What’s THE most overcomplicated equipment you’ve worked on?

[ACTcarwashlover]

Hey guys, I’m wanting to ask everyone what is the most overcomplicated equipment you have worked on, and also on the contrary, what is the most absolutely simplest equipment you’ve worked on?

To start the thread off, the most overcomplicated equipment I worked on was a DÆRG (Ceccato) vacuum cleaner that has two different circuit boards for both timing and counting tokens That were custom-made by the manufacturer, I still haven’t figured out how to program the time per token for it, and now the manufacturer doesn’t even really have a record of that particular equipmen That were custom-made by the manufacturer of the vacuum and now the manufacturer doesn’t even really have a record of those particular parts, although the nice feature about the vacuum is that it does have an emergency stop function say if someone were to suck up a ring or a piece of jewellery

The most simplest vacuum I’ve worked on was an old RykoVac2 where the entire timer and coin Acceptor is one single module, there is a contactor between the timer and vacuum motor, and in order to change the time the vacuum Runs per coin, it’s just literally pushing a button on a thumb wheel to change the minutes and .1 minutes (6 second increments)

And yes I do own both these vacuums

 

[cantbreak80]

My Calloway Mac Daddy 56° sand wedge.

Every time I need to carry the lake or pitch over the bunker…Yikes!

 

[Dan kamsickas]

Most overcomplicated: My wife. It's not even close and I spend all day helping car wash owners get their stuff running.
Easiest: My dog.

 

[Wash4Life]

I'm the numbers guy at our car washes. What I do is very light fare. I don't turn wrenches. I don't know most of the part-times and attributes to said parts. I have gotten into some wrestling matches with the computer aspect.

Hardest: We had a cash register for our gas station/car wash. The way we were configured was that one employee operated both the gas and tunnel. The Ruby replaced our Gilbarco system, which was a godsend. Going to the Ruby was like going from walking on two legs to crawling. The Ruby was laden with lots of bugs. I can't tell you how many times the gas shut down, and I struggled between that and the car wash. Thank God the car wash ran off of DRB. We ended up leasing that location to a gasoline jobber. Very quicly that Ruby disappeared, replaced by Washify, which is still there.

Easiest: We have three Triad bill recyclers. Those area breeze to work. Having gone from them from old-school Rowe's was a Christmas present each time one was installed.

While I'm not mechanical, I have seen many complicated pieces of equipment worked on.

Hardest: PDQ M-5's. If we end up with a downage more than six hours, I know it's going to be a multi-day struggle to get it going, two weeks at the worst, and often averaging about a week. Part of that complication is that my father sticks too long with the mechanics he knows rather than farming it out to Sonny's.

Easiest: Fixing a tight function switch.

 

[washnshine]

This is from the tunnel world, but MacNeil wraparounds have to be programmed and take some time to get dialed in. I wouldn’t say they are complex as much as they are over engineered in my opinion. I’ll take gravity operated wraps from Sonny’s - or other manufacturers any day, where all you have to do is adjust the angle for the pivot.

 

[MGSMN]

Hardest - Ryko Ultrasonic 2001 in bay automatic (not the US2001 OHD). Mechanical nightmare, hard to get to the simplest part.

I agree with the comment about the MacNeil 701 wraps, but they do wash great when dialed in. Wish they would make them with just a straight arm without the folding arm, just like their Z-Frame units. Would be so easy to set, level and tweak.

 

[MEP001]

The hardest thing I've done was replacing the Mitsubishi controller on a brand-new D&S 5000, twice because the one it came with was defective and the first replacement was never programmed.

The easiest was replacing that controller the third time because someone finally told me "You know you can just loosen four screws and unplug the whole wiring strip, right?"

 

[washnshine]

The hardest thing I've done was replacing the Mitsubishi controller on a brand-new D&S 5000, twice because the one it came with was defective and the first replacement was never programmed.

