Who has doors on their self serve bays?
- Thread starter Debra Gorgos
- Start date
Keith Baker
Keith Baker
No. My place is drive in, back out, no need.
New Washdog
Active member
We have a four bay wash site in Vermont. Three of the bays contain IBA's and one bay is a self serve. The SS is new to us, and the bay had existing doors when we added the SS. The bay has been open 24/7 since mid April but we are going to use the door and post winter hours, closing the bay overnight during cold weather.
mjwalsh
6 bay SS w/laundromat
We are set up with 3 tandem bays. The inside portion of the tandem bays have four 10'x10' overhead doors & for our RV-truck bay there are two 13'x11' doors with the one in front no roof but 8'x20' windbreak fiberglass-redwood homespun structures. Via cameras we can do some closing & opening remotely via ZAP operators that Airlift sold back in the day as their extra safe (Made in England) door opener option. We don't auto operate the Zap operators or let the customers use them even though I believe they are safer than standard door openers. There has never been an incident of a customer not being able to safely use the ropes on the doors. The signs clearly state that the door must be lifted completely open to prevent an unwanted fall down.
In our North Dakota climate there are times during the winter when we have to make sure ice does not build up on the overhead doors. Airlift's strapeze counterweight system have been a life saver for us compared to if we had been stupid enough to put in torsion springs.
Our main & very almost brand new self service competition "sensor auto opens & closes" the doors for their customers 24/7 ... time will tell if they will be able to maintain that luxury in my opinion. I am sure we have lost a few customers because of that luxury convenience. Does anybody else uses that approach? My mindset is that if the customer opens & closes manually & the doors are kept light enough for even dainty women ... it makes more sense it seems to have the customer be in total control & not have to rely on sensors.
Having the rope on at least one door does stop the tunnel wind effect ... that is why even above freezing temps we allow our customers to close our south doors even if the wind is coming from the north.
BTW ... we had a custom setup made about 19 years ago that a machine shop friend helped us with to lock our doors from inside the equipment room by use of air cylinders & linkages etc. Definitely something worthwhile knowing what it was like to fight with the locking mechanisms on our previous overhead non alaskan doors.
Debra ... depending on to what length some northern cold windy area operators want to share ... this thread could turn out to be veeewy intteeerestingg. There was a Canadian Style 14 bay indoor self service back about 1984 here in Bismarck that was closed down because they were not keeping up with the payments on their SBA loan ... that was really something with a US Marshall involved in the shutdown etc. By Canadian Style ... just two doors with many internal bays a bit like a parking ramp. There was at least one Canadian operator with that type of format on this car wash forum. I believe he was from Winnipeg, Manitoba.
In our North Dakota climate there are times during the winter when we have to make sure ice does not build up on the overhead doors. Airlift's strapeze counterweight system have been a life saver for us compared to if we had been stupid enough to put in torsion springs.
Our main & very almost brand new self service competition "sensor auto opens & closes" the doors for their customers 24/7 ... time will tell if they will be able to maintain that luxury in my opinion. I am sure we have lost a few customers because of that luxury convenience. Does anybody else uses that approach? My mindset is that if the customer opens & closes manually & the doors are kept light enough for even dainty women ... it makes more sense it seems to have the customer be in total control & not have to rely on sensors.
Having the rope on at least one door does stop the tunnel wind effect ... that is why even above freezing temps we allow our customers to close our south doors even if the wind is coming from the north.
BTW ... we had a custom setup made about 19 years ago that a machine shop friend helped us with to lock our doors from inside the equipment room by use of air cylinders & linkages etc. Definitely something worthwhile knowing what it was like to fight with the locking mechanisms on our previous overhead non alaskan doors.
Debra ... depending on to what length some northern cold windy area operators want to share ... this thread could turn out to be veeewy intteeerestingg. There was a Canadian Style 14 bay indoor self service back about 1984 here in Bismarck that was closed down because they were not keeping up with the payments on their SBA loan ... that was really something with a US Marshall involved in the shutdown etc. By Canadian Style ... just two doors with many internal bays a bit like a parking ramp. There was at least one Canadian operator with that type of format on this car wash forum. I believe he was from Winnipeg, Manitoba.
SparklesSS
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4 bay SS in Ontario, Canada. We use the Wyndstar Vinyl doors both front and back. They are connected to loop sensors that open and close the doors as it detects the vehicle, when time expires, or after 30 seconds if not money is inserted. Have door openers on the inside as well so a customer can open or close the door.
Doors help keep the equipment and bays warm. Customers love the added protection from the elements.
With more equipment does come more issues although we have been able to work through most things (clips breaking and the door getting out of the guides, moisture in the push button controls, customers moving garbage bins unintentionally under the door and the photo eye detects this and won't close.
All in all we have pretty harsh winters and the doors are almost a necessity. They were not cheap by any means to purchase or install. Not sure how you cold climate operators do it without them.
Doors help keep the equipment and bays warm. Customers love the added protection from the elements.
With more equipment does come more issues although we have been able to work through most things (clips breaking and the door getting out of the guides, moisture in the push button controls, customers moving garbage bins unintentionally under the door and the photo eye detects this and won't close.
All in all we have pretty harsh winters and the doors are almost a necessity. They were not cheap by any means to purchase or install. Not sure how you cold climate operators do it without them.
soapy
Senior Member
I have tried various door setups over the years on our SS bays. We only put them on the exit end to keep the wind from blowing. I always had to buy extra strong doors due to the wind we have. 2 of these special doors still could not take the occasional 80+ micro burst winds we sometimes get and were pushed right out of the door and ruined. I now use custom made barn style doors for the winter weather on some of my bays. they are 8 to 12 feet tall and leave a large exposure open at the top of the door. This lets the wind bypass and I have not lost a door due to wind since. MY main goal is to keep the wind from blowing over the floor. The doors are only used in the winter months and are not operable by the public.
JMMUSTANG
car wash owner
