There is a lot, lot more, to running a car wash than I gave business owners credit for. The operating costs, wow! Thx for the reveal, very interesting insight.
Yeah, cost may be high. It’s great for owner operators. But I’ve built a many that net 500k 1st year. 1 mil second. You have to spend money to make money in the wash world. Soap is important. Very very important
Yes indeed. Considering the one near me is only $4.75 to start the self service rinse bay and that gives you 7 minutes. Most people are in and out within those 7 minutes or less
As a current owner of a business that sells, installs and services carwashes and someone who has worked as a carwash technician for over 30 years in several different parts of the country, I can tell you your observations are pretty accurate. There are a lot of hidden costs and unappreciated tasks that go with owning a carwash. The larger the operation the greater those become. Imagine a full service tunnel with 20 employees, 10 different machines in the equipment room, a bunch of moving parts in the tunnel and 15 different chemical products in use. Some of my customers have electric bills of over 6 grand a month and water bills to match, don't even ask about labor costs. To service this equipment I have to be proficient at mechanics, electrical, plumbing, hydraulics, pneumatics, low voltage control systems, electronics, networking, computers and have a good understanding of how and why the chemicals work together and why they do what they do.
One of the things about the videos of the guys collecting there money is that they just did the most stupid thing they could possibly have done and that is show the criminally inclined a very real target.
@@corysturgis6660 I stated by getting a job at a local tunnel wash. show eagerness most of these places do self repair. You can work your way in, millwrights also know as industry mechanics play a good role in the industry from what I’ve seen as wel
I can just about go point for point with you as a laundromat owner. There is an entire world behind the scenes people have no idea about. With zero problems it costs $5000/Mo for our mat to be open. With 41 machines, change machines, pay apps, and security systems, there is NEVER a zero problem month. The general public can and will destroy everything.
If you owned an anvil playground, you'd show up some day and see some Karen's kids beating the horns off them all with day old bananas. The capacity of the human mind for misuse, willful and wanton abuse is unparalleled in the remainder of animal kingdom. It makes weather abashed.
@crunthat I see you don't own a laundromat as you would not thing this is one bit funny. The app not working has the same effect as the power being off.
Owned and ran 2 car washes for 15 years. Was tired of all the issues in this video. Very accurate content. Sold them and realized there are 1,000,000 better ways to make money!!
No shit, if you dumped all that money into an ETF you'd probably have double the returns in the same amount of time. And that would literally be **passive**
Good point. "Ego satisfaction" is the driving force behind much of the "be your own boss/own your own business" mantra! I have done both and find if you just want to earn a living and have many OTHER outside interests it's easier to just work at a company, go home at 5pm and enjoy the rest of your day/life! To me, having my own business meant it was ALWAYS living in my head. If you don't want to let your livelihood define who you are I would say don't do it, just work for a company. It's much easier and MUCH less stress!
Thanks for all the comments guys. Am I unhappy? Absolutely not! This video wasn’t intended to complain but rather share the truth. This was what I was able to afford in my late 20’s and plan to use this as a stepping stone to grow / improve /expanded. Some of the “whining” and “griping” is more for comedic relief rather than actual complaints.
Thanks for the video, it was refreshing "real talk" with no judgement. Though if I recall correctly you missed the two biggest expenses, rent/mortgage and taxes, both of which can be absolute killers.
As a fellow car wash owner; this is most accurate video I’ve seen by far. A couple different setups from mine, but very similar in many ways. Thanks for sharing the truth.
Kudos on providing us with an insight into what it takes to run a car-wash operation, including the logistics, costs, and life investment required. Wow! Thank you very much. Appreciate you unravelling this operation...
A man stud out side a bank handing out $5 bills to anyone walking by. He started getting a big crowd of people. The police arrived and asked him, ''what are you doing", he replied, I was thinking of opening up a carwash, but this is faster. 🤣God bless the business owner.