The easiest was replacing that controller the third time because someone finally told me "You know you can just loosen four screws and unplug the whole wiring strip, right?"

Third time’s a charm!

 

[Earl Weiss]

This is from the tunnel world, but MacNeil wraparounds have to be programmed and take some time to get dialed in. I wouldn’t say they are complex as much as they are over engineered in my opinion. I’ll take gravity operated wraps from Sonny’s - or other manufacturers any day, where all you have to do is adjust the angle for the pivot.

Best thing for the tunnel is eliminate stuff with ir Cylinders, regulators, air over oil controls etc. as much as possible. Belanger wraps did a great job when dialed in but were a maintenance headache AVW and Sonny's wraps with no air controls much easier and work well.

 

[Greg_T]

Our old presoak system. It was complex, unreliable, leaked and drove me nuts. Getting rid of it was the single best choice I've made with our wash. We replaced it with a simple hydrominder system. I often smile when I look at the spot that horrible old system used to be.

 

[ACTcarwashlover]

How was your old presoak System set up?

 

[Greg_T]

How was your old presoak System set up?

Direct injection of chemical at stainless steel eductor unit on the left. Two adjustments on eductor - one for discharge pressure to bay, another for dilution. When solenoid valve on left opened, some of discharge from HP pump would flow through eductor, pick up undiluted presoak, then go back into pump inlet. It varied in pressure and dilution, leaked, failed, gave poor customer experience.....and drove me nuts. Good riddance!

 

[MEP001]

You should see the D&S/Hydrospray pump system. Everything but the foam brush goes through the pump with solenoids and injectors, even the spot free. It's a crazy, expensive, overcomplicated mess with no shutoffs so when you have to change one of the supply valves (which is often) you have to shut the whole car wash down and work down on the floor for hours.

 

[washnshine]

Best thing for the tunnel is eliminate stuff with ir Cylinders, regulators, air over oil controls etc. as much as possible. Belanger wraps did a great job when dialed in but were a maintenance headache AVW and Sonny's wraps with no air controls much easier and work well.

Right.

Belanger equipment from the 1990’s had air over oil on everything - like side wheels that were not wrap arounds and even the tire brushes!

 

[ACTcarwashlover]

That I’d love to see,

You should see the D&S/Hydrospray pump system. Everything but the foam brush goes through the pump with solenoids and injectors, even the spot free. It's a crazy, expensive, overcomplicated mess with no shutoffs so when you have to change one of the supply valves (which is often) you have to shut the whole car wash down and work down on the floor for hours.

I’d love to see how it’s all plumbed

 

[HCCW]

Hardest - 2003 Futura Revolution.
Easiest - Fragramatics Vacuums. 16 of them - 3 different types. Such a great product from a great company.

 

[MEP001]

Easiest - Fragramatics Vacuums. 16 of them - 3 different types. Such a great product from a great company.

Until you have an electrical problem.

 

[HCCW]

Until you have an electrical problem.

Uh oh. What kind of electrical problem? In 24 years we have had no major issues whatsoever with any of these vacs at any of our car wash locations. Just normal wear issues.

 

[MEP001]

It's usually a failed relay or transformer, but the way things are wired it's difficult to diagnose, and since you have to unplug and remove the whole thing you can't bench test it easily. Fragramatics will repair them or ship you a repaired unit with a core charge.

 

[HCCW]

It's usually a failed relay or transformer, but the way things are wired it's difficult to diagnose, and since you have to unplug and remove the whole thing you can't bench test it easily. Fragramatics will repair them or ship you a repaired unit with a core charge.

Gotcha. I’ve had plenty of relays fail over the years but they are a piece of cake to replace (just make sure you don’t forget the heat sink). I’ve had one transformer fail but it was simple to pull out and replace with a new one. Maybe ours aren’t the same as yours? We have almost all 3 motor turbo vacs - plus a few fragrance vac combos and a few shampoo vac combo. They are 1999, 2001 and 2003.