Sharing an idea: Hot Wax & Mirror Rinsing

[thoffmanjr]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8BHqin-5Nk

Hot Wax:

We added Simoniz Hot Wax this month to our exterior locations and have had an actual NS Bubblizer at our full service locations for a couple of months. Both are running at 13% of our total volume as a $5 ala carte item. Our application cost at the exteriors is $0.46 per car and at the full service locations it is $0.75 per car. We are also getting more un-solicited comments from our customer than I can ever remember. They are saying they feel the smooth coating on their car and it's shinier. It really is too. I prefer our single hole rain bar applicator for a couple of reasons compared to a bubblizer style application. It saves a little product. The coverage is even and generous which helps performance. It doesn't get blown around and miss the car. I've also noticed that most customers are on their cell phones in the tunnel or can't see the bubblizer foam water fall anyway. The light show is very important. We bought the LED light bar from Simoniz for $600. TSS sells a shorter version for $395. The only trouble we've had with the LED is in our tunnels that have skylights above the LED bar. Too much sunlight dilutes the LED light and it isn't as effective.

Mirror Rinsing:

With all this extra foam I've noticed other car washes are having trouble rinsing mirrors or not even trying. We've been doing pretty good mirror rinsing for years. Mounting it in a fixed position works almost as well by the way. We buy the parts from Mosmatic and the quantity and part numbers are:

Mosmatic:
2 - Swivel's - 33.163
2 - T-bar - 87.831
2 - Swivel - 36275 SS
2 - Adaptor - 52.121

Spraying Systems:
4 - #10 zero degree nozzles

The last spot free rinse bar are just #08 vee-jets at 40psi. This final step helps produce better mirrors and having one of our fans angled forward blowing the side of the window helps too.

 

[Earl Weiss]

I agree whole heartedly that when the customer is in the car a lot of the fancy arch stuff effect gets lost. A Tunnel sign / light bar next to the driver window is more effective. Just visited a place and tried his wash. I was under the bubblizer so fast i couldn't see much.

 

[GoBuckeyes]

Thanks for posting that video Tom. Its very helpful to be able to see exactly how it looks and works in the tunnel. I keep seeing all the hoopla about the Lava Arches and Bubbilizers in the magazines. The funny thing is if you search YouTube for videos of those arches, the results from a customer perspective are mostly disappointing. The foam is very inconsistant with coverage and seems to get blown all over the place if there is any breeze or air movement.

I don't have a tunnel, but I have been trying to figure out how to capitalize on this extra service in my automatic. I have an Oasis Typhoon that I had considered mounting a bubbilizer type unit to, however, after experiencing the unit first hand in a tunnel, I decided it wasn't worthy of the effort. After watching your video, I think the 'wow' factor with the rain arch/LED is impressive, less expensive and very do-able.

So here is my question for you or anyone else who cares to help. I recently just raised my prices a $1 across the board; we are now $9, $10, $11 & $13. Our average ticket is just over $11. That was the first time I've raised prices without adding anything to our packages. My $13 wash consists of Low pH Presoak, UC, High pH Presoak, Rocker Blast, Triple Foam, HP Wax, HP Rinse, Rain-X from showerheads, Medium pressure rinse, Spot Free & Dryer. My $11 wash is identical minus the Rain-X & Medium pressure rinse. If I were to try to offer this Hot Wax, what would I charge for it and how would I incorporate it into my wash package? Keep in mind, I'm using a Hamilton ACW5 Autocashier, so there is no 'ala carte' option, I only have 4 wash packages to offer.

 

[thoffmanjr]

We recently added the fourth package, which has the same steps as our third package but with extended time, and were happily surprised it received more than 10-15% usage and added $1+ to our avg gross. I'm suggesting $8 or $9, $11, $13, $18. You get the idea and $18 may sound high but we have learned that nearly automatically 10% of your customers want your best wash. Gary Baright's IMO has 25% of the people who buy his top $15 wash add the $5 Hot Wax. He has a Bubblizer on his Oasis. The other wash packages can add it too. He has to add NYS Sales Tax to it too. It's a $21.60 wash!! He gets compliments from it.

If you apply it generously your customers will love it and appreciate its value.

 

[robert roman]

“Our average is $11.” “If I offer Hot Wax, what would I charge... how would I incorporate it...?

Adding hot wax will increase cost of goods by $1.50. To avoid clouding things with discussion of obtaining a lower cost product, let’s assume you use non-branded that cost $1.00 per application. Initial COG is $1.00 a car.

Throughput = (100 cars * $11) – (100 * $1.00) = $1,000

Throughput is the rate the wash generates money through sales. Now, add hot wax assuming 20 percent penetration.

T = (100 * 11) – (100 * 1) – (20 * 1) = $980

1,000 – 980 = 20 / 100 = $0.20

$0.20 is amount average sales would need to increase not to lose money on hot wax, proof.

T = (100 * 11.20) – (100 * 1) – (20 * 1) = 1,000

So, to make money from hot wax would require average greater than $11.20. This calls for standard cost accounting. Start with current revenue model (price and sales mix). For example, assume;

Average sales = (9 * 0.1) + (10 * 0.4) + (11 * 0.2) + (13 * 0.3) = $11.00

“…using a Hamilton ACW5 Autocashier, ….no 'ala carte'…only have 4 wash packages to offer”

This puts you behind the 8-ball to begin with because cashier is a constraint that limits the rate at which the wash generates money through sales.

