Top 8 Ways to be More Efficient at Your Car Wash

The less time you spend doing the boring, everyday work at your car wash, the more time you can spend growing your business.

Or fishing. Everyone needs a break.

Finding ways to be more efficient around your wash frees you up and can make the day go easier. It’s not about cutting corners though – it’s about using technology, processes, and capital to make things run smoother. Whether it is making daily tasks take less time, being able to see and address issues faster, or reducing downtime for repairs, here are some of our suggestions for improved efficiency.

Keeping Parts on Hand

You may not want to have a massive backstock of parts – after all, it’s just money that’s sitting there! But how much time and effort does it take to run down a part you need in a pinch? An efficient car wash owner keeps a small stock of parts on hand. This makes it so they don’t have to waste the time running around to find the part if something happens. Parts with shorter life cycles are more important to keep on hand simply because of frequency. You’re going to need new foamy brushes and spray guns more often than you’ll need a new power supply for your bill changer, for instance.

Counting Machines

Dealing with coin counting can be a major headache. Not all banks are in a hurry to do the counting for you either, not to mention there’s little point to making that run, only to be picking up rolls to bring back for use. Cut out the travel and effort by having your own automatic coin and token counters, sorters, scales, and other equipment! Scan Coin, American Changer, and Klopp all carry an array of supplies and equipment that will reduce the time you spend dealing with coins and tokens. These highly-efficient counters are the perfect office helper in a cash-centric industry!

DosaTron Panels

These plug and play, easy to swap Dosatron Modular Panel Systems put everything you need for accurate dosing and dilution into a single unit. It makes them great for installation, but in the long run, it also makes them easy to pull out and replace if you are having issues. If a component on the panel fails, if you need to perform maintenance or fix and issue, you can swap in a replacement panel quickly. Instead of holding up your whole dosing system for what could be a long repair, the ability to quickly remove and insert a new panel and then work on troubleshooting the old one means an interruption of minutes, not hours or days!

The Right Tools

Some tools you can finagle, and make do with in the case of not having the right tool. Use the back side of a wrench as a hammer? That’s fine. But sometimes, that failure to use the right tool can lead to time consuming issues. In these cases, it’s worth the price of the specific tool to be more efficient in your maintenance tasks.

Car washes have plenty of special problems, unique to the industry. Those call for special tools. Particularly in pump repair, trying to work with the incorrect tools can extend these processes for a long time! From removing the seal case, to oil seal insertion and more, specific tools will shorten the process greatly.

Full Hose Assemblies

Rebuilding your hose assemblies is a time-consuming process – not to mention it requires specialized tools. Instead of investing in the tools themselves, and having to take the time to repair them, stock up on pre-made hose assemblies that we make for you right here at Kleen-Rite!

Available in a variety of hose diameters and lengths, with the fittings you need to work in your existing system, our pre-made hose assemblies mean you don’t need crimpers and cutters, spools of hose, and bins of fittings lying around your wash. Easy to keep on hand, they help you be more efficient when replacing a worn or malfunctioning hose.

Replace Versus Repair

We talk plenty about repair parts at your car wash. We encourage every owner we talk with to get familiar with the maintenance and repairs that will be necessary around their wash. Conducting repair and maintenance yourself can be one of the biggest money savers for a wash.

Sometimes you need to calculate what is worth more though. Your time, or the cost of a new part? For some parts, the equation will lean in favor of just tossing the old component and replacing it with something new. You need to know which components in your wash are worth taking your time or the time of your employees to fix, and have spares ready for those that aren’t worth the effort.

Concentration

Moving drum after drum of chemicals can be a time-consuming part of your daily activities. However, we’ve refined and reduced chemicals down to highly-concentrated formulations. These formulations are just as effective and powerful as the standard solutions you’ve been using for years. Now they’re just easier to deal with! Kleen-Pak Hyper Concentrates come in 2.5-gallon jugs that, when properly diluted, can produce as many washes as larger drums!

Concentrated chemicals make it easier to take in deliveries – there’s less to move. They make it easier to change over when one runs out. There’s no moving barrels around, dealing with messy components that need to be moved from the old drum to the new one. They make it faster to work in your chemical room, as they take up less space. Concentrated chemicals are making everything faster and easier – so consider switching over to them!

Natural Surfaces

Painted surfaces look great… but the amount of time you’ll have to spend repainting and touching up, particularly in a corrosive and chemical-filled environment might not be worth it. Stainless steel, block, and brick that is attractive yet neutral can be a great option here! Surfaces that require limited upkeep means you won’t have to schedule these tasks. Instead, you can focus on customer-facing tasks, marketing you wash, or simply taking a breather!

Your time is valuable, so make sure you are spending it in activities that bring value to your wash! These are some great ideas – but maybe you have some of your own, or some that are applicable in particular to your wash. Don’t limit yourself – take some of the time your saving with these ideas and brainstorm some time-saving, efficient ideas of your own!