I have no interest in car washes as a biz but absolutely have an interest in the mentality of folks that make shit happen rather than sit on the sideline. This is the type of person we need to speak at schools or summer camp or whatever…a mason or electrician people that are doing well with a skilled trade or being an entrepreneur. Good work dude.
They don't want average people running their own business. They want your kids in debt with a useless degree working for a big corporation so the elites can own and control everything.
Should get a good self serve or tunnel wash owners input. This guy is trash. Been in the industry 8+ years as a service tech with my own company. He's the worst type of customer to have.
We need less masons. They discriminate against the wider population by thinking they can get ahead by being in a special club or expecting extra treatment after giving a funny handshake. I give them extra treatment. That handshake or phrase will put the price up.
Been in the industry for some time and it is accurate you really have to be a jack of all trades! Equipment always breaking down, especially for customers that don’t do preventative maintenance, one of the many keys to a successful wash, happy washing!
Love it. My dad taught me very young in life, there is no such thing as easy money. I don't mind working hard every day and I don't feel entitled to free money. No matter how complicated it is, I think the car wash business is cool. It's a service that's valuable and important, and it can't be offshored.
@@ewicky cryptocurrency and the stock market in my opinion is legalized gambling. Unless you're joking I know a lot of people that lost a boat load of money in the market for the exception of one man. One trick pony that's what he was good at. Nothing else. Needs help putting batteries in a flashlight type of person.
@@Mr.Robert1 I agree that short term traders are just skimming value and causing market volatility, however, their losses can be your gains if you’re a value investor. :) I’m interested to see what becomes of the crypto market and how it could transform the way we do things in the future. Think of someone from the 1940’s seeing the technology we have now. I hope I live long enough to have a similar experience.
Working my way up to manager of a exterior car wash was my first career, 4 years when I was 16-20. During the winter line out to street days, I could get 135 cars/hour through that wash with a 4 man team. In the summer, you worked on your car in the parking lot or read books most of the day. So many stories, and all of this looks so familiar. Video enjoyed.
Outstanding ! As usual, there's much more to running a successful business than the initial purchase. You've brought reality to those thinking instant money-maker. I get the feeling you'll, make it work one way or another. Now what's your next venture ? Godspeed Jake !
I used to work for a guy that owned a car wash when I was in college. My entire job was either cleaning the bays for the exact reason you mentioned or troubleshooting the constant problems that occurred every damn day.
Thank you for going through the details of carwash business responsibilities and educating us. It sure needs a good amount of patience. Wishing you,family and loved ones a prosperous life. Liked and Subscribed.
Worked in the business for many years in many capacities on washes from dirt to squirt phases and from maintenance to executive level as well as all types (IBA, tunnel, ss etc...) and must say that I completely agree that there is way more that goes into it that they will tell you. You must absolutely be either unafraid to learn or be proficient in most all trades and business accumen including electric, plumbing, HVAC, chemistry, water quality analyst, security, maintenance, grounds, marketing, landscaping, I.T., customer service, janitorial, hurt feelings counselor, carpentry, HR, legal defense, acconting etc.... When you look at a run down wash that is typically an owner that was sold a bill of goods about how easy it is and how it is mailbox money...let me assure you it is not. As far as the muddy bays that's a cost of doing business I mean it's a car wash what can you really say....only wash a clean car? Having shoveled and hosed down many sandbars in my day trust me I get the frustrations. Membership is a great way to help your ebbs and flows of seasonal change for income. Interesting system for anti freeze why wouldn't you just weep your bays especially with a well? I left the business because literally every owner I ever worked for was a complete self absorbed bat shit crazy lunatic, but I do miss it and long to have a wash of my own though the costs are such that the big outfits have all but taken over in many markets. Anyhow sorry for the rant I guess it's my way of saying "I agree" great video and best of success.
You basically described the required skills for every successful entrepreneur. Although, “hurt feelings counselor” made me laugh out loud. Thanks for the laugh! 😂
Thanks for sharing Jake. There are a lot of people out in the interzone being sold on "passive income" without knowing there is still some heavy work involved. It would be nice for everyone to see this video before taking the plunge.
