What kind of vacuums?

[Mr. Dude with a face]

Looking to hear what the common consensus is on vacuums. I see one old thread on here, but not much else.
I see many self serve car washes with just normal vacuums, but then others that have these up town fancy, does everything machines. What do you all think, what are your preferences? As a customer, I rarely use the vacuums to begin with (although I think I am the odd one out that front), but when I do, I enjoy the shampoo with it, I actually find it to work shockingly well! The fragrance blaster however, seems like a joke, but maybe I am just not the guy. So, if you where to buy new vacuums, what would it be. My only two concerns is income and maintenance. Do the liquids freeze, or is their a heater? Are the machines typically reliable? Also, couldnt the same services be provided to the customer by vending products such as air freshener trees. Or maybe even cans of shampoo? Does the shampooer make a hellish mess out of the inside of the vacuum? Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

 

[Jim64]

I’ve used Fragramatics for 20 years. I have had good service from them and they have been reliable. I have replaced wear items but that’s about it. I have the shampoo vacs and the fragrance vacs. The fragrance is oil base and doesn’t freeze. The shampoo comes in summer and winter formula. I have never had the winter mix freeze. The shampoo is not messy when you vac it up, the foam is pretty dry. They have been money makers for me and I would buy them again. I also have regular vac only machines. My combo vacs do about twice as much as the vac only.

 

[MEP001]

There are water-based and oil-based fragrances. I only buy Fragramatics brand oil based, the cheap stuff separates and gums up the lines and solenoids. I prefer Fragramatics units because they're dead simple. Their shampoo machines have a switch you can toggle so it uses winter spot-remover which freezes at a much lower temperature, otherwise there's selectors for shampoo and spot remover. Like Jim64 said, there's no mess in the tank, and the combo units make a good bit more than a regular vac. I'd much rather have a shampoo vac than a vendor with carpet shampoo. The combo is 99% profit and almost completely labor-free.

Coleman shampoo units have a big reservoir for the shampoo which is heated. It's a nice selling point, but IMO it doesn't work nearly as well as the "Dri Foam" Fragramatics. I found a really nasty gross carpet floormat and scrubbed it, and it came way cleaner than I thought it world. Spot Remover did better.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Like the Coleman Combo's . Use winter formula Shampoo October to April and it has a heated reservoir and Temp controlled blowdown. Always use the Winter formula in that season because even with heat and blowdown if power goes out you can damage all sorts of stuff. I use a water based concentrated fragrance but in winter season I dilute with windshield washer anti freeze solution instead of water. The Coleman's are bout as low maintenance as any piece of equipment can be. Using Spiral wrap on the air freshener and shampoo hoses greatly extends the life.

 

[Wash4Life]

I'm a big fan of shampoo. We use summer concentrate at ours. You can get 5 gallons worth from one bottle. We tried winter concentrate but never could get it to where it did not freeze at some point.

 

[Mr. Dude with a face]

Hey, thanks you all for the input! I thumbed around for a minute and looked at some images of the different vacs, and I saw when looking at the Fragra-Matics machine that it has “Super” and “Turbo” vac. Is one just more powerful than the other? I don’t actually remember ever seeing a machine like one of those in my area, so I haven’t had the opportunity to use one. Thanks again for the helpful answers.

 

[JMMUSTANG]

With mine when the customer puts their money in the Super (2 motors) turns on for 4 minutes.
If they press the Turbo button another larger motor will turn on increasing the suction, so you will have 3 motors running.
The timer will reduce the time. I think mine reduces 30-40 seconds.
If the customer goes back to Super(2 motors) the timer will add the time back.
Most of my customers like the Turbo especially if they use the Shampoo.

 

[soonermajic]

I got the Fragramatics Quad vac 2 yrs sho, giving me 4 of em. They're awesome, & the Turno feature is ALWAYS used.
Im even thinking about buying their Big Dog vac/ Air machine. I hear air machines do great

 

[Roz]

Turbo vacs (3 motors) and shampoo are used a lot. The fragrance combo unit is mostly used as a vac.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Hey, thanks you all for the input! I thumbed around for a minute and looked at some images of the different vacs, and I saw when looking at the Fragra-Matics machine that it has “Super” and “Turbo” vac. Is one just more powerful than the other? I don’t actually remember ever seeing a machine like one of those in my area, so I haven’t had the opportunity to use one. Thanks again for the helpful answers.

