Which combo vac brand do you prefer?

[I.B. Washincars]

Why does it need anything? The door should just be solid with a nice looking decal like every other piece of equipment at the wash. I have no doubt that those stupid bubblers cause people to NOT put money in those machines.

 

[cwguy.com]

I'm not going to debate that! LOL There is no need for them.... but it is a little to late. Fragramatrics and Jims vacs have ss boarders around that area. You would have to be creative and that would be really tough to install a sticker. But I have seen a no name vac with a full sticker with fake bubbling tubes. I just thought that looked bad.... but that's just me.

I do think Jim sells tubes that have vinyl on them that look like bubbles though? Maybe I should make some of those? (Wow this forum does help! But I like the led lights.... I'll put that on my HUGE list of crap to do!

 

[borumrm]

I have standalone fragrance machines and also a couple of shampooers. The fragrance machines make no money at all. Mostly I blame that on the stupid bubbler. They are always broken or leak, which makes the machine look like it is broken. I know I wouldn't feel comfortable sticking money in most fragrance machines I see, mine included. Standalone fragrance is a total waste of money. I don't have any fragrance combos so I can't comment on that. I do have shampoo/vac combos, which do far outperform the standalone shampooers. I have one Coleman and three Fragramatics. From a maintainence standpoint, I prefer the Coleman. My $.02

Before I switched my D&S vac units over to Fragramtics (4 shampoo vacs and 3 fragrance vacs) I had a standalone fragrance machine and it never did much in sales. I thnk because it took a bit of extra effort to use it....you had to vac then you had to drive over to the standalone fragrance machine. My combo vacs are used way more. I can't really tell if they are spending their money on shampoo, fragrance or vacuum with any degree of accuracy however. I can only judge how fast I have to replace the product but my combo vacs are used quite a bit and the fragrance vacs are used probably three times as much as the shampoo vacs. That could be because the are facing the driver side of the vehicle though...folks tend to use those bays/vacs more I think because as they pull in they prefer to be able to see how close to the island they are.

 

[cwguy.com]

So how far away was the stand alone fragrance machine to your old d&s vacs? Also how close was the stand along unit to the equipment room? I'm asking because I was going to use one of my stand along units to vend some other products.

I also am frustrated with not having an accounting system for the vacs.... But I thought it was just me. Maybe someone with a Swipe n clean might have accounting? That's a project on my list also.

 

[Earl Weiss]

I have standalone fragrance machines and also a couple of shampooers. The fragrance machines make no money at all. Mostly I blame that on the stupid bubbler. 02

Simple change to flashing rope light. From Noveltylights.com No mre bubblers for me!

 

[Earl Weiss]

FWIW I mounted stand alone fragrance nd tire inflator machines I had to the side of the Coleman Combos. Fragrance on Shampoo and Vac and Tire air on the Fragrance and Vac.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Simple change to flashing rope light. From Noveltylights.com No mre bubblers for me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehz54IWZW0g&list=TLMS20A0fmM0Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5uQQNsAYVU&list=TLMS20A0fmM0Y

 

[cwguy.com]

Did you paint those tubes also? That would be pretty simple to do...... I like that.

I was thinking of a LCD display or a led light display like fragramatics.... But there's probably cost 5k.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vZXpzJzujg4

 

[slash007]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehz54IWZW0g&list=TLMS20A0fmM0Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5uQQNsAYVU&list=TLMS20A0fmM0Y

That really looks great! Which lights did you buy exactly on noveltylights.com? Did you just wrap them around the cylinders and then run them to power?

 

[Earl Weiss]

Depending on vintage some Coleman Units have colored tubes. I painted some with a light coat of paint but now use a colred transparent plastic material I just get transparent color notebook indexes at te office supply store and cut it to roll isnide the tueb. I also make some small holes in it,

I see they are out of stick for the season. http://www.noveltylights.com/Custom-Chasing-Rope-Lights-Kits/?altpath=N

I buy a e foot kit with chasing controller. Less than $20.00 each and last for years running 24/7/365. I just start with the cylindre on one end and run it down and up and into the next, and repeat. I put a female end of an extension cord whaer the old light was connected so I just plug it in. After a few years if the strin or controller fails I just unplug the old and plug in the new.

 

[slash007]

Depending on vintage some Coleman Units have colored tubes. I painted some with a light coat of paint but now use a colred transparent plastic material I just get transparent color notebook indexes at te office supply store and cut it to roll isnide the tueb. I also make some small holes in it,

I see they are out of stick for the season. http://www.noveltylights.com/Custom-Chasing-Rope-Lights-Kits/?altpath=N

I buy a e foot kit with chasing controller. Less than $20.00 each and last for years running 24/7/365. I just start with the cylindre on one end and run it down and up and into the next, and repeat. I put a female end of an extension cord whaer the old light was connected so I just plug it in. After a few years if the strin or controller fails I just unplug the old and plug in the new.

Christmas season isn't too far away, so I'll just keep checking stock. How much did you buy? It says they sell it from 3' up. My frag vacs never had any bubblers, so I didn't even know that they came with any. I guess the previous owner had already gotten rid of them.

 

[tgoodwin]

LED Visual upgrade

Did you paint those tubes also? That would be pretty simple to do...... I like that.

I was thinking of a LCD display or a led light display like fragramatics.... But there's probably cost 5k.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vZXpzJzujg4

More like $275.00 which includes everything.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Christmas season isn't too far away, so I'll just keep checking stock. How much did you buy? .

I just bought a 3 foot asembly and controller for each. They last years unless something gets wet which happened rarely. Still you may want to order a couple of spares. For the little savings I did not want to ess with cutting the longer length.

 

[slash007]

I currently have 6 simple Adams vacs that stay busy. They are very easy to use and to maintain and they work well. Am I crazy for wanting to switch them all to combo vacs, or is my reasoning correct that the combo vacs should eventually pay for themselves? Especially since I am getting uses ones at a good price?

 

[Earl Weiss]

I currently have 6 simple Adams vacs that stay busy. They are very easy to use and to maintain and they work well. Am I crazy for wanting to switch them all to combo vacs, or is my reasoning correct that the combo vacs should eventually pay for themselves? Especially since I am getting uses ones at a good price?

As with most things, opinions can vary. One of the variables was that I upped the Vac Price from 75 cents to $1.00 when I put in the Combos. I don't know if this is available to you. I stayed at 80 seconds per quarter and put on the $1.00 vacs that they gave more time. (I kept some of the 75 cent vacs)

If it is and you can raise your price, then factor an increased return by the percentage of price increase. As a convenience item, unless the price is way out of line with the competition you will see little effect on demand. Next factor the number of vac cycles a week or month and guesstimate an increase of revenue by 5 -10-15 -20% and see what the projected ROI is from a modest 5% to an Optimistic 20%. Keep in mind that with Shampoo often going for $3.00 as opposed to $1.00 for a vac if 5% use the shampoo it translates to 15% revenue increase. (Cost of Product is negligible). You also have the factor that if people shampoo and do it right, they Vac both before and after the shampoo resulting in higher revenue.

 

[slash007]

I am already at a $1, but for 4 minutes. I will probably go down to 3.5 minutes. Shampoo price I was thinking about $2.50 to start and $1 for fragrance. More than anything I just wanted to make sure that I was offering everything that I could. People mainly want something that works, but I figured they would also enjoy having options and digital timers would be a nice bonus. Though with what I have now they have no idea how much time they are getting, so no one has ever complained. I don't really have much competition except from the tunnels that give free vacs, so if people are going to pay to vac they will not go anywhere else.