If the detergent used dilutes to close to neutral PH it can slime up. That's why we most often see it with foam brush detergents because almost all are neutral. If you get a solution to 4-5 or to 9-10 on the scale the problem should go away. Once you get the bacteria under control a length of copper pipe placed in the tank may help quite a bit. It depends somewhat on how hot your equipment room/water is and the turnover of your product.
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SS bay soap
- Thread starter brewer40312
- Start date
The concentrated HP soaps with fragrance are often neutral or close to it. They will snot up but I don't consider them inferior.
I guess we can get into a discussion of what makes a product inferior. I've tried many liquid HP soaps and can't any that make a considerable difference in cleaning over warm water. I'm not interested in hassling with powders. Instead I try to give my customers an effective presoak by using them either much stronger than recommended or using IBA presoaks.
brewer40312
New member
I have also used a copper pipe with no luck
I.B. Washincars
Car Washer Emeritus
It worked great for me.
washnshine
Well-known member
I agree - that can come with the territory with these products and is not necessarily an indicator of a low-grade product. I tend to look at foam brush soaps that might not really wet the car or have good lubricity as being of lower quality. Some can run down the side of an oily or filmy car and you can see they actually get repelled by the oily film - not that different than plain water. The soaps that blanket the oils and seem to soak into it are what I look for. I know they won’t remove it without the brush, but I like to see it attaching to the soil rather than getting repelled.
I also look for ones that don’t dry as quickly. You can usually prevent that though by not having too much air, and letting the mix be more of a wet foam. Some set ups I have seen have so much air, it doesn’t really spread on the car and can get streak since the film isn’t allowed to actually run off the car.
MEP001
Well-known member
Me too. You have to start with a clean tank and you have to thoroughly clean the copper, might even need more than a small piece. I had to use three 2' pieces. And if the algae is growing in the pail/barrel before it's drawn by the Hydrominder, the copper in the tank probably won't work.
washnshine
Well-known member
Waxman
If you are using Correct, you probably wouldn’t get a slime issue- even without the copper. Just a guess, but that pH probably takes care of it.
MEP001
Well-known member
There are plenty out there.
You can get good chemical products, just be smart about what you’re doing and try a whole bunch of different products until you find one that works for your situation. We dumped our chemical guy years ago and start doing our own research. When we go to the car wash conventions we’d get samples of different chemical products and do our research, I've probably tried 75 different products over the years some good and some bad. I had a bill validator customer who was a research chemist and he made his own soap products. He give me a couple of 5 gallon jugs of his brew and it was the best car wash soap I’d ever used, he sold out when his son graduated from college.
