Kleen-Rite Restores Loganville Car Wash

The painted 25-cent callout on the roof of the old Loganville Car Wash must have said plenty to motorists passing by this aging self-serve carwash in a small Pennsylvania community about 45 miles north of Baltimore. The faded paint and 50-year-old exterior had seen better days and belied the functioning equipment nestled in the facility’s bays.

Built in 1956 by three partners, the original carwash consisted of three self-serve bays with two exterior open bays on either end. It once shared the site with a used car dealership. John Slatky bought the carwash in 1982 and converted one of the open bays into an equipment/storage room. He also added floor heat to combat winter icing, but other than keeping up with

Before and after views of the Loganville Car Wash.

needed maintenance, the carwash was in line for a major renovation when he mentioned the carwash during a routine visit to Kleen-Rite Corp., headquartered in nearby Columbia.

Slatky runs several carwashes, but he apparently was unsure he was up to the challenge to bring the Loganville Car Wash into the 21st century. Kleen-Rite officials liked the facility’s potential and decided to purchase it in 2006, planning to keep it as a community carwash but also use the location as a test facility.

“It was a relatively close carwash for sale in a growing area without putting ourselves in direct competition with any of our customers,” recalls Tom Allen, senior technician. “It had a lot of potential. We liked that it was an existing site, so we didn’t have to get into construction from the ground up.”

The project did, however, require plenty of planning, with Kleen-Rite spending the better part of two years working on architectural and engineering drawings, dealing with zoning issues, obtaining required permits and securing financing. As a prominent carwash supplier used to helping customers upgrade and replace aging equipment, dealing with the bureaucracy of the building aspects to a carwash project gave Kleen-Rite officials a new appreciation for the challenges faced by everyday operators.

Ultimately, though, the project enabled the company to build the type of carwash it encourages its customers to maintain and establish a testing ground for new carwash products.

(From left) Loganville Car Wash owners Mike McKonly, Kleen-Rite president; Tom Allen, senior technician; and Keith Lutz, Kleen-Rite vice president.

“First and foremost we are a hands-on carwash supplier/company. It’s what we do,” notes Mike McKonly, Kleen-Rite president. “The Loganville operation allows us to test and showcase new equipment and products. It works hand in hand because it gives us an operator’s perspective on running the day-to-day operations of a carwash to better understand the needs of our customers.”

The renovated Loganville facility reopened in 2008, but not before a major overhaul. Kleen-Rite closed the carwash in December 2007 and gutted the bays and equipment, and even removed the roof. It essentially tore everything down except the exterior walls to provide a blank carwash canvas.

The new owners added split face block on the exterior walls and extended the bays to make room for two in-bay automatics. They enclosed the last outside bay and added a pet wash and vending center. After the block work was completed, new trusses and a striking red metal roof were added to signal the new carwash’s arrival.

Kleen-Rite upgraded water supply lines to handle the anticipated additional volume, and installed 800-amp electrical service and new wiring. The self-serve bays were brightened using Extrutech panels on the walls and ceilings, as well as adding new lighting. The carwash has new fiberglass grating in the drains and troughs, Mosmatic triple ceiling booms for high pressure, a foam brush system, Air Shammee dryers and a triple foam system.

With an eye toward energy efficiency, the company also added variable frequency drive (VFD) pump stands.

“The VFD pumps give a quicker delivery of low-pressure product to the bays. Plus there is more flexibility in determining pressure ratings for these functions, and less product lines you have to run to each bay,” notes Allen. “We also currently have tankless, on-demand water heaters and are in the process of adding a reclaim system.”

New Hamilton cashiers and Wash Gear credit card systems were installed to expand customer payment options, and the site also features stainless steel vacuum islands with canopies from J.E. Adams Industries. The idea was to showcase reliable and dependable equipment for easy maintenance, as well as provide