Spot Free: For In-Bay Automatics
By Charles Borchard

What customers want: a clean spot-free finish.

In-bay automatic vehicle washing has come a long way from the days when you were “given” a free wash with a purchase of 8 gallons of gas. In-bays are not just found behind the service station anymore. One of the faster growing segments in vehicle washing is the standalone in-bay automatic in a strip mall, self-storage lot, or added to a self-serve wash. With the exception of the last one, these washes are often being built by people with limited experience in vehicle washing. For them it is an investment opportunity.

INVESTMENT

Equipment, price, and ownership are the three sides of this story. All three parts of this equation have grown exponentially.

Equipment
The equipment has matured. We started out with a “garden hose” attached to three brushes running dish soap, if any soap at all, that just beat at the dirt on the vehicle. Today we have sophisticated computer-controlled wash units that size the vehicle for optimum cleaning, use spot-free water, employ high-grade chemistry — and often heat — to clean customers’ vehicles to a level that was unheard of just a decade or two ago. Instead of one standard wash, consumers have at least three options — as many as 10 or 11 in some places. Obviously, this huge leap forward in capabilities of the equipment has come with a commensurate increase in the cost of the equipment.

Price
Fortunately, the second part — price — has also risen from free to $5, $6, $8, and in some areas $10, $11, $12. Consumers will pay if they feel they are getting a good value. This helps offset the cost of the equipment and makes the wash a good investment.

Ownership
The third and final part of this is the wash owner/operator. Being in the equipment business, we speak to a large number of people looking for help in buying or building a wash. The number of doctors, lawyers, accountants, real estate brokers, and executives asking for this help has grown. They ask tough questions concerning equipment reliability, service capability, and product liability. They are not the hands-on mechanics that made up the majority of the previous generations of wash owners. To them it is just a way to invest money.

These often highly educated investors are often trained to approach challenges analytically. They will rely on their equipment vendors and their distributors for advice and expertise to guarantee their investment; they will listen to their customers on what it takes to achieve a high level of customer satisfaction.

Connection
What has this got to do with spot-free rinse for in-bay automatic vehicle washes? I lead with this to point out that the business is changing. Just as the level of sophistication in the equipment and the companies who sell and service the equipment has moved up, so has the level of sophistication of the customer/wash owner. The new owners are expecting well-built equipment, good factory and distributor support, well-written manuals, and third-party testing laboratories’ seals of approval, i.e. UL / ETL — all at great value.

SPOT-FREE SYSTEMS

Spot-free rinse systems for in-bay automatics are rapidly approaching standard-equipment status. A final spot-free rinse effectively displaces all residual chemical and mineral-laden water, including reclaim water. This allows the entire vehicle — including glass, chrome, and painted surfaces — to dry completely spot-free.

Most car wash equipment manufacturers have made provisions for spot-free rinse to be incorporated into their wash process and either offer or recommend this when building or updating a wash facility. A reverse osmosis (RO) system is a simple addition to any wash location and will increase customer satisfaction and create customer loyalty. Many car wash equipment manufacturers now include an RO system as standard equipment in their car wash packages. Offering spot-free rinsing has become an integral part of the wash process. Regardless of the brand of car wash equipment you select, there is a spot-free system for you. It is recommended that you consult with your equipment distributor when selecting the proper spot-free system for your application. If you don’t have a distributor, your wash manufacturer will be able to assist you in the selection of the appropriate spot-free system.

Operation
On the technical side, all RO systems work in much the same way. Tap water is introduced into a pump, which increases the pressure to 180-250 psig and forces water through the membrane. Pre-treatment of tap water — i.e., before it goes into the RO system — is recommended. Some water conditions will require additional pre-treatment, so consult the equipment supplier. Because most municipal water systems use chlorine as an anti-bacteria treatment and membranes do not tolerate chlorine, it is necessary to remove the chlorine before the RO. A simple, activated charcoal filter tank works well for this purpose and most RO manufacturers include this as part of the system. All systems will have some form of a pre-filter — usually a 5-micron pre-filter — that is provided to separate the larger solid material from the water. Plugging or damage to the RO membrane or pump will result if the large solid particles are not removed by the disposable filter first. A pre-filter needs to be changed at least once per month; some water conditions may require more frequent changes. When pre-filters are not changed regularly, RO systems will produce poor product water quality and/or have a significantly lower production rate.

