Understatement of the year: running a successful carwash business comes with a variety of challenges.
Aside from ensuring a top quality wash service to each visitor, car wash owners must also worry about maintaining their equipment regularly. Otherwise, daily operations may not continue to run as smoothly as you’d like – or worse, break down completely, costing you dearly in downtime.
Read on to learn more about the fundamentals of car wash maintenance to keep your equipment in top working condition all year long.
Importance of Regular Car Wash Maintenance
It goes without saying – but we’ll say it anyway – a modern car wash equipment relies on many sophisticated parts and electrical components working together. When a single piece of equipment malfunctions, car wash owners are often confronted with unexpected repair bills and costly downtime that can add up to considerable financial losses.
Maintenance should be prioritized and even built in consciously to your business plan, so that it doesn’t become an afterthought. Following a consistent auto wash maintenance routine is essential to ensure your car wash continues to work properly.
Preventive vs. Reactive Approaches
First, it’s important to understand the difference between preventive and reactive maintenance. With preventive maintenance, car wash owners employ experienced car wash technicians to monitor the condition of all equipment and components according to a predetermined schedule, making adjustments as needed or conducting repairs before minor issues become bigger problems.
It’s exactly the same as monitoring your health. You wouldn’t wait until you have a heart attack to start paying attention to your lifestyle. Or maybe you would – but we don’t recommend it!
With the reactive maintenance approach, a car wash will wait until a piece of equipment fails before taking action. Unfortunately, reactive maintenance can be quite disruptive to business operations and may eventually undermine the reputation of your car wash in customers’ eyes. The dreaded “D” word – downtime – can be very D-structive to profitability.
By following a strict preventative maintenance routine, you can identify concerns ahead of any significant malfunctions, making repairs less expensive and minimizing downtime.
Preventive Maintenance Checklist for Car Wash Maintenance
Constantly monitoring the condition of your car wash equipment each month is the single best way to avoid malfunctions or the breakdown of components. Although some aspects of preventative car wash maintenance may require the assistance of a professional with technical experience, many tasks are easy to perform independently. Follow this comprehensive car wash maintenance checklist to prevent unwelcome surprises later down the road.
1. Inspect and Clean Car Wash Brushes
Given time, automated car wash brushes begin to pick up various materials from vehicles like mud, oil, or sand that can then be transferred to other subsequent vehicles. To prevent this, it’s a good idea to pressure wash your car wash brushes at regular intervals, especially if debris or grit is readily visible. Meanwhile, you’ll want to check that the car wash brushes are not damaged and operate at the correct speed.
2. Check and Maintain Water Pumps and Hoses
Maintaining proper water pressure in all your pumps and hoses is essential to providing every customer with an excellent car wash experience. Take the time to carefully inspect all hoses and water pumps for apparent signs of damage or fluctuations in water pressure that could lead to equipment failure in the future. In addition, it’s recommended to keep spare hoses, gaskets and other parts on hand to repair components when problems arise quickly.
3. Lubricate Moving Parts and Bearings
Automated car wash equipment is constantly moving, and with all this friction, various components can quickly wear down without adequate lubrication. If you’re uncertain how to lubricate bearings and different rotating parts, refer to manufacturer manuals or consider contracting with a car wash maintenance company for regular service. Adding lubrication to your high-performance equipment will extend the lifespan of your car wash components and ultimately minimize the chances of needing to repair or replace various parts.
4. Monitor and Adjust Chemical Dispensing Systems
Another important aspect of preventative auto maintenance is checking that your chemical dispensing systems are all functioning correctly. Regularly check or refill chemical levels in your dispensing units and stock enough product in case dispensers run low during the work day.
5. Test and Calibrate Car Wash Sensors and Detectors
Today’s more modern automated car washing businesses rely on a string of detectors and sensors in the wash tunnel or bay to determine the vehicle’s location. When these sensors malfunction or stop working, the entire system can fall out of sync. Set some time aside every week or test the efficacy of each sensor and consider having them calibrated at the first sign of trouble.
6. Determine the Frequency of Maintenance Activities
What doesn’t get scheduled, doesn’t get done. All maintenance tasks should follow a regular schedule depending on how much work a component performs and how quickly various parts may wear down. In this way, some equipment may require maintenance once a month, while others may only require a quarterly or semi-annual inspection. If you’re unsure how often your equipment should be maintained, consult manufacturer specs or a trusted car wash service technician for insights and advice.
7. Assign Responsibility for Each Task
What doesn’t get assigned, also doesn’t necessarily get done. Delegate to your employees to manage specific maintenance and inspection tasks for each item on your car wash equipment list. For instance, one worker may be responsible for checking the condition of the air dryer every week while another focuses on keeping the brushes clean. With this approach, you’ll be far less likely to encounter an unexpected equipment breakdown due to overlooking one or more maintenance duties.
At NCS, we offer car wash tunnel maintenance classes in person and online. Employees benefit from gaining mastery and advancing their careers, while owners gain from having more expertise in the business, to perform maintenance correctly. It’s a win-win. Learn more about NCS College of Clean car wash maintenance courses here.
8. Establish Smart Timelines and Deadlines
Consider scheduling various maintenance tasks outside your car wash’s peak operating hours to keep operational disruptions to a minimum. Encourage your employees to follow consistent timelines when fulfilling their inspection and maintenance responsibilities as well. To ensure all maintenance is done on time, be sure to establish concrete deadlines for when certain duties should be completed.
9. Set Reminders and Notifications
With so many things to manage at a car wash daily, it’s easy to get sidetracked and forget important maintenance details. To avoid this problem, consider setting reminders and notifications for yourself when critical maintenance deadlines are approaching. These notifications can be easily set up on a mobile device or business PC.
10. Document and Track Maintenance Activities
Keep all records about car wash service calls, inspections or repairs. These records will not only help you to identify where the lion’s share of your maintenance budget is going but will assist car wash technicians in understanding the equipment you’re using, its expected lifespan and when preventative maintenance should be performed.
Top Maintenance Solutions for Your Business
At National Carwash Solutions, our goal is to provide comprehensive support for all aspects of running an auto wash business, from maintaining equipment, procuring chemicals, repairing tunnel wash systems, installing components and much more.
To meet this objective, our company partners with some of the most trusted brands in the car wash industry so you can feel confident in the performance of your equipment. When you’re ready to learn more about how NCS Wash can help you maintain your car wash, contact us today to speak with a friendly customer service team member.
