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    Sensortron failure rate ?

    I have a question regarding Sensortrons... how long do they live? I have done a quick search, and tried all the options listed: replace, clean.. We seem to be going through them very quickly, that don't seem normal. They appear to work fine for a day or two, then go belly up - rejecting coins...
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    A snapshot of our industry. It ain't pretty.

    Breaking the reputation of "a crappy, low powered car wash" is tough to break. The wash I work at, the previous owners let it go to the dumps. Hardly any power from the pumps, building looked like it should have been condemed, lights that either didn't work or were so dim you couldn't see. Of...
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    ultimate tire and wheel cleaner

    Get on your favorite online auction site and order some fluorescein. It's a red / orange powder that, in water, makes the fluorescent color like green antifreeze. We added it to our tire cleaner so people could see it vs not seeing it. ( thinking it wasn't being dispensed ).
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    Using magnet to activate selector on self serve

    Stainless won't block the magnetic field.. ( your box is stainless, isn't it? ). A piece of regular rustable iron or steel will, though. hmm, now that it's mentioned they're sensotrons, I'll check the ones at my wash.. we have those too. Are the ones that take the 'program coin' vulnerable?
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    Just raised prices in SS bays

    How long have you been with the new pricing? I am kind of pushing the place I work for to do it, to run off the riff-raff. We don't have much of a problem with bucket washers, but the ones that put in the bare minimum to rinse their trash out. ( We're $1.50, for three minutes. )
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    Floating Voltage in Bay Boxes causing interference with Credit Card Acceptance...

    Leakage voltage is coupled via capacitance from one wire to the next. ( take your meter lead and touch the insulation on a wire known to have voltage on it. ) Eliminating it, is making sure your grounds and conduits are bonded together. If you have a loose or corroded conduit connector...
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    Floating Voltage in Bay Boxes causing interference with Credit Card Acceptance...

    I'd say yes, if the conduit even has four volts.. Probably leakage voltage, but it shouldn't be there. Just curious, is the mystery voltage AC or DC?
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    Need momentary switch to pulse timer...

    Given the massive amounts of current passed, a doorbell button would probably handle the task. A non lighted one I would imagine. Or this: http://www.amazon.com/SPST-BUTTON-SWITCH-MOMENTARY-ON-NORMALLY/dp/B006M3GEOA
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    Counting Quarters, how?

    Real dumb question... at the wash I work at, we weigh our quarters to count them. Is this a normal practice? The reason I ask, is because I found a discrepancy in counting the coins from our vending machines. According to the scale, we should have 90 something quarters. It was a small enough...
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    Spot Free pump

    Ours is what looks like an upside down submersible pump body - a multistage booster pump. Gravity fed from a tank mounted overhead.
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    Revamping my foam brush system.

    Just as an informational note, if you know anyone in the soda fountain business, syrup pumps make excellent car wash chemical pumps.
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    Pricing

    I only work at my wash.. The only cost that I know for sure, is electricity. In the city we pay 7.25 cents per kWH, I believe the county pays 5 or 5.5 cents per kwh. I am only going to say it must be pretty cheap to operate here, as a brand new wash just opened up: two HUGE bays, one IBA -...
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    Pricing

    In Gillette, Wy, we're $1.50 for 3:36, or $0.50 / min on cards. Vacs at $0.50 / 4.25 minutes. Every other wash in town is at least $1.75 start and $0.75 vacs for 3 minutes. We're also the only wash in town with an outdoor bay, as long as the hose don't keep blowing apart, we get lots of...
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    Worse Possible Tar Mess in Bay Imaginable?

    Quote: "I got the plate, called the cops who called him. He was right over and spent the better part of the morning sweeping my lot! That was priceless!!" Now THAT would have made an interesting YouTube video!
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    Source for Vinegar

    Look around in your area for chemical suppliers. In my area, we can get 80% Acetic Acid, they use it for well treatment. Just dilute to your specifications.
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    More carwash stupidity... You've heard of bucket washers, how about this:

    The other day, I am at my car wash, fairly busy day. Making sure the equipment runs as advertised. I run down to the local fast food joint to get something kind of resembling food, when I return I find this truck, trailer, power washer combination in one of my bays. At first, I didn't...
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    Opinion's on free vac

    We converted FROM free vacs. We may have lost a customer or two, but I feel we didn't want them anyway. We had people just coming to use our free vacs, then drive through our bays to leave. There are two places in town that have free vacs, and quite frankly... they suck. ( or don't suck, as...
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    Burping a Raypak Boiler

    Check pump rotation direction? A backwards spinning pump will sometimes pump, but at a much lower rate.
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    Anybody have a ModCon boiler?

    What is the LOAD this boiler is heating water for? Someone already did the heat loss calculations, you're just replacing to the load that's already there ( the load in this case, is the radiators and/or baseboard heaters.) That being said, I have a tankless water heater, that can be used with...
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    What is this?

    Where is it? Time delay circuit maybe?
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