Shut Down Temperature IBA and SS

[MDrost1]

Folks,

I have two questions.

The first question(two part) is for IBA(I have a 360plus) owners:

Do you have a low temperature that you set to close your IBA from use? If yes, what is your temp? I live in Michigan and we are going to have some sustained cold 0-10 degrees. Wondering what other owners do to avoid headaches?

Question 2 is for SS owner:
When weather gets nasty, do any of you shut a few bays down to redirect cleanup and lower maintenance when things are super cold, snowy and slow?

Thanks!

 

[wash4me]

We leave 2 of 6 ss bays open always. I figure if I can just pay the gas bill that’s enough to stay open. High Velocity we close at much below 15 degrees.

 

[kentadel]

I will shut my IBA bay down if the high temp for the day is under 15 degrees and low is 5 or lower. As for the self service bays, they stay open 24/7.

 

[soapy]

0 degrees for the autos,always open for self service.

 

[robert roman]

"Wondering what other owners do to avoid headaches?"

Move south.

 

[MDrost1]

Thanks for the productive advice folks!

 

[2Biz]

At -15° or colder I close all bays Down....When temps hover around zero, depending on many days it stays there, I close down 2-3 of my 4 bays. Above 15°, all bays are open. When I close down any of the bays, I cover the pits with a 2 x 12 wrapped in a plastic tarp held down with old soap jugs filled with water. So far this has deterred anyone from stealing my boards! When I shut the weep off to any of the bays, even with floor heat, the pitts will freeze quicker without water flowing....Freezing pitts concerns me more than what it takes to stay open.

 

[DiamondWash]

We are at 12 degrees right now but feels like -5, I closed my autos down today and left the self serves open, plow trucks have been helping me pay bills by washing.

 

[MDrost1]

Great stuff guys.
I am finishing my 4th year as an owner/operator/plow service : ).
The first year I had a 15 year old LW4K with no doors. One of the worst winters we've ever had in west Michigan. The ice! The problems! Never shut down the automatic.
My second year I had doors installed. Game changer. Some issues. No ice, however! Never shut down the automatic.
Third year, same as the 2nd.
Fourth year. I installed an new 360plus with Extrutech walls, new boilers etc. I decided to ask my distributor what they recommend as shutdown protocol. They said essentially, 15 degrees. I am going to take the advice and accept a little piece of mind this winter. I will keep the SS bays open, unless things get hairy.
Thanks for the advice!

 

[Randy]

When it gets down to around 15 degrees here at night and it doesn’t get up above freezing during the day we get very little business so we shut down the car washes. None of the car washes here have floor heat. We pull the guns and foam brush handles, turn off the water and power to the equipment, pump windshield washer fluid into the systems and call it good until it warms back up. Anymore I hate to be outside in the cold weather. It’s just not worth the effort to fight the ice and cold to stay open for what little business we do. i think I was shut down 3 days last winter, so I don't think I lost to much business.

 

[Robert2181]

We very seldom close. We salt heavy at the entrance and exits from over spray. People seem to always wash. Even at 0 & below.

 

[Rudy]

Rarely close completely. Touchless Auto's are closed below 10F....open above 10F.

I might close the Self Serves if it goes below 0F.

NEVER turn off the floor heat...even if closed. This prevents the concrete floors from heaving. It makes no sense to save a few hundreds on gas, just to pay thousands to repair the floors. It's one of those situations where you, "Take out your checkbook, and simply pay....".

 

[Kevin James]

For all you guy's who stay open when it gets real cold safety is another concern, just last Saturday we had a slip on fall on some ice out in the parking lot. One of the first things out of her mouth was I hope you have good insurance because you’ll be hearing from my lawyer. Beautiful day, but cold, put down ice melt did every we could do.

 

[chaz]

I typically stay open. I don’t see any real cost savings in closing unless I would totally winterize the equipment for a day or two. I say I’m open 24 hours and I try and stay true to that.....plus the bit of business I do get covers most of my fixed costs.