So, your problem is two-fold. You have a physical constraint - limited capabilities of current POS, and non-physical - demand may be affected by price.

If you want to make $2.00 a car in profit from hot wax, you would need to add $3.00 to the price of the wash you wanted to upgrade. For example,

Average = (9 * 0.1) + (10 * 0.4) + (11 * 0.2) + (16 * 0.3) = $11.90

T = (100 * 11.90) – (100 * 1) – (20 * 1) = $1,070 or $70 more a day

Here, the trick of the tail is - will 20 percent of your customers be willing to pay $16 for the top package?

Consequently, you may want to consider working towards breaking the constraint by elevating it so it is no longer a constraint. For example, upgrade the POS.

Hope this helps

 

[newtunnel]

Wow love your arch!!!! Paid $5g plus 2g for installation of my NS Hot Wax machine. How much did it cost to build yours? Thinking about building a triple foam arch using multi colored LEDs.

 

[Ric]

We recently added the fourth package, which has the same steps as our third package but with extended time, and were happily surprised it received more than 10-15% usage and added $1+ to our avg gross. I'm suggesting $8 or $9, $11, $13, $18. You get the idea and $18 may sound high but we have learned that nearly automatically 10% of your customers want your best wash. Gary Baright's IMO has 25% of the people who buy his top $15 wash add the $5 Hot Wax. He has a Bubblizer on his Oasis. The other wash packages can add it too. He has to add NYS Sales Tax to it too. It's a $21.60 wash!! He gets compliments from it.

If you apply it generously your customers will love it and appreciate its value.

Does the light bar operate from low voltage? Is Gary's bubblizer a drive thru service or did he mount it on the gantry?

 

[DavidM]

Tom, thanks for the suggestion. Rinsing mirrors has become a significant issue for us recently.

Ric, the foamer on Gary Baright's machine is mounted on the gantry. There is a video on Youtube posted by OasisCWS that shows it.

David

 

[briteauto]

Thanks for the post Tom - it looks great.

One question - do you notice a difference if the Simoniz Hot Wax is followed by friction or not? I noticed you have a mitter after the application, but no side wheels. It seems like the mitter would help drag the foam off for rinsing, but is the product as effective if it is just rinsed off? Like you said in the video, it really starts to break down on its own quickly.

Thanks.

Mike

 

[Bosborn52]

Is the Hot Wax heated?

Went to a few tunnels with it and it was not heated at all.

 

[thoffmanjr]

I don't think the friction will matter. I've always been told that wax is a polar molecule and is naturally attracted to the vehicles surface. We apply with 120 degree hot, soft water at every site. On colder, dryer days you can see the steam. Natural gas prices are low and hot water adds value and performance for our customers. It's marketed as "hot" wax so it should be applied hot in my opinion.

 

[Bosborn52]

Another question,

How do you like your Cobra CTA?

Does it eliminate the need for wheel brushes on line?

 

[thoffmanjr]

Cobra CTA? Here's what I like about it: It was designed and built by a car wash operator trying to make a great product. It is very well constructed. He has recently made improvements to it's design. We have had it installed since 12/26/2011 and haven't had a single problem except for maybe one of those nozzle check valves I think. For those of you that don't know it is a stainless steel heated vessel that heats your wheel cleaning solution to 140 degrees for a really hot application. We expected that heated alkaline would help clean wheels better without acid. To be honest we haven't worked too hard messing with wheels. We are getting really clean wheels without a wheel brush and we build our own following wheel blaster (Dr. Enning's (from Germany) original design). I saw in Germany a couple of years ago their three nozzle idea and incorporated that on ours and it really helped. I have felt that chemistry is 60-70% of the battle without friction and I would think that the heated alkaline must help but I can't be sure how much. I owe Tim Taylor at The Cobra System a call to discuss ways to improve performance as I'm sure he can share his best ideas too. It would look great in a full service car wash since it looks like a high tech beast cleaning wheels and the steam rises from the wheel after application. Heat, dwell, chemistry, and friction are the parts of the cleaning combination. Tim nails the heat part perfectly.

 

[Bosborn52]

Thanks for the reply!

 

[DavidM]

Tom,
I can't find the second Mosmatic swivel on your list. Mosmatic doesn't recognize the part number.

David

 

[thoffmanjr]

I just pulled the invoice from Mosmatic and it is part #33.163 with the description: Swivel with bulkhead fitting DGG 3/8"NPTF-G3/8"M. If you google "mosmatic 33.163" it pops up in several places too.

 

[DavidM]

Sorry Tom, I should have clarified. The part number I am having trouble with is 36275SS. I talked to Mosmatic and tried Google. I tried adding a decimal like most mosmatic part numbers but didn't have any success.

 

[thoffmanjr]

I called Mosmatic and Terra in sales helped me. The part number is actually "36275 SS". On their system the space between the numbers and the "SS" is important. I noticed the space on our invoice now too. I will correct the original post.

 

[DavidM]

Awesome, Thanks Tom! I really appreciate the information. I'll post a followup when we get it installed.

David

 

[sudsurfer]

Tom -

I just searched for your Mosmatic parts for the side mirror rinse. The numbers must have changed since you posted. I am trying to approximate from your description and video. Do you recall the ball park price fo the side mirror rinse? The spinning head at Kleenrite is about $400 by itself.

We have used a side mirror spray since we opened 3 years ago but it is low pressure and doesnt get enough soap residue out after the triple foam. Our look more like Sonny side mirror rinse. I like the idea of your more forcefull rinse system.