Going Hybrid
The dos and don’ts of hybrid washing

It’s human nature to take the path of least resistance. The nature of water is to find its lowest common level. When operators are thinking of investing in high-pressure equipment, they usually do so with the idea that they have a space here or there to stick the equipment into. By doing so, they unknowingly minimize the effectiveness of this investment.

Our company has been manufacturing touchless and hybrid carwash systems since 1985. A major portion of our business over that time has been with existing operators and new investors whose goals are to reduce their dependence on friction, reduce their manual vehicle prepping and produce cleaner and drier vehicles faster. Automated prepping, also known as hybrid washing, is the solution.

Some systems make use of fan-spray nozzles, which require the use of parallelograms (tire-washing frames) and robotics. Other systems use spinner nozzles and rotary joints, which really don’t hold up well to the rigors and environment of a carwash, especially when recycled water is used. Some even power these spinners by using the pressure generated by the pump, which proves problematic when pump pressure drops as nozzles wear. Touchless or hybrid systems use at least twice as much water as a cloth wash. As a result, water filtration and re-use are primary considerations when investing in high-pressure equipment. It is critical that water is filtered down to at least 5 microns to prevent nozzle clogging.

The worst disservice to existing cloth operators and new investors alike is to allow them to invest $15,000 to $30,000 in a presoak arch, high-pressure arch or component and pump stations only to let them use it incorrectly. It is the placement of the high-pressure equipment in relation to the cloth that will determine whether the investment in high-pressure equipment achieves the goals of significantly reduced, manual vehicle prepping and cleaner vehicles.

When discussing high-pressure prepping/ hybrid washing, one should first realize that high-pressure equipment is not much different than cloth equipment with respect to the cars-per-hour ratio. What I mean by that is an operator of a 120-foot exterior-only wash that cleans 90 to 100 cars per hour requires more cloth and high-pressure equipment than an operator of a full-service carwash that washes a maximum of 50 cars per hour. So, let’s throw out the assertion by so many in the industry that one size fits all. It is your maximum hourly wash volume that determines the size of your carwash’s high-pressure equipment and pump system.

It is critical to your equipment decision to understand the relationship between pump pressure, nozzle pattern and size, vehicle coverage and cleaning impact. Question: When is 500 psi more than 1,000 psi? Answer: When 500 psi is going through a zero-degree nozzle and the 1,000 psi is going through a fan-spray nozzle. I have always been a proponent of zero-degree nozzles placed on independent, hydraulically powered oscillating spray bars. While this technology does require the use of more nozzles than fan sprays, it also permits you to run high-pressure pumps at far lower pressure than with fan sprays, yet achieve greater impact. For example, a 0004 nozzle at 500 psi actually delivers the same cleaning impingement as a 0002 nozzle at 1,000 psi. It also delivers more impact at 500 psi than a 2503 nozzle at 1,000 psi 10 inches from the vehicle’s surface.

Problematic too, is that as fan-spray nozzles wear, the orifice widens causing a pressure drop at the pump, a narrowing of vehicle coverage and a resulting loss of cleaning power. Finally, if you need 1,000 psi yet have a pump that can only produce 1,000, what do you do when the pressure drops to 800 or 700 psi? If you need consistent 1,000 psi, then you better have a pump that can deliver 1,500 psi. A good engineer never invents something that needs to be run at maximum capacity all the time.

Now let’s get back to hybrid washing and automated vehicle prepping. Let’s start with a basic premise of exterior vehicle washing: Lost hourly wash volume is directly proportional to the amount of vehicle prepping you perform. I’ve witnessed many washes is running the conveyor at 80, 90 or 100 cars per hour to wash 50, 60 or 70 cars per hour. The results are gaps in the line, often equal to one or two full spaces. The disagreement by many operators on this point is nothing short of amazing. In fact, many operators think that they don’t have enough equipment to get clean vehicles without extensive manual prepping. In reality, they have enough equipment, they just need to slow their line speed and keep vehicles bumper to bumper. Some operators also think they are saving money on chemicals and utilities by running a fast speed. However, any savings are then frittered away on the extra labor needed for prepping and/or drying due to the lack of time spent going through each piece of equipment.

The strangest thing to me as a fellow operator is when another operator tells me, “I like the idea of automating my vehicleprep process, but I just don’t think it will work for me.” The follow-up question that must be asked is, “Aren’t you doing the exact same thing with those two prep men on both sides of vehicles who are completely pressure washing each vehicle before sending it through your tunnel?” The obvious answer is that they are already operating a hybrid carwash system. Instead of equipment, they are just spending $30,000 to $40,000 a year for two prep people.

The investment in high-pressure equipment to turn an all-cloth wash into a hybrid system achieves the goal of automating the prep process by at least 80 percent to 90 percent if one key parameter is followed. The key is vehicle coverage. One must achieve 100-percent coverage with both presoak and high-pressure if the auto prep/hybrid wash process is going to work. Manual prepping can then be confined to extraordinary conditions like ice, snow, heavy mud, bugs and tree sap—not 100 percent of every car.

