Speed Up Wash in Winter

[Car Wash Man]

Curious as if anyone speeds up their passes during the winter busy months? Some days we are lined up seven deep, and the salt comes off so easy that I'm curious the effect if I sped up the wash to be able to get more cars through in a day.

 

[Waxman]

nah; wouldn't feel right to do so. when the drive thru line is long at mickey d's would you be ok with them slapping your qtr pounder together without the ketchup and pickles then putting about 1/3 of the fries in the box??? come on now.

 

[Car Wash Man]

nah; wouldn't feel right to do so. when the drive thru line is long at mickey d's would you be ok with them slapping your qtr pounder together without the ketchup and pickles then putting about 1/3 of the fries in the box??? come on now.

The environment changes year round so wouldn't you want to change the tactics you use to clean the cars to the same great quality outcome? Why do carwashes use bug off in summer and salt buster in winter? Because different environments require different set ups.

The thing is the cars are much easier to clean in the winter, the customer is getting the same clean quality car, since the car doesnt need the dwell time and slow pace of passes that are needed during the summer. During summer we have long dwell times and the presoak and high pressure are going slow to try to get off road film and bugs. Our only complaint we have in the winter is the wait time to get in the wash. Waxman where are you located? The brine they put on the roads by us in WI can pretty much be sprayed off with a hose. For reference, When lines are long and we need to clean off a sales car we will bring it inside and just spray in down with a hose and dry with a shammy and it is clean. Thought by doing so we would be taking two birds with one stone. Customers wouldn't be complaining as much about wait times, and we would be able to put more cars through.

 

[Waxman]

I'm in New England and I agree the cars are a lot easier to clean in the winter time. I still wouldn't speed up the wash though. My car wash is only about 5 to 6 minutes long and I think anything less than that especially being premium priced like I am the customers are going to feel like they're not getting a good value. Just my opinion though.

 

[Car Wash Man]

We are priced 10-14 with the 14 being ceramic, but that is the most that my area is currently willing to pay. I know from past posts that your wash is premium priced with a pretty high end wash which I agree for you it wouldn't make as much sense. I am going to trying it for the weekend and see what the results are, and what the feedback is from our customers. I ran a couple test cars through and the results looked the same, as the cars are so much easier to clean this time of year. Keeping the speed for the hot wax and ceramic the same though as we do up charge for those products. Will report back Monday with the results!

 

[Roz]

Speed up is relative. What is your starting point and where do you think the new point will be set?

The real cleaning power comes from your presoak concentrations and dwell time. I suppose you can increase concentration and increase speed at the same time - that might be a good result.

 

[washnshine]

Just slow it down in the summer

 

[traveler17]

We are priced 10-14 with the 14 being ceramic, but that is the most that my area is currently willing to pay. I know from past posts that your wash is premium priced with a pretty high end wash which I agree for you it wouldn't make as much sense. I am going to trying it for the weekend and see what the results are, and what the feedback is from our customers. I ran a couple test cars through and the results looked the same, as the cars are so much easier to clean this time of year. Keeping the speed for the hot wax and ceramic the same though as we do up charge for those products. Will report back Monday with the results!

I speed up at my dual IBA site during pollen season and because it doesn’t mess w wash quality. I’m in Southeastern NC and lucky if they salt the roads once a year but when they do it’s great for business. Can’t imagine how good it is for you guys when it’s constant. I can only relate it to our pollen season. Easy to clean because it’s clouds of yellow haze in the air. It comes once a year so when it does I’m getting it while it’s good , but like I said as long as cars are still getting clean.

 

[Danpelligrino]

I'm in New England and I agree the cars are a lot easier to clean in the winter time. I still wouldn't speed up the wash though. My car wash is only about 5 to 6 minutes long and I think anything less than that especially being premium priced like I am the customers are going to feel like they're not getting a good value. Just my opinion though.

The problem is that there are a lot of new car washes in town that can wash a car in 30 seconds. Its a completely different type of wash, but to some people it makes in-bays look like ancient tech. Why would a customer wait in line 45 minutes to get their car washed.

If you can clean the same while speeding up the wash in the winter, theres no problem with it that I see

 

[Waxman]

I think for myself if I made the wash faster I would just make it faster all the time not just seasonally. That's the part that doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Danpelligrino]

I think for myself if I made the wash faster I would just make it faster all the time not just seasonally. That's the part that doesn't make sense to me.

Because in my experience it’s way easier to get the car clean in the winter, combined with the fact that it’s the only time of year when the line gets really backed up.

 

[aussiewash]

If you can run faster and still deliver a good product in winter, and you're struggling to keep up with demand, can't see any downside to speeding up.

Just keep a close eye on cars for cleanliness to make sure you don't turn anyone off with a less than satisfactory result.

IMHO, customers want a clean car at a price that represents value. The time or method to provide this doesn't matter to most of them.

 

[Car Wash Man]

Well I sped up the wash for the weekend, and decreased dwell times. So I wanted to report back. Quality did not go down at all, as cars were still coming out clean and shiny. Happy customers going through and we broke our weekend car record as well as our single day record by a large margin. 192 cars went through in one day and 149 the other with our Kondor!