set up better. I'll experiment with your suggestions.

Thanks.

Mike
 

JMMUSTANG

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I had to switch my Rain-X and drying agent to get a dryer car.
Now I have medium pressure rinse arch, Rain-X, drying agent, 2 rain bars and the the blowers.
On the top package the car receives everything including the drying agent.
I get a pretty good dry car.
My question is do I need to be putting on the drying agent if I'm also putting on the Rain-X on the top package?
 

Earl Weiss

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I had to switch my Rain-X and drying agent to get a dryer car.
Now I have medium pressure rinse arch, Rain-X, drying agent, 2 rain bars and the the blowers.
On the top package the car receives everything including the drying agent.
I get a pretty good dry car.
My question is do I need to be putting on the drying agent if I'm also putting on the Rain-X on the top package?
Due to the number of variables involved I think the only real answer is to try it and see what happens. Note that different ambiant temperatures may create different results. Tried one DA recently that worked well as long as outside temps were above 30 degrees.
 

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We employ a fresh water pre-rinse, drying agent and then a fresh water final rinse. We get a tremendous bead and use cold wax concentrate form Ecolab. We out two - 5 Gal. pails per 30 gallon drum. We put on little more than 1/2 ounce per car and our drying agent cost is 3 cents per car.
 

Earl Weiss

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We employ a fresh water pre-rinse, drying agent and then a fresh water final rinse. We get a tremendous bead and use cold wax concentrate form Ecolab. We out two - 5 Gal. pails per 30 gallon drum. We put on little more than 1/2 ounce per car and our drying agent cost is 3 cents per car.
Heck of a coincidence. Started using this exact product about 6 months ago, with the same system.. Fresh pre rinse, DA thru a flo jet, , Final / setting.

At one tunnel to minimize soap residue the first pre rinse has a dema sucking wide open from the DA hydrominder pail so it ads another 9 parts water to the DA to further neutralize any resiue. Only needed to do this at one location.
 

briteauto

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My question is do I need to be putting on the drying agent if I'm also putting on the Rain-X on the top package?
That is what I am wondering now too. I am thinking that I do need both, as the CCP, although it is more expensive, it is not as good as the DA for drying. I'll try running both before I change CCP.
 
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