new investor looking for any advice

Hi Im down under here in Australia soon to set up a carwash. Plan to build 1iba and 5 s/s 1 dog wash and 4 vacs About to sign up with local J Colman distributer here , thus iba will be water wizard with dryer and wheel scrubs and will have swipe n clean over all facilities . I have a great position with a population of approx 26000 and competition is 1 other carwash 1iba and4 s/s I am looking for any experienced advice especially in relation to equipment choice.

Don't you have a lot of competition from the Car Love operations?

Where you located?

Bud Abraham
buda@detailplus.com

No buda we have no car love in my area of "Bendigo Victoria" "carlovers" franchise got into trouble many years
ago and only few still exist

The self serve equipment that colman produces is pricey. Theres also a flaw in how they put out the presoak. They make the high pressure pump turn at half speed and this spits out soap that is too weak to clean. Presoak needs to be at a 15 drop titration to do the job. At this strength it needs to go out low pressure like the tire cleaner, with air, to make money.
Try http://www.townco.com/ for a bid on S/S equipment.
If I were putting in a auto, look at http://www.3bindustries.com/
Forget about trying to heat water. Spot free? Yes but it will have to be watched all the time.

I suggest contacting Chris Johns in Queensland:

chris@handwashcafe.co.au

Cheers,

-Steve Okun

Thanks for the advice guys , Iwill follow up on your advice . Any thoughts on water wizard machine . Also any thoughts on raw population numbers -26000 population and growing /2IBA 9S/SERVE .How would this stack up over in the states
Thanks Glenn

We have 3 Water Wizards. Tons of maintenance (labor and $$$$$). If I would build a new location I would look at a Friction type unit. The touchless uses a lot of chemicals and water.

Hi Glenn

Br549 must have WWs confused with another mfg. Presoak on the WW 2.0 is applied by a cat pump. Presoak application on the WW 2.0 is good, with the exception of windy days which can cause the rear to get inadequately covered.

The swipe n clean has been phased out and has been replaced by swipe in the bay, it is lower cost, make sure your bid is edited accordingly.

Are there severe water shortages in your area? If so, I would consider a friction unit. it reduces water usage and has lower chemcial costs. It's also much easier to get a car clean by beating the dirt off :)

I don't know your washing habits there, but here you would be a borderline potential for a mini express wash. The express phenomenon has really caught on in most of the U.S and is a tough value challenge for an IBA/SS to compete with. Express would be my preferred mode if I were building new today, but you need volume and you are marginal poulation-wise even for a mini express. BTW, the growth of SS/IBAs in USA has virtually ground to a halt, and I don't think they're (the construction of them) coming back with any significance. The consumer clearly prefers a well-run express, and I'm saying that as a long term SS operator. Other members with more express experience could perhaps comment.

Good Luck, and be careful

< < Br549 must have WWs confused with another mfg. Presoak on the WW 2.0 is applied by a cat pump. Presoak application on the WW 2.0 is good, with the exception of windy days which can cause the rear to get inadequately covered. > >
It's the self-serve bays that use the bay pump to apply presoak at a reduced pressure. I believe it's the same soap as the high-pressure, just dialed down in pressure. Not all their systems are that way.

Thanks for the advie Greg &mep1 . Greg you seem to have a good deal of experience with colman co &wizards , is maintainance as bad as the say and what sort of life should you expect from one.

thanks glenn

I stand corrected. I forgot about the medium pressure SS presoak system. It uses a solenoid/regulator regulator to reduce pressure. I agree it is inefficient. I would opt for a low pressure presoak system. There is indeed a separate presoak tank so you may use a dedicated product. I used mine at a much stronger solution than recommended to get the required alkalinity-usually 17-25:1.

Glenn, I have owned quite a bit of Coleman equipment. I would estimate the practical service life on a unit with decent PM is probably 150-200K cars. In my opinion it puts out the best touch free wash of any unit I have seen. I'll put it's cleaning ability up against any other unit on the market. It profiles both the height and length of the car and adjusts the wash process accordingly. It just takes more moving parts to do that. Common sense tells you that more moving parts means more maintenance. I will agree that it is more maintenance and repair intensive than many other brands, which are of a simpler design. Prohibitively so? For me, the answer is no. I watch it wash regularly and do a monthly PM that takes about an hour. For you It really depends on your personal technical skill level,willingness to work on the unit, and the location of your distributor. If he is nearby he will be an asset. if it's going to cost you several hundred dollars for his tech just to show up on your property that is another situation. You, being new need to the industry will have the greatest chance of success with good, local support, regardless of brand. I will say this: It is not likely I will buy another touch free automatic. I would opt for friction units. But, if I were to buy another touch free tomorrow, it would be another water wizard.

I hope this helps.

Our oldest WW is 9 years old. Our 2.0 is two years old. Some years are more costly than others,the most frequent parts you will be changing are:
Rod ends 2-3 months
Hoses 2-3 months
Prox switches 2-3 months
air cylinders on 2.0 presoak 6 months
oscilating blower motor on 2.0 1 year
eyes 1-2 years
Eye Wire 1-2 years
oscilating motors with gearbox at least one a year
drive motors at least one 2 years
Frequency drive at least one 2-3 years
Drive wheels 1-2 years
Plastic bushings on boom 1-2 years
plastic bushings on high press 1-2 years
Cat 3535 Rebuild 3 years
Entry wizard computer 1 year

Auto spa, I don't have near the maintenance problems you are experiencing. How many cars have you washed?

I don't understand the prox switch failure at all. There must be a reason for that since by definition a "proximity switch" doesn't contact anything at all and is not a wearing item. If they're failing without the face being impacted, you may have a power supply issue or a poor design drawing too much current through its contacts that are only rated in milliamps.

Thanks for all the advice guys . At this stage I think I will stick with coleman equipment . Our strong aussie $ has made their pricing more atractive and I have tried lasers and others here and I believe the wizards do a superior job and give good options.Greg thanks for informing me on swipe in bay , it is not yet available here but will be in time for my site , meters need to be changed for our coins.Also the supplier is only 1 hour away and has a good reputation

thanks glenn p.s wish me luck

GregPack, I never looked at our car count on the automatics before. I looked them up today. Our WW that is almost nine years old only shows 94,903. I'm not sure if this is right, the daily numbers ($$) are usually pretty close with our others. The three year old unit has 66,172. And the two year old 2.0 that was installed in the bay next to our three year old unit has 40,440 (the last 6 months have been really slow due to rain). We also have four full-serve tunnels, and to be honest I get discouraged at the WW because we have to do so much more maintenance on them compared to the tunnels.
MEP1, I also thought the same thing. We do occasionally have to change a "home", or "end of track" prox after it has been damaged by the gantry rolling over debris, but the most common prox that we change are the wheel counting prox or the boom height prox. And the 2.0 has two prox switches on the center blower that we've changed twice.

Whatever manufacturer you decide to go with, I recommend looking into some with a strong water reclamation system. Especially with how dry Australia has been, marketing your operation as a water-friendly wash will give you a positive perception among customers.