car wash frequently asked questions

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Where should a carwash be located?

Location, Location, Location - as with any real estate, location is the number factor operating a successful car wash.

Ideally, a carwash should be located on a fairly busy street with either stop traffic or a speed limit of no greater than 35 mph. We have seen car washes in areas where the traffic is running at 45 MPH, but in these cases, there is usually a pull off area for turning. You want the entrance and exit of the wash to be convenient to the customer. It can be located near a shopping center, C-store or residential area. A good rule of thumb is to have at least 1500 people in the area to draw from for each self service and automatic bay. The majority of carwash business will come directly from this draw area.

Corners are great, but not necessary if proper lighting and signage are used and illuminated awning draws attention to a building like nothing else can.

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What Size Lot should I have?

Obviously lot size will depend on the size carwash you want to put up. First look at the sizes needed for the building and add some of these figures to it.

Allowance for building set backs - check your city's ordinances for building set backs. Some town's set back may allow black top on an area where they do not allow a building, so you may want to check that as well.

Right turn into the building - Allow at least 26' for a right turn radius into and 26' out of the carwash bay.

Left turn into the building - Allow approx 42' for left turn radius into the wash and approx 30' for left turn out of the building.

Automatic bay - It is extremely important to allow for vehicle stacking at the entrance of an automatic bay. We typically like to see no less than 5 vehicle lengths for stacking. This does not have to be in a straight line, it can curve into the bay, but in order for the vehicle to line up properly and have enough room to use the auto-cashier, there should be at least 28 feet of straight in line area before the automatic carwash entrance. Allow another 26' to 28' for stacking each vehicle, with this figure, you should be able to accommodate almost every vehicle that will fit into your wash. While this may sound like a lot of space as vehicles are shorter than than 26' keep in mind that a vehicle will not pull up tight to the bumper in front of them.

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What size bay do I need for a self service car wash?

Warm climates - Bay sizes should still have between 15' - 16' width. Length can be as short as 24' to as long as 30' for the typical bay. Some owners have only walls with out a ceiling, which is fine, but remember there will be no ceiling to mount a ceiling boom onto.

Cold climates - we recommend a self service bay be no less than 28' in length and typically like to see 30' long buildings. Width should be 16' to accommodate most vehicles, trailers and boats. Height should be 12' with 10' x 10' doors. While we have seen self service bays with a width of only 14' and length of 26' - 28', the car wash customer has a difficult time maneuvering in a bay this size. In cold climates there will be many more days when the door will be closed than when it is up. Having a bay roomy enough for a customer to maneuver the hoses on the booms without getting back splash is important to them.

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What size bay do I need for a touchless automatic car wash?

Width can be only 15' but we like to see a width of at least 16' to make it easier for the operator to clean the bay and be able to walk around the wash as it is moving without getting too wet. This will become very important when trying to pin down some fluke of a problem in the bay and you need the wash moving in order to do so! The length will depend on two major factors. Do you want a blow dryer in the bay and how long of vehicles do want to accommodate. Because our wash can accommodate limousines, we like to see track length at 30 feet. If you do not need a blow dryer, then your building need not be any longer than 32 feet. If going with the regular track length of 26 feet, then the building need not be longer than 28 feet.

A Blow Dyer does not take up much room, but being able to have another vehicle enter your wash while the other is blow drying does! This will become very important on busy days, you want to allow as many vehicles into your wash as you possibly can or instead of those days when you could have had 150 vehicles through your wash, you will end up with only 75. In order to do this, you need the building to be up to 60 feet long. Now that is the ideal length where one customer will feel comfortable pulling in while the other is blow drying. Due to the cost of building, most often we see building lengths at 52' long when the blow dryer is inside the building (at the exit end.) This will work just fine but you may have a few stragglers that are hesitant to enter their wash until the other vehicle is well out of their comfortable "wash arena." The shorter the building is, the less likely the next car will pull in while the blow dryer is running and if you make it too short, the car being dried can end up with a new coat of pre-soak on it's tail end from the car behind it. This makes for pretty angry customers.

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What should I use in cold climates for icing problems?

Self Service bays - In cold climates, we recommend floor heat to alleviate icing problems. This should extend to a 4' pad on both the exit and entrance ends of the self service car wash bay to help stop any mishaps.

Automatic bay - In cold climates, we recommend floor heat to alleviate icing problems. This should extend from the automatic car wash to a 25 foot entrance pad and a 10' exit apron leading out of the bay.

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What will self service car wash equipment cost?

This is not an easy question to answer. There are so many variables and "extras" that can be purchased. Some companies will tell you it will only cost about $16,000. This is true if you do not need all the support equipment. But most people asking this question do need the support equipment. The first self service bay is the most expensive due to the support equipment.

One basic self service bay with all the support equipment, all the options and two vacs will cost approx $30,000. This does not include floor heat. The cost to add on each bay after the first bay is by far much less.

To give you a little insight into the items that need to be purchased in order to make a self service car wash run properly we have compiled a page where self service car wash equipment needs are described.

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What will the automatic car wash equipment cost me?

An automatic car wash can cost anywhere from $90,000.00 for the most basic system upwards to $200,000.00 for the most elaborate system. Typically we see it range between $150,000.00 - $180,000.00 as most people go with some of the optional equipment and there is a lot of optional equipment. This does not include the price of the lot, building, plumbing and electrical needed. It does include the cost of installation.

To offer a brief education on the items needed for an automatic bay, we have compiled a page where touchless automatic equipment needs are described.

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Does a reclaim system save much water?

