Car Wash Equipment can vary based on the market and the number of cars one wishes to wash. Since KKE deals in commercial car wash equipment, we would discuss more the Car Wash Equipment required for running a successful car wash business.

Business Based Car Wash Equipment Selection

Car Wash Equipment Selection Criteria :

1. Business Type (Car Wash Equipment)
2. Number of Cars to be washed with the Car Wash Equipment
3. Space available for Car Wash Equipment

Selection based on Business Type

Business with Car Wash Equipment depends upon the type of car wash business you plan to run. You can provide an express car wash service using Automatic Car Wash Equipment or you can provide detailed car cleaning services using detailing Steam equipment.

For exterior car cleaning, we recommend KKE Automatic Car Wash Equipment or KKE Power high-pressure cleaner washer. For detailing purposes, we recommend KKE Steam Cleaner.

Selection based on the number of cars to be washed

Car Wash equipment must be selected while keeping in mind the number of cars which would come for washing after 6 months of opening. The speed of the car wash equipment is critical as it determines the car wash profits you would have. Generally, jumping from a smaller car wash equipment to the next high end car wash equipment is not much if the right car wash equipment is selected during the planning stage. For example, the high end car wash equipment may just cost 20% higher than its immediate predecessor. However, this is only during the planning stage. Once you buy the smaller equipment and realise later that you should have gone for the high-end car wash equipment, you would need to spend 120% later.

• KKE Speedoclean  ( 5 -6 cars/hour )
• KKE X1.1 ( 8 - 9 cars per hour )
• KKE X2 ( 10 -12 cars per hour )
• KKE Gamma - Tunnel Car Wash Equipment ( 20 - 120 car per hour )
• KKE Wave - Touchless Car Wash Equipment ( 20 - 120 car per hour )

Selection based on Space available

The land is the most expensive resource in busy places. At times the busiest places would have very little available land for the car wash equipment. In such times, you may need to go for car wash equipment with less space requirement.

• MagicSwing 180 ( Very small footprint car wash equipment)
• KKE X2, KKE X1.1,  KKE Speedoclean and KKE Wave need 10 x 5 m
• KKE Gamma is conveyor car wash equipment and require at least 13m x 6 m and requires separate entry and exit.

Technology Based Car Wash Equipment Selection South Africa

The Automatic Car wash Systems range depends upon two factors when being compared from Technology point of view :

1. Washing Technology
2. Type of Equipment Construction

Bifurcations based on Washing Technology :

1. Brush or Friction Car Wash Equipment : Brush Wash Car Wash equipment use brushes to clean the dirt from the car. The brushes are generally of three types Poly Ethylene, Soft-foam or Cloth. The first two are more preferred as they do not absorb water which means that dirty water does not enter the cleaning material and it gets washed off before the bristles touch car after each rotation. These days however, Foam bristles are more wide spread and people prefer the same as they are very soft on the car.
2. Touchless Car Wash Equipment : High Pressure Car Wash Equipment are often called Touchless Car Wash Equipment or Touch Free Car Wash Equipment. Such systems are mostly used for areas where the weather is dusty. For places where the dirt is sticky, high pressure car wash consumes more water than brush systems. For South African conditions, Touch-less car wash systems might be suitable only for some areas.
3. Combination Car Wash Equipment : This is the new trend in the vehicle wash industry to have both high pressure and brush car wash cleaning equipment to combine the advantages of both type of car wash equipment. The Customers are given an option to select from varous Car Wash Programs. A customer may select a Touchless or  Friction or a Combination wash program  based on her / his preference.

Bifurcation based on the type of construction of the Equipment :

1. Trolley Equipment : In trolley type car wash equipment which is also called as Inbay car wash equipment , the car is driven inside the bay and the equipment trolley then travels over the car carrying out various car wash cycles like prewash, soap spray etc. This car wash equipment technology is suitable for washing cars upto maximum 10 -14 cars per hour depending upon the cycles configured in the car wash equipment.


2. Conveyor Systems : Conveyorised or Tunnel car wash equipment are as the name suggests, conveyorised systems where the car is driven only till the entrance of the car wash equipment, the equipment conveyor then pulls the cars in. As the car travels through the car wash equipment the equipment performs various functions. Conveyorised system can wash vehicles upto 120 cars per hour.

Car Wash Function Options popular in South Africa

General features of a car wash equipment are :

• Presoak Spray
• Alkaline Spray
• Soap Spray system
• Snow Foam Soap Spray System
• Wheel Wash System
• Wheel Blasters
• Rocker Panel Blasters
• Suspended Vertical Brushes
• Suspended Vertical Brushes with tilting cylinder
• Wax System
• Triple Foam Wax System
• Tire Brushes
• Under Chassis Wash System Entry Point
• Under Chassis Wash System In bay Swiveling
• Spot Free Rinse
• Drying Aid Spray
• Contour Following Blowers
• Exit side blowers
• LED Displays

We at KKE Wash Systems are always looking for helping our customers out. Financial aspects in a business are one of the most important aspects in the running of your Car Wash Business. You might be doing great, your customers are happy but even after this your finances are working out, there is a problem.

You'll find a Car Wash Business Profitability calculator and we just churned some numbers for you to get an idea. The prices , cost changes from place to place and we recommend you to do your calculations yourself.  Here we have considered a Rental land instead or bought out land as it would be unfair to load the price of the land, while not taking its asset value in the calculation.

We used the figures below which we know by experience of a lot of customers sharing their details. If you see we have considered about 40 cars per day for 300 days a year. Car washes geenerally are open for all 7 days. Your receivables exceed your expenditure in the second year. Which means that you break even in second year.

Commercial Vehicle Wash Facility for X1.1 Automatic Car Wash Machine

Considering Time Value of Money

Receipts exceed Expenditure approximately in 2 years

Pay Back Period : 2  years (approx.)

Net Present Value : Rs. 16,568,082

Profitability Index : 6.0979

Net Benefit Cost Ratio : 5.0979