Touchless or Soft Touch? single IBA

[Brybrew]

Age old question, Touchless or Soft Touch? I have a single IBA, 4 self serve but no real good way to convert one due to traffic flow as well as my market size would not justify. I have been considering an upgrade in the next 18-24 months from an older touchless. I can see the advantages in the soft touch units, however having no Attendant and living 45 min away I am hesitant for the increase in risk with potential car damage and increase maintenance after the unit has aged (I do everything I can myself). I've looked at the newer touchless units and outside of lights and marketing, the wash performance itself is not drastically better than the current unit. I assume it would be more efficient and a new unit would require less work initially but I'm not sure due to market size I would see enough increase for a Reasonable ROI. City Population is roughly 2,300 with a county population of 18K. Its a vacation type area with a large lake so a lot of my business in both the self serve and automatic is out of town through the summer months.

Thoughts?

 

[chaz]

Maybe a newer (used) touchless. It’ll seem new to you customers and be substantially less expensive

Then again if your wash is working well... maybe a good cleaning and painting of bay and upgrade of soaps! I just switched to JBS. Huge improvement!

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

Brybrew I see you are new to the form and I am impressed by your thought process and post thinking about ROI & your opinion on touchfree. What model of automatic do you have now.

 

[Brybrew]

I've been reading the posts for several years but never posted much.

Currently I have a 20yr old D&S 5000. They are built like a tank and outside of the confined bay feel its done a good job since I've owned it. (Bought used to replace an old obsolete superior, refurbished the gantry and has run last 8 years with a minimal issues. Had to replace the main shaft and a drop leg this year due to being hit. Pulled the frame back true and I'm back running fine but I know I will either have to upgrade the Gantry or go with a new system in a few years depending on use and/or 3/4 ton pickups trying to take the gantry home with them.

My market regionally is primarily inverted L's (PDQ, Washworlds) and a few sporadic D&S's, a couple of older soft touches and one tunnel a town over. I've stopped and looked over the Inverted L's and I'm not a huge fan of how many moving parts they have and the amount of time it takes having to circle the car so many cycles. Part of that is also being biased to the D&S I'm sure. The Aluminium i5000 gantry upgrade does have some nice features and upgrades, however the pump unit is still 20 years old and I don't know if it would create a sufficient increase in volume to justify. I'm not ready to jump on anything in the near term but I am looking to make have a plan in place once I reach end of life with my current equipment.

As far as Paint, Walls are paneled and I do my best to keep a the curb appeal up already. I have considered painting the block exterior (Split block) to brighten it up but have not pulled the trigger yet.

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

Brybrew only you will know the specifics for your market & how many cars you are currently washing and do you think a new machine would increase volume or not. I am a inverted L guy myself. If you want to stick with D&S the 2.0 friction looks to be a nice machine but not a gantry style. Only you will know.

 

[BBE]

As someone who owns and operates both touchless and soft touch IBA, if I could only pick ONE at a location, I'd go touchless everytime. Even if an EE comes into town, you will always have a niche with customers.

 

[Brybrew]

BBE, Agree completely. Just want to trough it out to a non-biased group for feedback. Even having over a year to consider, new equipment is a big investment and should be looked at from all angles. I do like some of the features of the newer L's, the main thing is finding something I can put a wrench on without worry or creating more harm than good. the only major flaw I see on the L's are with the cycles and the pressure it does produce, that is a lot of stress on the frames and drives over say a 15 year life cycle. The open bay and having everything up high does have advantages IMO. There is a Istabol M1 installed not far away I seen, Interested to run through it just to see how it does. They are a new one on me though with the tract records of the Europeans, I would be hesitant to see how hard replacement parts would be on them.

 

[robert roman]

“….I am looking to make have a plan in place once I reach end of life with my current equipment.”

Most operators I know would say 20 year 5000 was end of life five years ago.

Why not offer your customers a modern wash such as IQ 2.0 touch-less?

 

[Brybrew]

I would disagree if its serviced properly. The gantry is as robust as anything still in use and with the right chemicals, I think it does as good of a job as any touchless on the market. Im also a lower volume than larger demographics. The new series units are very nice and have a lot of advantages with appeal and technology. Its also a very large investment hense my original question. In any case I will have to borrow a majorty of the cost of the new unit so it would also have to be able to service the additional debt load.

 

[BBE]

I would disagree if its serviced properly. The gantry is as robust as anything still in use and with the right chemicals, I think it does as good of a job as any touchless on the market. Im also a lower volume than larger demographics. The new series units are very nice and have a lot of advantages with appeal and technology. Its also a very large investment hense my original question. In any case I will have to borrow a majorty of the cost of the new unit so it would also have to be able to service the additional debt load.

Be careful with how you structure your financing. Keep in mind most IBA's life cycle is shorter than most commercial loan terms. If the proforma doesn't work for you to accelerate your payments and pay off within a 5-7 year window, I would rethink. Otherwise you are left with an IBA that needs to be reloaded, and you still haven't even paid it off yet.

 

[Brybrew]

Agree again BBE, any investment needs to take in the units expected life cycle. In a perfect world, It will be a 5-7 year amortization of the loan. But thats a few steps down the road. Right now I'm in the selection phase so I can build a budget plan for myself to have a target amount of savings for renovation and updates. At the end of the day, if the math dosent work, I’ll keep the current unit alive and working indefently. As long as its presentable and performs well, thats the name of the game. Do appreciate the feedback.

 

[Greg Pack]

Look at what your competition is using. If you are surrounded by C stores with soft cloth then touch free might be a good choice or vice versa. However, if that isn't a factor I would get a modern soft cloth. The newer designed ones with torque sensing abilities can be very safe.