The answer to this question is big resounding YES! A good reclaim system will reuse approx 80% - 85% of the water. New water is added only for the rinse cycles. Some water is lost in the wash either out the door, or on the vehicle. Then what we call "make up water" is added to make up for the loss. In a totally closed loop systems with a rinse water making machine added to it, will totally reuse all water except for the amount lost on the vehicle or out the door.

A reclaim system is a major purchase and should not taken lightly. We had sold a reclaim system once made by same manufacturer that made the car wash equipment we handled at the time and we had nightmares with it. The reclaim did not work properly for 11 months. When it finally got working, the ozone units burned out. Ozone units are very expensive. The manufacturer refused to honor the warranty as the system was now just over the one year warranty. Clear Stream Co ended up picking up the tab, as we knew our customer had done nothing wrong to cause the ozone units to burn out. We refused to sell another reclaim for many years and we lost trust in that particular car wash manufacturer. We turned down quoting customers on an entire carwash systems if we knew they needed a reclaim system.

We looked long and hard for a well built reclaim system. The manufacturer that we proudly use today has been in the industry for many years, they have hundreds of reclaim systems in use and they only build reclaim systems. We have found that many manufacturers try to copy their systems but will take short cuts and cheapen the equipment. Not only in cost, but in materials.

If you are planning on installing a car wash and really need a reclaim system that is reliable go with one that is tried and true, not with a company that has this item as "new" item. Ask them for 25 references. If you do get the references, call the references. Keep in mind that if you really need a reclaim system, this could mean the difference between a total wash failure and great profit potential.

Here is one area where "You get what you pay for" is just too true. In some cases you get much less!

Our reclaim system can be set up to work with any car wash system. If you are in WI, IL or MI and would like us to install it, we will be happy to do so, if not we will gladly have a factory rep call you so they may have someone from your own area help you. Just fill out our request form and put a checkmark by reclaim system.

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Revenue from a carwash

This is a loaded question and the answer is not a simple one. According to a survey done throughout the entire United States in 1999 by one the more popular car wash magazines, a self service bay earned a monthly average of $1,103.00 per month. As a general rule of thumb an automatic bay will bring in three times as much as a self service bay will. We have had customers that have paid off their entire carwash, building and all in a matter of two to three years and we have seen customers who, while still making a profit, struggled to make the wash go. When we sell a carwash to a customer, if they have never been in this business before, we run a performance analysis for them. While this does not guarantee a certain amount of income, it does show a break even point, a low profit potential, medium profit potential and high profit potential based on their actual costs. In a few areas, the cost of operating a carwash can be prohibitive if the cost of water is outrageous. There has only been a few times where we have seen that a customer's potential to make a profit was not the most likely. In these cases, adding a reclaim system to the carwash helped to increase their profit potential enormously. In one or two cases we recommended they not put the wash up in the area they had hoped to build it.

We ran a telephone survey among our own customers in 1995 in the great lakes area. The gross revenue in an automatic bay ranged any where from $50,000.00 to over $100,000.00 annually. Self service bays were taking in approx 1/2 - 1/3 of the revenue of an automatic bay. The survey did not include customers that ran self service bays only. Nor did it include customers in large cities, we had a specific target population size that we were trying to gather information from. Populations of the respondents were any where from unincorporated to drawing from an entire county with a population of 10,000 with the majority of the owners having populations of 1700 - 2000.

Area has to be the number one factor in deciding to put up a carwash and profit potential. Do you have an area of at least 1000 people to draw from without competition? A town this size can not sustain two car washes. What is the competition in the area? If there is an old brush or cloth wash don't consider them competition unless they have the potential to put in a touchess automatic. Most people know the amount of damage these old brush and cloth washes do to vehicles and they are rapidly becoming obsolete.

Another major factor in profit potential is the manner in which you keep your carwash equipment, bays and grounds up. There have been very few customers that we have seen truly struggle to make a profit. But if you see a thriving carwash verses a struggler, it is easy to pinpoint differences. Grounds that are full of trash, bays that are dirty - not just your typical every day dirt, but piles or mounds of dirt collecting for a week or more not only is an eyesore, it will surely help you loose customers faster than you can bring them in with free coupons! Imagine going to the carwash and thinking that your car will come out dirtier than when it went in! This is not a maintenance free business. Every day someone should be at that wash, washing dirt down the pits, collecting stray garbage, cleaning out the vacs if they are heavily used (nothing will burn a vac motor out quicker than allowing too much dirt to collect in the vacuum.) and repairing any non working or damaged parts.

An attractive building and grounds is very important in any business.

Keep the wash equipment in good running order. You can't make money with a carwash if it is not running properly or not all.

When you first open up your carwash, one the best investments you can make is time teaching the customer how to use your wash. If you have a day job, you can always hire a retired person to do this for you. Ask the customer which wash they would like, offer to "show them" by putting the currency into the autocashier and pushing the button, talking them through each step, tell them what signal to watch for to enter the bay and then to exit the bay. When they come out greet them again, look over their vehicle with them. Once you start making profits and you have a new customer that never used the wash before, use your own money, walk them through the purchase of your highest price wash. Why? 1) - the customer will come back simply because you gave them a free wash, you just created some loyalty and 2) They now learned how to purchase your highest priced wash. Most often you will see whatever wash the customer first learns to use, he/she will use that same wash over and over because that's the one they know how to use!

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Will a car wash increase my c-store sales?

Yes, while there are no hard statistics, many reliable sources find C-store sales increase anywhere from 10% - 22%.

You can also help expedite C-store sales with the carwash by utilizing Hamilton's scrolling display sign. You program it to say whatever you wish. Like"2% milk on sale" or on a truly hot day "try our ice cold soft drinks only 79 cents" on a very cold day, "try our steaming hot vanilla cappuccino", once someone enters a code or currency the display changes to mimic what ever the smaller display read out says on the auto cashier.

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