About Car Wash Businesses
Car wash businesses sell cleanliness for the exterior and/or interior of your motor vehicle. As a friendly way to improve the health of your vehicle, car washes help you preserve one of your biggest investments while also saving you another precious commodity: time.
The Facts
More environmentally friendly than your driveway or a commercial parking lot, car wash businesses clean the exterior and/or interior of a motor vehicle. A car wash facility preserves one of your biggest investments by removing grease and grime, tree sap, impaled insects, snow and sea salt, and, worst of all, the acidic compound called bird droppings. Plus, car wash facilities save you time, offer free vacuums with wash purchases, utilize loyalty programs and provide fundraising opportunities for the community.
A car wash business is in the business of conveniently and expertly cleaning cars.
Benefits
You see them on almost every street corner but aren't entirely sure why you should frequent them over your driveway wash. Some benefits to utilizing a professional car wash business include: protecting the finish and underbody of your vehicle; cleaning your car with specifically engineered safe and thorough cleaning products; enhancing your car's finish with wax, gloss and clear-coat polishes; being assured harmful chemicals do not make it into local aquatic ecosystems like they do with driveway and parking lot washing; and saving precious time.
Type
Car wash businesses come in three distinct groups: self service car washes, in-bay automatic car washes and tunnel car washes.
Self service washes are a do-it-yourself type of car wash where you drive your vehicle into the wash bay and manually wash your vehicle using the provided equipment. The bays feature multiple wands such as a bubble brush and high pressure gun and typically offer additional self-serve offerings like vacuums and vending.
In-bay automatic car washes are primarily found on a convenience store/gas station site or a self-service car wash site. Within this group there are three different automatic models: friction (uses cloth or cloth-like material as the main cleaning medium), touch-free (uses chemical and high-impact water to spray clean the vehicle without brushes) and hybrid (a combination of the friction and touch-free cleaning processes).
Tunnel car washes utilize a conveyor to pull the vehicle through a set of stationary wash components. Like in-bay washes, there are a few different types of tunnel car washes like express exterior, flex-serve, and full-service. Express exterior tunnels feature a conveyorized tunnel with the primary service being exterior vehicle washes only accompanied by free self-serve vacuums. Flex-serve washes combine the interior cleaning elements of a full-service wash with the speed and value of an exterior express wash. Full-service tunnel car washes, like the express exterior, feature a conveyorized tunnel wash but offer additional interior cleaning packages.
History of
In 1914, two Detroit men opened the first car wash business, Automated Laundry. At this time, vehicles had to be left all day and pushed manually through the brass wash components by hand. However, in the mid-1950s the first crude automatic conveyor car wash was opened in California which allowed for cars to be automatically taken through the wash.
As car owners grew more cautious of having their car's finished damaged by the brushes, car wash manufacturers responded by introducing the first in-bay touch-free automatic wash, the Robo Car Wash. Later in the 1980s, after cars began to decrease in size, car wash manufacturers again had to revolutionize the industry by introducing the 'Adjust-O-Matic' car wash which automatically adjusted to the length and width of any vehicle.
Throughout the years, car wash facilities have become a preferred method of vehicle washing, with over 98 percent of Americans utilizing commercial car washes. Car wash bays have steadily become a major profit center for convenience stores and with our technological capabilities in the twenty-first century, car wash operators can now access their business virtually anywhere in the world.
Misconceptions
The perception of mechanized car washes, particularly those with brushes, damaging the finish of a vehicle gave rise to the touch-free car wash industry despite the fact that the mechanized brushes and soft-cloth cause less harm to a vehicle's finish than sponges used at home.
Most people believe washing a car at home is better for protecting the car's finish. However, sponges used repetitively at home collect dirt and grime which will eventually scratch the car's surface and destroy the paint's ability to maintain gloss and protect against rust and corrosion. Professional car wash facilities use specially designed soft-cloth brushes and water pressure to clean cars without causing damage to the finish.
Oh, and commercial car wash sites are far more environmentally friendly than home car washes and parking lots car washes. They use less water, recycle more and don't pollute the local rivers, streams and lakes.
Expert Insight
Car wash businesses maintain the value of your car by reducing the wear and tear to both the exterior and interior if utilized on a consistent basis. Furthermore, these facilities not only save you time, but they use half the amount of water you'd use to wash your vehicle at home.
For investors, car washes offer a lucrative business investment since they have a potential high rate of return on investment, are a cash business, can be an around-the-clock profit center and have an ever-expanding market/customer base.
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