Yesterday morning I received a “freezing bay temp alert” NEVER a good thing. I quickly got out of bed and got dressed to head to the wash. Did my heater go out or is a bay door stuck? I paused a moment to look at my cameras so I’d have an idea what I’m getting into once I get on location.......

Turns out some idiot bought the basic wash that I offer with no blow dry option (mainly for the truck driver with crap in the bed) the door opens for him to exit.....he proceeds to spend 15 minutes in my heated bay drying his car. The door did time out and close and thankfully there was no real issue. CRAZY. !

 

[WashSingh]

Hi Guys,

I'm running into similar temp related issues. I recently took over a location with an old Ryko IBA. Its currently 21 Degrees today, and unfortunately the doors can either stay up or down. They are not controlled by door closers or anything like that. Yesterday it was 29 degrees, and unfortunately I was seeing significant freezing/Ice on the brushes. I have a heat tube in the bay, but with the doors always open it doesn't really help for all that long.

Is anyone else have a similar situation? If your doors are always open, up to what temperature will you run your Friction IBA? Working to replace the IBA and add XRS doors soon. But looking for ways to run during the winter until I get there. Thank you all in advance.

 

[Jeff_L]

Self serve, I stay open. Figure if I’m going to pay to keep my equipment from freezing, then might as well get some business.

Automatics, close 15 degrees or lower. Mainly to just keep the heat trapped in the bays with the doors closed.

 

[chaz]

Self serve, I stay open. Figure if I’m going to pay to keep my equipment from freezing, then might as well get some business.

Automatics, close 15 degrees or lower. Mainly to just keep the heat trapped in the bays with the doors closed.

The only time I’ll close my automatic for extreme cold is during the overnight hours....that’s only to avoid a middle of the night cold temp text because someone has done something stupid like staying in the bay to detail while the door is open. During daylight I’ll get some cars through when’s it’s cold even if I loose some heat when the door opens ....I say I’m always open and I want to hold true to that as much as I can....no point in giving a reason to shop elsewhere!

 

[Greg Pack]

When it gets down to around 15 degrees here at night and it doesn’t get up above freezing during the day we get very little business so we shut down the car washes. None of the car washes here have floor heat. We pull the guns and foam brush handles, turn off the water and power to the equipment, pump windshield washer fluid into the systems and call it good until it warms back up. Anymore I hate to be outside in the cold weather. It’s just not worth the effort to fight the ice and cold to stay open for what little business we do. i think I was shut down 3 days last winter, so I don't think I lost to much business.

Same here in the Southeast. No auto doors and no floor heat here. In the old days I would just do the rounds, spreading ice melt and keeping everything thawed. Then I began to realize since there is no road salt or sand on the roads that there were very few customers, and the ones we had weren't what I would call desirable. Now, once it gets below 25 we just shut it down using a similar procedure as Randy desribes. No real business is lost except hunters trying to wash clunks of mud off, and they can take it somewhere else, lol. We've got a cold snap coming and I might just winterize and take a 2-3 day vacation.

 

[MDrost1]

This is great info, everyone.

I am definitely going to change my protocol. I plan on keeping the SS bays open 24/7. 15 degrees and lower or extremely inclement weather, I'll shut down. I know some of the "die hard", "no garage" type customers will have to adjust. Honestly, keeping it open in all temps was how the previous owners did things. No doors, and lake effect snow produced some serious ice and equipment failures. I wish I had some pics.

 

[soonermajic]

I'm in Tx, w/ very few days below freezing. So, I don't even have bay doors. I get very little biz on these days, but my competition is closing down, & I'd like to get some extra business. It's gonna get into the teens & 1 day above freezing in next 7 days. No doors on LW4000, or SS bays.
What's y'alls advice? Can the LW stand That? Could I leave 1 SS & LW open, & weep them aggressively?
Offer LW pkg w/out 3x foam?