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What kind of preventative maintanance / cleaning schedule do you stick to?

C

Car_Wash_Guy

Well-known member
I'll admit..I kind of leave things be until they start causing me problems. I clean the walls of my IBA's and SS usually 2x a year and have the concrete surface cleaned as well.

But as far as the equipment room and my auto's, i was wondering if any of you guys replace certain items on a set schedule? Like injectors, check valves, foot valves, nozzles, cleaning mixing tanks, etc?

Thanks for sharing any info.
 
For iba's - Cleaning the optic eyes fortnightly and descaling if necessary, spraying a lubricant onto wheel wash shafts fortnightly and replacing drive bearings every 2 x years. Greasing chains also. If its a friction wash I also replace the top brush lifting belt every two years. I dont bother greasing most bearings as most are now sealed, so the grease points are useless. Also draining the air compressor of water and checking compressor oil is a monthly event.
 
“I kind of leave things be until they start causing me problems.”

Today, most OEM’s have maintenance schedules available online (i.e. PDF) for their equipment.

So, what you may need is policy and procedures. For example, routine maintenance is intended to be completed on a regular basis.

It’s like creating a great business plan and then setting it to rest on a shelf. A plan or schedule that isn’t followed does no good.

As for cleaning paddock area, building, and pits, I always found that hiring a commercial service was more cost effective.
 
Car_Wash_Guy said:
But as far as the equipment room and my auto's, i was wondering if any of you guys replace certain items on a set schedule? Like injectors, check valves, foot valves, nozzles, cleaning mixing tanks, etc?

Thanks for sharing any info.
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I think you'll find most operators only replace things when they fail. If you replace on a schedule, how do you know whether or not your getting the most out of it. I stop at my wash between 2-3 times a day and do a walk through/cleanup...I can usually tell if something is wrong and can get it fixed before it causes issues for the customer...Like leaky foot valves, etc...I do replace hoses in the bays when they get old looking. Once you own a wash for awhile, you can pretty much tell when they are about to give you problems.

One thing that is a must, and that is to stock any part in the ER or bays that can fail...At least one of everything....Pumps, solenoids, foot valves, check valves, contactors, motors, hoses, wands, etc....I virtually have a spare of every single part in my ER/bays and can fix anything the same day it fails...

Since most car washes don't make tons of $$$, I would think you need to get the most out of the equipment before replacing...As for mix tanks, I've never cleaned the tanks...I put them in new about 3-4 years ago...Every once in awhile, I shine a flashlight down in the tanks....They look as clean as the day I installed them...Yours may be different.
 
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Other than changing all the vac motor brushes every two years and the oil in the pumps every year or so, I have no real routine maintenance. I keep a close eye on everything myself and wouldn't trust anyone else to give the same attention that I do.

2Biz said:
...As for mix tanks, I've never cleaned the tanks...I put them in new about 3-4 years ago...Every once in awhile, I shine a flashlight down in the tanks....They look as clean as the day I installed them...Yours may be different.
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I've tried some waxes that separated in the tank and had to clean them, but I haven't had to clean the others since I put some pieces of copper pipe in the foam brush tank. I've seen tanks at other washes completely coated with black algae or mold, as well as this:

1yJRAv.jpg
 
Well I’ll be damned! Going to be cutting up some copper pipes tomorrow. My trifoam tanks always form a gel-like film that slowly grows and takes over
 
toddmullens said:
Well I’ll be damned! Going to be cutting up some copper pipes tomorrow. My trifoam tanks always form a gel-like film that slowly grows and takes over
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The copper pipe thing has been brought up numerous times here before. I've been doing it for years...works great.
 
I have a 2 bay IBA. Twice daily I do a basic check over focusing on the areas the I know fail. Every week we clean a bay alternating. Once a month I grease and so an invasive inspection on both machines. Every 6 months pump oil and compressor oil. Otherwise I follow the manufacturer recommendations. I laminate and zip tie sheets to each piece and use a sharpie to keep track of things because time seems to fly by.
 
Routine maintenance would take the excitement out of the business for me. I love the adrenaline rush of a breakdown on Saturday while a line is waiting to go into the automatic.
 
I fall more in line with Greg. I don't thrive on the rush like he does, but I seem to be in that position often. I once had a SS bay making a weird squeaking noise that I had never heard before. It wasn't the belt, so when the customer stopped using it I removed the oil cap to check the oil. When smoke exited the hole I felt I was on the right track in locating my problem. The pump had a sticker with the date of install (2005). It appears that 10 years is the limit on not changing or checking pump oil. The pump seized as it cooled down. This was the Friday before July 4th weekend and this was the busiest bay at my busiest wash. If at all possible I needed to get this bay to live through the weekend. There was about 2" of air compressor oil in a gallon jug nearby so I just dumped that in there, probably overfilling the pump. What did I have to lose? I then stuck a crow bar through the spokes in the pulley and managed to get it to turn. It freed up much better than I thought it would. I fired it up and it worked great, not even knocking. Knowing there was no way that it would live through the weekend, I called Greg at Arimitsu and told him to get me a pump on the way. After telling him what I had done, he told me that he had a brand new crankcase assy. that had been robbed of it's head. He sold me that at a pretty good price so I told him to ship it to me immediately. The pump lived through the weekend and still sounded fine, so when the part arrived I just stuck it on the shelf and decided I would just wait until the pump grenaded. That was almost three years ago. The part is still on the shelf, air compressor oil still in the pump, and it sounds as good as any other pump I have. I even put seals in it last summer when it started pulsating. Maintenance...who needs it?
 
toddmullens said:
About how much copper pipe is recommended per tank
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I have about 6" of half inch pipe in the hot water holding tank on my pump stand which probably holds 20 gallons. I seem to have small pieces of leftover pipe and fittings from other projects and home repairs that I used. If you don't have anything hanging around and need to purchase some I'd just get the cheapest pipe I could find.
 
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