pump pressure

My wife and I, knowing NOTHING, about car wash's ended up with a 6 bay SS wash. We have been repairing and fixen for a month or more and spending money like mad :) Monday we went up to Kansas city to visit Windtrax and have a meeting with Brad. Brad treated us like royalty and spent hours with us training us to adjust and fix things we new nothing about. Brad showed us how to adjust water. pressure, soap, all the stufff you guys take for granted we new nothing about.
We discovered that our Cat pumps, all six of them, where set at 1800 lbs presure and Brad suggested 1200 lbs. Yesterday we spent the day adjusting things, When we took the cat pumps down to 1200 PSI the whole car wash started to hummmm. Things didnt rattle, bang and generally sound like they where going to explode.
Just out of curiosity, what pressure are others running and what is the reasoning. Are we trying to attract cusotmers by being the highest pressure.
I beleive the former manager of our place thought his customer base was keen to a higher pressure and more chemicals, he seems to have had every thing ramped up, the foamy brush's where full chemical and low water, the brushes spit blue chemical out three-four feet foaming action.
Again I want to let all know that Brad and Windtrax is a very helpfull source. Now back to the wash I am rebulding a zero pressure valve today :)

I’ve known Brad for a long time and he’s a great guy to deal with and is very knowledgeable about the car wash business.
I like to run my Cat pumps at 1500 psi with a generous amount of soap, not like spray paint but a lot of show. I use a 1505 nozzle so it gives the impression that your getting more pressure than you really are, it’s the narrow pattern. I’ve got my Foam brush set up to be a little on the runny side, I don’t like it to come out like shaving cream. When you turn on the Foam brush it shouldn’t spit out 3 or 4 feet. It sounds like the pressure is set up to high on the pump.

yikes 1800 is pretty high, even 1500. 1200 is what we set them up at, but I THINK thats mainly to cover our asses. I ask people all the time why they are using that particular car wash over the one down the street. You would be surprised how many people say "the pressure seems stronger on this one"

I use 2506 nozzles set to 1000 psi at the tip which requires about 1300 psi at the pump stand gauge. My wash is in the burbs with lots of female customers. I'm not really concerned about helping people get the mud off with higher pressures or volumes because that is so little of my business( and I'd like for it to stay that way, thank you)

1800 PSI is too high. You are wasting water and chemicals - not to mention possibly damaging a vehicle (and people) if it gets too close. I use 1100 psi with 2504 nozzles. By the way, you should be changing your bay nozzles on regular basis (depending upon how busy your wash is). Windtrax is good people. It will take awhile for you to learn this business - hopefully you are handy. The cleaning up part is the easy side. Keeping the place humming on a busy day, not wasting water and chemicals, and making money at this is the harder part. Keep good notes on what you do. The foam brush as indicated above should come out like lather. I use a green tip on the hydrominder, fed at 40 PSI with 22 PSI air - but this is me and the chemical I am using. The best thing to do is shut the air off, turn on three bays with just fluid, slowly turn on the air until you get the consistency you are looking for. Alot of operators operate at different psi's on fluid and air, but it more depends on the chemical. If it's a thinner diluted chemical then it will be harder to make foam. A concentrated soap a little easier - like I said it starts with with chemical. Keep the vacs sucking good (check the gaskets on the doors), shine up the signs, vacs and boxes on a regular basis, talk to your customers,have a grand opening. Titrating is fine but your customers know nothing about titrating, nor do they care - they want to see soap and they want it to clean. Keep the place clean, install a complaint box, have the place well lit up at night, and be sure your changers are working properly (they also need cleaning and maintenance too). This is a business that needs attention on a regular basis and is not about just collecting money (as new investors soon learn)

Good luck.

Joe
wwwcrowncarwashinc.com

good

1800psi is really high. As a standard rule 1200psi is max. The reason (as joe/crown) is that over 1200psi the risk of damaging paint, trim and injuring people is much higher. I recommend to my customers a 1507 stainless or MEG tip. It is a narrow area to apply the pressure with a sufficient volume of water to clean and rinse just about any area. You can use 06,05, and even 04 jets as it depends what type on clients servicing. Keep in mind though going to smaller jets can (doesn't mean it will) lead to other problems. If a jet is too small it can lead to back pressure through your hose to the pump. This can lead to either the belt slipping because the motor is turning faster than the pump. Or this can cause the motor to work harder, causing it to overload and possibly burn the motor or blow the breaker. It doesn't always happen but it can and has. I hope this helps
Danny

"Back pressure?" That's a non-issue. The strain on the motor is related to pressure only, not flow. A smaller tip just means more water is bypassed through the regulator, which if working properly will maintain the set pressure. If this were a problem, you'd have issues every time a customer released the trigger on a weep gun.

That is exactly what I thought when I first heard of "back pressure". In theory if the regulator/unloader is working properly it "should" not be an issue. Any extra flow or pressure "should" get bypassed. However it is an issue and has been for a lot of car washes. Go to a larger GPM jet and the problem is solved and does not come back.

My point was that it's not "back pressure," it's a malfunctioning regulator/unloader. Unloaders aren't meant to be used with weep guns at all. The source of the problem should be corrected, not "fixed" by wasting water.

If its a malfunctioning regulator or unloader it "should"(does not mean it always will) get progressively worse over time. This also has occured in situations where the regulator or unloader has been replaced with a new unit (several times, sent back to manufacturer for evaluation and found to be fine). The problem persists and a larger GPM jet solves the problem. A larger GPM jet maybe viewed as wasting water, but how much revenue do you lose from a non operational pump?