Honestly at this point it's just like running any other business. Even online businesses can be full of smoking mirrors of uncertainties, WEIRD ASH failures that you didn't expect/could prepare for, etc.
Thanks. Far too many folks think its easy. One of my good friends just sent me a video about 3 days ago just like the ones you described. I dont own a carwash but I explained a small portion of operating costs. You put it out in the light with all the small details to the large details. 100% Great Job. Keep Hustling
Love your presentation style - informative, easy to understand, frank and honest. I notice you have only posted two videos I think you should consider posting more videos like this about managing a business etc.
I recently purchased a car wash and it wasn't in that good of condition when I purchased it the automatic Bay did not work and the property itself had not been well maintained. I considered keeping it as a car wash but the cost of a new automatic Bay was little above $400,000. So I tore the car wash down and put self storage on the property.
@@jacobpie3692 how was I bragging I simply stated I bought land with a car wash on it, it was too expensive to do a $400,000 repair to the auto wash bay so I tore it down and put something else on the land that wasn't bragging I just made a statement.
@@RichRotorhead I still don't understand your sarcasm, I had not intended to run the car wash when I purchased the land, because the cost was more than the income the car wash would make, smart business decision not because I couldn't afford to operate the car wash.
Was a manager at an express carwash for over 4 years, running the place day to day was a colossal amount of work and required a team of people. From the plumbing, car wash equipment breaking, relays and electrical failures, moving and getting covered in chemical, dealing with freezing lines and ice in the winter, and worst of all negligent customers that damaged equipment and caused collisions (not to mention the ones that would become enraged over any and everything) . Owning and operating a car wash is no easy task, props to you sir!
I'm a controls engineer, familiar with all that electrical equipment. It looks like a fairly simple design. I notice you are operating a 25hp motor without a variable frequency drive. Maybe a vfd would reduce the number of motor rebuild events because startups and shut downs would be smoother. There are just too many relays on that panel. I also noticed you are on the hook for chemicals that maybe you can dispense with. I really appreciate the spot free rinse and don't mind paying the $12 to get it (what I pay here in southern Minnesota). Anyway I like your video talking about the business, really cool.
Used to work in the industry. Yea they are available, but they cost alot of money. There are many mechanical designs. Recently they have been mostly electric motors directly onto the brushes. Extended towards the vehicle by air pressure. Although alot of them still use a main hydraulic motor with valves to control spin on the equipment. This can get quite messy. Now, the actual controllers are pretty much archaic. Only a few support direct vfd control, and they are limited by the number of vfds they can control. Most of the time vfds are connected to a normally open contact on the controller which basically tells the vfd to ramp up, basically binary on off. I don't know if I can technically disclose more than that but there are better ways of controlling those motors during steady days where they ramp up and down many times a day.
I know what you mean about the dirt left from some patrons,...That being said, I've been an offroad motorcycle rider and racer for over 45 years and have used these car wash business all over the SE US. But because of probably the way I was raised or military background I've always had the decency to clean up the bay afterwards....because I also use these for my on road only nice cars and it socks when the only bay available is full of mud. Nice video and something to think about....every business has it's downside.
I've often thought about what it must cost JUST in water and power bills to run a car wash, let alone supplies and maintenance! Your video helped put it all into perspective. Well done
My uncle owned a self service car wash in Western Pennsylvania years ago. It payed for all of his kids college. He was a head mechanic at US airways so he could do all the repairs. Then he sold it for a great amount. This fellow would not be in it, if he wasn't making a profit.
In the video he talks about his profit margins and how he is making money in other businesses. Yes its turns a profit. He's trying to explain that there are expenses that people do not consider. He is just trying to open people's eyes nothing wrong with it.
@@dok2304 Why would he lie about the fact that every business has expenses to run and his case he actually goes from item to item it explains it that was actually very nice of him
@@dok2304 my uncle would have dumped it, if it wasn't making money. That being said, he never hired any repair guys because he could do it all himself.