The most common size membrane used in car wash applications is 4x40 inch, which requires 5 gallons across the surface of the membrane for every gallon of product or permeate water produced. In years past, most operators would just send the four gallons of “bad” or concentrate water down the drain. Today, water costs are expensive and some locations are limited to how much water they can send to the sewer. Most, but not all, RO manufacturers recirculate a portion of that concentrate water back into the inlet stream. Out of the five gallons you start with, one gallon of product water goes into the RO storage tank, one gallon of concentrate water goes to the drain, and three gallons are recirculated. RO systems are typically sold by the amount of water they produce in a 24-hour period. This is usually at an optimum performance with 77 degree Fahrenheit feed water. Your wash manufacturer will be able to tell you how much spot-free water you will need per wash, and with some educated guessing you should be able to determine the size unit you will require. If your calculations are on the close side, upsize your storage tank or select the unit one size up.

SPOT FREE: OTHER USES

The uses for spot-free water in a car wash now also include building windows. Do you have a window in your in-bay automatic that allows people from the street to view your wash in action? Or maybe you have a car wash that is housed in a structure primarily made of glass? The flying soap, the grime you blasted off that muddy truck, and all the junk in the wash bay that could accumulate on your windows, will. If you periodically rinse those windows with spot-free water you will improve the clarity of the windows to produce a better view and reduce or eliminate the laborious scrubbing that would otherwise be required to keep them clean. It’s a great use of the spot-free water, a wonderful housekeeping tool, and another way to reduce labor!

USES FOR “REJECT” WATER

Sometimes, if the wash site has a reclaim system, the concentrate or reject water is plumbed into the reclaim holding tanks. For every vehicle washed in a system with a reclaim, you will need 6 gallons of make-up water due to carryout and evaporation. That water would come from the final rinse, and with the introduction of the reject water into your reclaim you will be turning over the water in your tanks. You’ll be sending the “overflow” to the sewer. This will improve the quality of your reclaim water by diluting the solids and therefore keeping it fresher.

In applications without a sewer hook-up — “Zero Discharge” — the concentrate is captured in a tank. As the wash requires “make-up” water, a float in the reclaim tank tells the pump the reclaim is low on water and the pump responds by filling the reclaim tank and keeping the wash running, without wasting water. There are many possible uses for this “reject” water. In some cases, where there isn’t salt present in the reject water, it can be plumbed into the irrigation system and be utilized for the landscaping. Wash systems without a reclaim can still capture the reject and when mixed with tap water can be used in the wash process; this is a good application where the site may not have enough tap pressure or volume of water.

SELECTION

How do you select the best system for your wash? Since most of the “new age” operators have many responsibilities and are not on site constantly, it is necessary to purchase a high-quality system that will provide many years of trouble-free service. Follow these tips when considering a RO unit:

• Select a unit built to a UL or ETL standard.
• Confirm that the product has good local distributor support; if there is a problem it can be resolved quickly.
• Choose a system with all the gauges, so you can keep track of the variables, pressure, volume of water made, etc.

There are obviously many more factors involved in the sizing, purchasing, and maintaining of spot-free rinse systems that can’t be covered in a short article. I hope this is a good start toward your understanding of spot-free rinse systems.

Charles Borchard is the vice president of operations for New Wave Industries, the manufacturer of Pur-Clean Spot-free Rinse Systems and Pur-Water Water Recovery Systems. This is his 19th year in the water treatment business. He can be reached via e-mail at cborchard@purclean.com.