I f you are considering Turbo for existing location make sure existing wiring and breakers can handle load of a third motor or the project could get a lot more expensive.

 

[Greg Pack]

I'm an outlier here. I'm not seeing enough usage from either site to bother to maintain them. I'll likely convert them to regular vacs when it's time to update the decals. Middle income at one wash, middle/upper at another.

 

[KFPanda]

I'm an outlier here. I'm not seeing enough usage from either site to bother to maintain them. I'll likely convert them to regular vacs when it's time to update the decals. Middle income at one wash, middle/upper at another.

Sounds like an area with lots of express washes. The suction you get from those $$$ central systems is insane! You'd need 6-motor units to compete.

 

[Greg Pack]

A three motor vac that is well maintained will get no complaints. Actually, even a two motor vac does well. I have fragramatics turbo vacs that have a switch to swap from two to three motor and the difference isn't significant.

I was a long time believer in combo units and have bought many of them over the Years. But they just don't seem to bring in the money like they used to in the old days. Demographics may play a role, with the higher income brackets not wanting spray fragrance in their car, or not willing to shampoo themselves. It's rare to see a nicely dressed person shampooing a new car. The usage at my places it's mostly lower income people trying to clean up their hooptie, or the occasional mom trying to clean up where their kid spilled something.

 

[Keno]

Our shampoo vacs do significantly better than the fragrance vacs. Fragrance vacs have been dogs for us, we have owned both locations about 1.5 years and haven't had to ever refill the fragrance from such little use. We use odoban carpet cleaner concentrate from Home Depot in our shampoo and spot remover mixed at 8oz per gallon. Makes a good show and is very cheap to run. Provides good profit. At this point, if fragrance stops working, I would be with Greg and just convert into a regular vac. With our usage on the shampoo and spot remover, I would fix if it broke. All fragramatics units. Just my 2 cents

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

A three motor vac that is well maintained will get no complaints. Actually, even a two motor vac does well. I have fragramatics turbo vacs that have a switch to swap from two to three motor and the difference isn't significant.

I was a long time believer in combo units and have bought many of them over the Years. But they just don't seem to bring in the money like they used to in the old days. Demographics may play a role, with the higher income brackets not wanting spray fragrance in their car, or not willing to shampoo themselves. It's rare to see a nicely dressed person shampooing a new car. The usage at my places it's mostly lower income people trying to clean up their hooptie, or the occasional mom trying to clean up where their kid spilled something.

Agreed. I have some pretty great condition 2 motor Fragramatics and they get used but the fragrance and shampoo minimally. I've been considering just upgrading the vacs to Premier 3 motor or some other brand 3 motor. I have 3 motor old Doyles at one wash and the performance is superb. Just noisy!

 

[Randy]

So far this year we have lost 3 – 3 motor Turbo combo vac’s and had another one pulled from its mounting. So, there’s a big loss, almost $20K. Those vac’s were replaced with 2 motor vac’s and they seem to work fine. The rest of the26 combo vac’s have all been craved up to the point that look terrible. Why put out something nice out for the public to destroy.

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

Luckily my locations are in locations where the clientele are minimally abusive and criminal. I feel for the owners in challenging areas with constant trouble .

 

[Randy]

This is pretty much the way it is in Western Washington, lots of theft and crime. The attached picture, this happened at 8:30 in the morning while the clean up guy was in the back cleaning up the mess around the back vacuums.

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

Reminds me of south florida. Couldn't leave anything unattended, unlocked, etc.

 

[Greg Pack]

Agreed. I have some pretty great condition 2 motor Fragramatics and they get used but the fragrance and shampoo minimally. I've been considering just upgrading the vacs to Premier 3 motor or some other brand 3 motor. I have 3 motor old Doyles at one wash and the performance is superb. Just noisy!

Many years ago I was told by a rep for the vacuum companies that they recommended three motor primarily for washes at high altitudes. I've got no idea of the physics that are in play there with the air being less dense. A third motor on a coleman vac was like a $75 option back in the day (early 2000s) so I always figured I'd get it for the heck of it. I would still get three motors because my 10 gauge wiring at both locations supports it, but I wouldn't go to the expense to pull new wire at a location to support a three motor vac.