One of the best youtube contents I watched in a long time. Thnaks a lot for sharing and being so upfront and not sugarcoating it. You were very transparent on your description.
Owning any business is difficult. I live in Latin America, and I love the how resourceful the people are here running small businesses. You'll see teenagers with full food service carts they created and operate.
That is so true. I spent several months in Medellin, Colombia over the last year and was astonished by the small business operations I saw. Many people are desperately selling whatever they can to stay alive and the rest of the population supports them with patronage rather than just buying things at bigger stores. It's part of the fabric of their society. It's sad to see people struggling so hard but it was heartwarming to see the respect that Colombianos show for small vendors.
@@billbmsn That's actually where I live right now, and have lived before (amongst many other places). I actually change my consumer habits while living here. I buy fruit from the guy at the bus stop, a coffee from a guy selling it from a pot backpack he designed, get a viva 100 from the dude in the street selling them. I completely agree with you. They are so resourceful here. I live their spirit, ingenuity, mentality, etc. Pues me encanta vivir aquí en Medellín parcero.
I’m very sorry for your problems man. I truly can’t believe that you put up with that bullshit.!!! Your the best business man that takes care of yourself with stressful times.💯💪🏻💪🏻🙏🏻
I REALLY appreciate the truth! Never once came off as complaining! There is a car wash owner doing videos on here for nothing but “clicks and views” and he tries to make it look like it’s all pure profit. Your video taught me more than all his videos combined.
Hi! I run an automatic car wash. Please save yourself the headache and order a Hydraflex board. They are super helpful and should cut your soap costs. Currently we run through about 800 lbs. of salt per week, and have a soap cost of 6000 per month. We do around 600 cars on the weekday and 800-1100 during the weekend.
I work at a car wash facility that is the one that pulls you through and I gotta say while I make good money and have met some awesome people along the way, it can be a living hell when I have to fix crap that people don't give a crap about and break. I also hate to say it, but it is actually a majority of people who don't care. You can't do anything about it though and just gotta keep fixing things and pushing on. Awesome video that describes car washes in general!
There are many ways to make your wash more efficient and to extend the life of the equipment. I work for a national car wash equipment manufacturer in their service and install department. They own Ryko, MacNeil, TSS, Carolina Pride Vacutech and Baywatch. I build and service self serve, in bay automatics and tunnels. And I see that you have quite a bit of outdated equipment. That means, unless using the correct formulation for your soap, you're actually accelerating the aging of your pumps, poly, metallic plumbing, metallic nozzles solenoids, diaphragms and wands. Your automatic controller is very old and had been made obsolete for a decade at least. Newer controllers use far less energy, more precise soap dispensing, better foaming(so less soap use) and less water use. If your soap isn't as close to neutral pH as possible, you're actually ruining that equipment. I also cannot imagine why you'd be changing the media in your sand filters so frequently as it should last you 2 or 3 years at least. And instead odd using a chemical anti freeze agent, you could install a weepmizer to eliminate freezing your self serve water lines. So no more chemical purchase and users only water flow to stop freezing. I live near Denver and winters are very cold so we use weep valves to stop freezing. It cost the average 4 Bay self serve about $100 for 4 months of weeping. Water harness is the largest impact to cost of operation. You mentioned you had welll water. That has the highest hardness reading of any water you could use. Hard water means FAR less soap foaming so people don't think there's actually soap and they crank up the soap use with larger injectors and flow rates and then need to crank up the air and water pressure to get bubbly water. I didn't see your whole filtration system but I suspect it could be vastly improved. Our customers average 35 cents in chemicals per car washed when the system is set up properly.
I got to know the owner of a nee car wash he built locally. The permits and fees and environmental equipment and building code requirements were crippling. And the stories of vandalism, theft and stupidity of people were horrendous. In hunting season, he would occassionally get hunters who clean deer guts and body parts out of the back of their pickups. Stay in school kids.
