Natural gas bill was outrageous so I turned down the temperature on the boiler. Apparently, the resulting flue condensation dripped onto the tube bundle and created “acid rain” into the combustion chamber. Some of the refractory bricks “melted” from the moisture and the soot buildup clogged the tube bundle fins requiring longer burn times just to heat the water. The boiler inspector came in and red tagged the boiler so I just by-passed it. Driveway washers use cold water from their hose bibs, right?
Business has been a bit slow this year so I adjusted the
soap and pre-soak dilution ratios…they still foam ok, so folks don’t complain about “No
soap”. I’ve reduced my chemical cost by almost 50%!
My foam brushes freeze up whenever the temperature is too cold to wash. I turn off the weep and remove them whenever the forecast is expected to be below 32F. Even though we have some “warm” days in the winter, it’s a real pain to constantly install and uninstall them, so I just leave them down in the winter time. Not having weep water going down the drain has saved me a ton! And, no more broken foam brush wands laying in the bays…priceless!
My water softener used way too much salt and I got tired of hauling and dumping those heavy bags into the brine tank. The Culligan man said the unit was obsolete and the needed parts were no longer available. Since the water supply is only 8 grains, I figured it was soft enough so I by-passed the softener. I’ve saved many hundreds of dollars on salt and all that water that just goes down the drain every night.
I kept finding my bill
changer empty light on. Those dang laundromat customers! Then I realized the money wasn’t balancing. My
changer guy said it was being strung and needed to be updated with a newer model. He said accepting $5, $10 and $20 bills would probably help with increasing income. Ha! Since thieves only work at night, I fixed that problem by plugging it into a dusk-to-dawn timer. Saved over $5000 by not buying a new
changer!
On those 10 days a year when it finally gets busy, the water supply can’t keep up and the pumps bang and clatter. The plumber says there’s a problem with the main….it’s probably a clogged galvanized pipe. The estimate to dig it up and replace it was $30,000! I rigged up an old surplus stock tank to serve as a reservoir, lowered the pump pressures to 900psi and replaced all the spray tips with 4004s. That saves at least 1 gpm per bay. I bent the ends of the wands so they give more “kick” when the trigger gun is pulled. That fools the customer into thinking I’m still running at 1200psi.
I put up a big sign outlining the 18 RULES FOR USING THE CAR WASH in an attempt to keep the trash and vandalism down…it didn’t have measurable results, but things are a lot quieter now.
Two of my vacuums keep burning up the motors that I rebuild. So, now I’ve culled the herd. Anyway, the remaining 2 vacuums don’t do enough business to justify having all 6 working.
My last
credit card reader quit working 15 months ago so now I have no need for internet access at the car wash. $78 a month saved! Just wish I'd thought to just cancel the service before I signed up for that new customer Bundle deal for phone/tv/internet.
After breaking my back to keep this place viable, I’ve learned one lesson: To make a small fortune in this business, you’ve got to start with a large fortune!
The bank is exercising its foreclosure proceedings next month. I hope I can hold them off until Spring because I really want to try my idea for saving money on foam brush
soap…Dawn dishwashing liquid is super foamy, even at 800:1 dilution ratio!
