When it comes to making sure that you are really getting your bang for your buck with your carwash chemicals in your tunnel carwash, you really need to take another look at your chemical support equipment. You might be buying the best chemicals on the market and still not having them perform the way that you expect them to perform, and wasting valuable dollars at the same time. The way in which your chemicals are applied to the vehicle determines your usage, cost, and just how clean and dry the vehicle is at the end of the tunnel. Let’s look at your tunnel carwash functions from beginning to end.
Presoak arch. Make sure that your presoak arch is nozzled properly. If your nozzles are sized at let’s say 4010 or 6515, you are probably using way more chemical and water than what is necessary to get the job done. Remember the first two digits on the nozzle is the degree pattern at 12 inches from the tip of the nozzle, and the last two digits are the volume rating per minute. So if you have a 4010 nozzle, you have 40 degree fan pattern and 1.0 gallon per minute rating. With all this being said, make sure that your degree pattern on your nozzles gives you proper coverage on the vehicle and not to have any area of the vehicle that the nozzles are missing. As far as volume, you can usually get the job done with 05 or 08 for your gallon rating. The bigger the gallon rating, the more chemical and water you will use. Also, make sure that you are using diaphragm tee-check valves on your nozzles to keep the soap line primed and keep the chemical from draining out of the arch after the vehicle passes through the arch and the chemical pump stops pumping. Make sure that your chemical is at the proper strength in the backroom and your presoak arch is nozzled properly and you will get the results you are looking for in both cleaning and chemical usage.
Computerized Tire Applicator, or commonly called the CTA. Again, we need to make sure that we are using correctly sized nozzles with diaphragm tee-check valves. If we have the tire chemical diluted properly in the hydrominder, we should be able to clean the tire and not use an excessive amount of chemical. Depending on your controller system that your tunnel uses, you also need to make sure that the CTA is not activating too early and not staying on too long after the tire passes the CTA. Also, make sure that your nozzles are positioned and angled correctly to cover the tire as the wheel turns. Keep in mind that not all tires are the same size. Try to find a mid-range adjustment to properly cover both small car tires and bigger truck tires. These adjustments will help you achieve the cleaning level that you are looking for and at the same time, not wasting your tire chemical.
Soap Foamers. The main thing here is to make sure that you are able to rinse off the soap that you are putting on the vehicle. It depends on your tunnel length and amount of rinsing that your equipment is doing on how foamy you can have your soap foamers. If you have a short tunnel and very little rinsing, you will need to apply your soap foamer more like a “watery foam” than a thick ”shaving cream” foam. The pH level of your soap foamer will also have an effect on your rinsing. Make sure that you are using check valves where your chemical feeds into your foam generators on your foam sticks. This will again help the chemical line to stay primed and not drain out of the foam stick after the vehicle passes and the chemical pump stops pumping. These check valves will make sure that your chemical usage is in line and you are not wasting product. By keeping the soap lines primed, this also ensures that the soap foamer will promptly apply soap to the next vehicle.
Tunnel Equipment. Most of your tunnel equipment will have water supply lines that use v-jet nozzles to wet the cloth or lubricate the foam and also help rinse the vehicle as it goes through your carwash. Here we need to make sure that the nozzle sizes are big enough to do the job, but not too big where as to use excessive amounts of water. Make sure not to decrease the water too much here, or you will have problems with your foam material “squeaking” and”grabbing” the vehicle. You will have to do some adjusting and fine tuning to find the correct size of nozzles for your particular carwash.
Pre-rinse arch. Some tunnels have pre-rinse arches to help rinse the vehicle before it enters into the wax arches. Again, you want to make sure that your nozzles are sized properly for your carwash. Also, make sure that you have enough space between this arch and your wax arches. You will need to let as much of the water run off of the vehicle’s surface as possible. Doing so will let your wax products work more efficiently and not have extra amounts of water to shed from the vehicle’s surface.
Wax arches. These are both your sealer wax product and your drying agent. Both arches need to be nozzled properly with diaphragm tee check valves or if you are using a rain bar, you will need an inline check valve to insure that water does not continue to drain from the rain bar after the vehicle passes and the chemical pump stops pumping. The trick here is to use the smallest nozzle size possible and still have your waxes perform. By decreasing the amount of water that you have to use in your wax dilution, this will make your wax product’s dilution stronger and perform better. Here it depends on the quality of products that you use as to what size nozzle to use.
Final Rinse. This rinse arch can either be fresh water or R/O water. Whether you are using an arch with v-jet nozzles or a rain bar, make sure that you are not dumping too much water on the vehicle. You want to use just enough to get the job done. The more water you put on, the more the wax product has to work to shed the water off of the vehicle. By using the correct amount, you will notice a much dryer vehicle.
Now that we have briefly covered your tunnel function in your carwash, remember to pay attention to the details when it comes to the way your chemicals are applied to the vehicles. By using quality carwash chemicals and making proper adjustments to the support equipment, you should be getting a clean and dry vehicle consistently and cost effectively!