God forbid anyone use a car wash to clean a dirty car. If they aren’t spotless rich people already, you don’t want to see them. The entitlement is amazing
It would pay for the owner of this wash to hire somebody with brains to manage his wash and to keep this place running properly. Turn people away that are doing what you say.
Hey I'm a car wash Manger and i would definitely reconsider your soap vendor, a 30 gallon barrel can last us about 3 weeks and are bays use 10 gallon jugs and those last about 3 weeks
Yeah, because like most crappy car washes it takes like 2 minutes for the soap to start coming out of the damn sprayer and brush And most of the time, hardly any soap comes out. Total rip off
I've been a car wash technician for 6 years. Literally anything in the equipment room or tunnel, I've seen and worked on. Electrical, plumbing, mechanical, you name it. I feel your pain!!
I own a full service car wash and everything you said is spot on. You should try having employees, well there goes 40 to 50 percent of the intake. Then deal with them doing a poor job, or not show up for work. Some days are nightmares.
@@jacobpie3692 40 to 50 % of the intake goes back to the employees. Cough, Cough. I'm struggling now cough, cough. Need a new roof 30 thousand cough, cough. Need to upgrade equipment 200 thousand cough cough. The bank wants their money back cough, cough.
I know you posted a video a while back. Thank you for showing the insides of the cost of running a business. Also thank you for staying on top of cleaning and maintaining your car wash.
I managed a car wash for a friend for a year. There is actually an ordinance here in Florida. No dumping. That includes washing your mud off and leaving 6 inch thick pad of it all the way around a car wash area. I called the police they took my video they got the guys plate number they drove to his house! They told him $250 littering fine. The guy was back with a police escort and a flat bladed shovel so he didn’t have to pay the fine. I stood back and watched it!
Thanks for actual honesty! I’m so tired of people thinking you get rich. It’s a slow grind and your actually doing pretty good. I’m not near break even but would be nice hopefully soon. Then you have to not take a paycheck for your hard work. Lol
Where I live our car wash has a water recycling system in it where the dirty water goes into a plumbing system and basically gets recycled. Clean water is also added back in. The reason why our car wash has that system is because we have very tight rules on waste water.
I'd assume this might be common in places where water is really scarce too. I have relatives in one of those places where it costs a lot to get water because it's all piped in from the far side of some mountains
Wow! you’re very generous waking up in the middle of the night to get the nickel out of the vacuum cleaner. Here in Miami. They don’t care. We need owners like you. 👍
Thanks for being in your community actually taking care of a car wash. Probably won’t hear about it but it’s nice. Those diy car washes are really fun as a car guy for taking care of your car.
This is very informative as I always wanted to get into the biz. This is a lot of work and overhead. I'm no slacker but wow profit on average $1000 a month? You would still need a job and this $1000 a month is small residual income. Definitely a fallacy of the cash cow. Thank you so much for being so real about it.
If he optimized the business, he'd have greater margins that what's described! But it's not a business for everyone. Some locations (like further down south), are more profitable than others!
As someone who cleans self serve car washes there really is a lot to do with them every day. Sweeping the lot, getting the garbage cans that are full multiple times a day, spraying down the bays, cleaning out the vacuums and a whole list of other little things and that's if nothing breaks, which happens very often. There is also climbing into the attic if you have problems up there. I love my job and we have a couple maintenance guys that I text if anything major breaks.
My dad is a "small to medium enterprise owner" as well and while working with him you start to appreciate a good customer. that is why i always try to be a good customer. Do enough research before going to any store which is why i appreciate online stores. There is a limit though when it comes to things you simply can assess online like mattresses, clothes, pillows.
So…. You should charge more for someone that needs to use the service as opposed to someone that just want their vehicle to sparkle… makes a lot of sense
@@Foxhole11 absolutely charge more. It’s not an ATV/UTV wash and therefore customers using it for that should pay more. The only reason they go to the car wash is because they don’t want that mess in their own driveways.