Hybrid washing also enables you to put those two prep employees where they can do more than pre-wash a car that your $200,000 (or more) carwash system is supposed to wash. Also, consider that the investment is depreciated over seven years. A $15,000 to $35,000 investment can save the average operator at least $210,000 to $280,000 in labor, utilities and presoak costs. As great as these labor savings are, they are only the beginning. First, the equipment shows up every day and brings none of the baggage and costs that employees invariably carry with them. The rest of the benefits are being able to run 60, 90 or 120 cars-per-hour line speed, actually washing 60, 90 or 120 cars an hour, and keep cars bumper to bumper, eliminating gaps and using the system the way it was originally designed. If you towel dry, you’ll see labor savings there too. The cleaner the vehicles come out, the dryer they will be. If you don’t manually towel dry, you’ll simply have to settle for more satisfied customers.

Now to the heart of the matter; the hybrid equipment layout. Everyone who has ever owned a car knows that no matter where you wash it, at home, a self-serve wash or a conveyor wash, the first thing that needs to be done before you apply any wash mitt, foaming brush or cloth equipment is to get the “heavy stuff” off. At home, it is done with a hose. At all professional carwashes (self-serve or conveyorized) this is typically done with high-pressure guns. This sounds completely logical, right? Well, one would never know it to look at most tunnel washes that have automated high-pressure equipment.

Most of the time, you’ll find a high-pressure arch or component after the cloth equipment rather than before it to contain the mist so employees don’t get wet. Undoubtedly there will be some benefit from the high pressure no matter where you put it.

However, to put it after your cloth will in no way, shape or form enable you to reduce your manual prepping one iota. Placing high-pressure after the cloth makes it little more than a glorified rinse arch and forces you to continue manual prepping to remove the heavy stuff. Another downside to the cloth-first approach is that the high-pressure creates a great deal of mist in the tunnel. If too close to your rinse area, all that mist will be sucked into your dryer intakes. Drying vehicles with moist air is significantly more difficult than with dry air. Consequently, you will need more labor for towel drying or you’ll get wetter vehicles and more spotting. It is this same mist that causes many in the industry to want to put the high-pressure after the cloth. The justification is that the mitter curtain helps to contain the mist. While true, it’s not a good reason for the placement of a $15,000 to $35,000 investment. This is especially true when one considers that hybrid washing brings vast improvements in cleaning along with greater hourly wash volume, greater revenue (at both ends of the tunnel) on peak and semi-peak days when placed before the cloth. Let’s face it, if you’re not ready for those 50, 60 or more days a year when your demand exceeds your capacity, you lose tens of thousands of dollars in potential revenue, while unnecessarily increasing your labor costs per vehicle wash. As all operators know, it is almost impossible to make up for lost business.

So how does one deal with the mist? We recommend installing 6-inch-wide strips of mitter cloth and hanging staggered rows from the ceiling across the wash bay. From each side of the arch to the wall, these strips hang nearly down to the floor. These strips then come down just 6 inches below the top of the arch, silhouetting the arch. The cloth and the vehicle serve to contain the vast majority of the mist generated by the high-pressure arch. This solution is simple and effective in solving the mist problem, and it allows you to place the high-pressure before the cloth where it will of the most benefit.

In effect, a properly laid out hybrid system creates a carwash with two systems in one. The first part is a touchless wash process that should get vehicles 80 percent to 90 percent clean except for the light film that touchless systems so often leave behind. All heavy dirt and contamination is removed, and the surface of the vehicle is prepped. The second part is the cloth wash and/or cloth polishing process. However, now the cloth’s job is not to clean per se, but to remove the film and polish the vehicle, which is what the cloth was originally intended to do.

In my opinion, this one-two punch of touchless then cloth is the only way to maximize the return on your investment. However, remember to ask this question when looking at investing in high-pressure equipment: “How is vehicle prepping reduced by placing it after your cloth?” For a new investor, it’s easy. However, for existing operators it’s more problematic. In most cases, putting the touchless part before the cloth involves moving or eliminating entirely the first mitter. Typically, the addition of the high-pressure arch needs to be a minimum of 8 to 10 feet away from the presoak arch. If you can go as high as 13 feet for dwell time, the CTA and tire washers can go in this space. No question, it’s costly and time consuming to realign your tunnel, and who wants to consider the possibility of getting rid of a perfectly good mitter curtain. However, when you look at the dramatic benefits to the bottom line, hourly wash capacity, labor savings and customer satisfaction, it does not make sense to simply try to fit the mitter in just anywhere you may have room for it.

Hybrid vehicle washing is by far the cutting edge of carwashing today. It costs less and delivers higher quality than a touchless system. You can deliver cleaner, dryer vehicles, with less labor than all cloth. With a hybrid system, you can have your cake and eat it too.

Bill Consolo is the president of Chief ’s Manufacturing & Equipment Co. in South Euclid, Ohio, and the owner of Chief ’s Auto Wash in South Euclid. He can be e-mailed at bconsolo@aol.com.

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