Winterizing Your Carwash

If you’re a carwash operator in the Northeast, you’re intimately aware of the challenges that the winter season brings to your wash. And if you’re not a carwash operator in the Northeast, you’re intimately aware of the challenges that winter brings to your vehicle. Caked on road-salt that eats away at your underbody, slush-turned-ice that adheres and cements to your brake pads on frigid days, and foggy windshields are just a few of the issues drivers need to be aware of --- and issues that drivers will seek to fix at your wash. 

Winter is the busiest time of year for northern operators, and properly winterizing wash components, from adjusting your overhead doors to tweaking your chemical mixes, is the only way to keep those long queues of customers moving smoothly through your facility. 

Keep your Equipment lines from Freezing

Staying on top of your equipment lines is critical if you want to avoid major maintenance during sub-zero temperatures this winter. Employing anti-freeze systems in pumps and chemical delivery systems is necessary to avoid pipe blockages and bursts, which can cause thousands of dollars in damages and lost profits due to down-time. 

Using automatic weep systems, is an easy and convenient way to keep lines from freezing during the winter as well. These systems provide a small, but constant, flow of water through your equipment that prevents freezing and eliminates pressure from building up in lines.  With sensors built in and automatic programming to cycle weeping on and off when required, weep systems are a necessary safeguard for protecting your facility’s plumbing. 

For a more comprehensive safety net for protecting your plumbing from freezing, Hydro-Spray’s own SubZero anti-freeze system uses a combination of air and anti-freeze mixture to purge fluid filled lines free of freezable liquids. The SubZero system eliminates city water and sewer costs associated with weep systems, which are at an all time high and continuing to rise in most areas, saving your wash money and cutting back on the use of fresh water annually. To learn more about how the SubZero system can help reduce operating costs at your wash, click HERE. 

Protect your equipment rooms and wash bays

While it seems like a no-brainer, investing in quality space heating for your equipment room is a must to keeping your equipment in top shape this winter. Not just a defense against the coldest days of the year, space heating solutions are a relatively small investment for your wash considering the cost of the equipment that it protects. 

When it comes to your wash bays and tunnels, servicing your automatic doors should always be the first step before the snow and ice sets in. Starting with inspections of door perimeters, panels, and operator, look for anything that seems out of order, like loose components, excessive vibration when the operator runs, or excessive chafing or rubbing on components. Adjusting door limits and activation systems is also critical to ensuring a smooth transition to winter. If you’re unsure if your doors are operating correctly or are ready for winter, it’s often beneficial to have a professional inspect all components before the first big snowfall. 

If you have self-serve wash bays, swap out foaming brushes for winter versions and check all hoses and fittings for wear. Your self-serve bays will see a lot of traffic during the winter, so ensuring that equipment is in top shape prior to freezing, icy conditions will reduce the need for service when its exponentially harder to do in the winter. 

Focus on the Customer

While winter conditions will naturally motivate more customers to your wash, it doesn’t mean that it’s time to stop focusing on improving your offerings. Having custom signage or instructions during the winter season that highlights different chemical applications or winter-specific detergents will establish return customers. Changing out your vending products or ala-carte offerings to winter specific wipes, chemicals, and other accessories is another way to provide excellent service to your customers. 

Upping your inspection rounds of all of your equipment, including overhead doors and nozzles, is another customer service requirement over the cold months and especially after large storms. Your wash is meant to be a remedy for bad winter conditions, and customers will expect lots to be plowed and salted, vacuums to be easily accessible, and equipment to be fully operational. 

Switching your summer formula chemistry over to winter formulas for your foamy brush, foam wax, and tri-foam is also a way to keep your equipment safe and operating properly for your customers. For self-serve bays, winterizing your foamy brushes by using winter formulas and adjusting your metering tips to ensure that foam polish will work properly in cold conditions is a must. Be sure to read the specifications for your chemicals and equipment in order to properly meter your chemistry. 

Where to Start?

Putting together your winter checklist is something that every operator should do and start to consider earlier rather than later. Winter conditions, especially in the Northeast, can change quickly and can catch you and your customers off guard fast. And until you’ve been through a winter (or two) as an operator, you might have more of a tendency to underestimate the volume of traffic your wash will receive and the amount of maintenance your wash will require during the coldest months of the year. 

If you need advice or components for winterizing your wash, the experts at Hydro-Spray have been acclimated to cold weather washing for years and years now, and can help guide you along so you’re ready for everything that winter has to offer. Get in touch today to learn more!