Starting a Car Wash

Cleaning the Car Wash Pit

You rarely see any mention about cleaning the car wash pit when hearing about the wonderful opportunities owning a car wash provides. The pit will tend to need more attention in the rural areas as more mud will get in there but regardless you will need to clean it out and isn’t the most fun.

The most common way to clean the pit is to shovel it out, dry and then taken to the local landfill where they accept it. Dry material is not considered hazardous but in a wet form it is. Some areas are more difficult to dispose this mud as they have concerns about levels of petroleum hydrocarbon levels. While many studies have been performed and dirt samples are deemed to be non-hazardous as the levels are low, good luck getting long standing laws repealed.

Two types of shovels to make the job easier are a sewer shovel and a product called the handi-clam pit shovel. It has parts like a clam shell that come together when using a lever on the top of a long extension. Everybody has their personal favorite.

One of the benefits to the mud is that some of the same chemicals (most notably phosphates) that are in fertilizers are also in detergents. You may be able to sell it or just use it for your landscaping.

If the manual removal isn’t for you look to hiring septic tank cleaners. The costs are pretty high as opposed but you can’t argue against the time savings. Check to see if any are in your area who specialize in car wash pit cleaning.

Painting a Car Wash

When painting a car wash, don’t go cheap and stick with the big name paint stores (Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, etc.) and look to a latex or oil based epoxy. Talk with the local with the rep to get the blend and colors right. This isn’t an area to try to go cheap as the cheap paint doesn’t stick well. Expect to pay $300 for 5 gallons.

If you can get away with it keep your painting at a minimum or you will be freshening it every year. The curse of a car wash is paint–any paint. Try tile, plastics, metal, stained block or other coverings. Keep paint to an absolute minimum and you will love yourself for many, many, years down the road.

Car Wash Operations in Cold Weather

While most people in the beginning stages think about the car wash and making money in the summer time, you need to consider car wash operations in cold weather. In colder climates you will want to pay particular attention to freezing weather because of the potential for car wash equipment damage. An often used method is to run water lines through the wall into the heated bays. Temperature alarms on the mechanical room and IBA’s can alert when conditions warrant and backup portable heaters are used as a backup in case.

Another area of concern for freezing is the trough. The trough ideally should be heated and the most common way is to run a hose that ties into a wall mounted tank with a thermostat controlled recirculating pump on it. When the temperature drops near freezing this pump turns on, heats up the antifreeze solution in the tank and recirculates through the hose in the trough

If you experience a bay freeze up be sure to remove the hose in the bays from the boom, then begin a dethawing process. Otherwise while you are melting the ice in the bay it could start backing up towards the equipment room and break some fittings which usually involve a coupler, reducer, etc.

Car Wash Vending

Car wash vending machines may be a way to bring a little extra revenue at your car wash. I say may because machines in some locations are nothing but criminal magnets and become more hassle than they are worth. At one time one wash in a bad neighborhood had a Pepsi machines. It only took two weeks before it was broken into and damaged beyond repair. At another location, however there are days in the summer where the soda machine make more money than the car wash.

Two ways to go the vending machine route. Buy a machine yourself or have one of the companies deal with stocking.

Buying your own machine is a great option if you are going to maintain it, fill it and remove the money yourself. Used machines are very reasonable and they rarely fail. Electrical costs are only around $1 per day. Be sure to add some extra security locks to prevent or deter theft.

The second option is to have a distributor deal with the filling of the machine. While the cost is a little more, you wont have to deal with going to the store to buy product and restocking which is vital if you aren’t there to do it yourself all the time or have several locations to cover.

In addition to drinks, a another car was vending option is cleaning supplies. In the right locations, these can to be a better revenue generator than the snacks and drinks. While these aren’t as common, a few product ideas:

Towels–Paper (all sizes), cloth, terry, microfiber
Towel and sponge packs–Armorall, Wet Towel, Glass Cleaner, Black Jack, Just For Leather, Bug and Tar (the packs of 10 or more tend to sell much better than the single packs)
Fragrances–Leafs, Trees, Characters, Novelty (best scents have been black ice, new car, cherry and vanilla pride)
Bottle Pumps/Aerosols–Fragrance, Armorall, Glass Cleaner, Tire Foam
Most products made by Armor All including their sponge packs, pump sprays and tire foams.

From experience here are also some products that don’t tend to sell well

Single wipe products
Operator folded paper towels as they will often get stuck in the machine
Generic or unknown brands

More than likely you already have space to put in vending machines at your car wash. There’s typically a trial and error period to figure out what products people will buy, but in most cases the revenue these machines can make will help boost your bottom line.

Car Wash Grate Theft

When metal prices rise many business will have any unsecured metals stolen and the car wash is no exception. Car wash grate theft is an easy and popular target for thieves and not only do you have the issue of replacing the grate but you risk someone twisting an ankle or tripping and suing.

The trough and grate system is commonly used at washes and is an 8 inch trough that runs the entire width of the bay and connects from one bay to the next and all end up pouring into a mini pit in the equipment room before it runs to the separating pits.

One effective way to secure this setup include welding hinges so they just flipped over for cleaning. These were made in three length’s across the bay. Not a “quick” fix, but it works.

If your wash has been hit check with the local scrap metal yard for quick replacement pieces or your grates that have been sold to the yard. Also explain what’s going on and in many cases they can help to put a stop to this problem by giving you a call and reporting it to the police before they buy the this type of scrap.

Car Wash Coin Box Theft

Coin boxes at car washes are a popular target for thieves. Not only are they easy to spot, but thieves know where most of the money is going to be. How can you stop car wash coin box theft?

Several brands of coin boxes are vulnerable to the thief using a speaker or other large magnet which gets rubbed up and down on the faceplate by the coin mechanism. Each pass adds a quarter in credit magnet which tricks the coin box into sending a pulse like it accepted a coin. If you see scratches on the face of your coin boxes it means you are probably losing money.

A popular recommendation is to add a magnetic switch on the coin box and/or timer to turn it off if a magnet is near, but doesn’t reliability fix it. The only way to fix the problem is to change or upgrade the coin boxes.

Another problem you will face is that there are currently only a few combinations of keys for coin boxes especially for the vacuums. Apparently they are only 1-2 different types of keys that will fit most all service doors. The best solution is to leave no lock unprotected, even the ones on vacuum clean out doors, certainly all the ones on coin boxes, face plates, vendors. Either have a security device fabricated or use a high security lock from companies such as Medeco, Abus or Buffo.

Pinhole cameras provide security in coin changers and are pretty simple to install. Simply drill a hole in the steel (approximately an 18/32 drill bit for most cameras) which will hold the camera to help you identify thieves and stop car wash coin box theft.