Should a truck have to pay more than a car? Should a motorcycle pay less? Of course they don’t want the mess in their driveways. That is the point of a self serve car wash…
I'm not to sure how good one would be at keeping the floors from freezing, unless you had enormous system. It's one thing to heat a floor inside, trying to heat a floor outside that's always wet is a whole different thing. Also, I think most if not all geothermal systems, use a liquid through pipes to heat floors. So he would have to rip up all the floors and redo them.
This is funny…so you are going to ban 4 wheelers? How are you going to do that? Are you going to put up a sign? Get in a fight every time it happens? Call the police? (They won’t handle a call like this) Stay there 24hrs a day to make sure? …you don’t truly have a handle on what you are suggesting.
I know a guy who purchased a used car wash at the beginning of this past winter. He must of had at least 6 service calls(hiring company that specializes maintaining car washes) for misc issue's. Not including-Pipes busted twice. One time flooding the bathroom of the attached building. Ended up deciding to replace damn near everything(pumps, motors, hoses, wands, foam brush system, chemical measuring system). I think the only things he didn't replace was the user control boxes and the heat system.
I Know A Guy” 😂 well I know a guy he could’ve gotten all that equipment for less than half the price, according to the guy I know it all fell off a truck. 👍🏻
My friend owned 2 of the 6 bay units. He put in cameras, caught a competitor stealing the nozzles off the hoses! He took the tape over to the guy and showed it. Guy had to return the nozzles AND pay for lost business. He also caught a guy ready to wash an extra muddy dump truck, backhoe, and trailer. It would have cost him $2000 to clean sewers after that. We are talking early 2000's money.
@@ewicky The mud would come off in chunks, and guys forced the chunks thru the drain by stomping on them. My friend learned the hard way and was very tough about not allowing it to happen again. Also, the amount of water and soap used is not much compared to the volume of mud.
As a 40 year landlord the same thing holds for apartment houses. I would change out the bearings in that 25hp motor myself and save a ton. For a car guy it is very straight forward job just don't wait for them to spin. (water/wastewater operator before landlording) with 3 phase you shouldn't be cooking the windings. Great video!! People just don't get how complicated the electromechanical world is.
It sounds like basic overhead ... we all have overhead unfortunately in businesses but yours sounds pretty normal with the exception of some of the chemicals I guess. I would imagine it's still worthwhile and depending on the location should be a pretty sound businesses right ? I know the self car wash places around me are always packed! Best of luck with your business!!
@@jacobpie3692 i wouldnt call 2k a month profit or less making bank...i make that with my $16/hr job..and i have a lot less to manage then this car wash does
@@TechMaster2133 True, why would you want all the stress? Oh, so you can brag that you own a business, pfff, I rather go work for someone, get paid, go home and not worry about anything. Leas stress, you live longer.
5 years managing a wash near Boston. This was no franchise operation and had been in business for 35+ years. (The owner retired and sold the business). Yes, plumbing and electrical... and hydrolics and welding and fabrication and framing. #1 requirement is PATIENCE. Every service industry has to deal with customers. Car wash customers are... special.
You’ve got “special” customers in every industry. They come in lots of variations and you don’t see it until you’ve either worked in a service job or have become a business owner. People, they/we are the best and the worst!
The only car wash I'd ever own would be a quarter activated manual setup. One setting for soap, and one for rinse. Have one area just for muddy vehicles.
I can relate! lol Only difference is I had natural gas floor heat and rebuilt my own pumps and motors. I will admit I got pretty good at sourcing all kinds of crazy stuff for parts so I could channel my inner MacGyver to fix stuff. Example: I used a tore rubber hot tub liner I got from the pool store for free, two C-clamps and a hose clamp to fix a leaky hot wax tank because the stainless steel tank rusted out in so many places. Lasted for 2 years! You forgot my favorite, people trying to fish money out of the Hamilton (Change machine) using notebook paper $20 written on it, or the cost of having it reprogrammed every time a new type of bill came out or quarter. I kept a locked metal cover over the trash cans so they could not put full bags in the trash cans, about the height of 20 ounce bottle of soda. But never stopped them from throwing them over fence all over the dumpster. Good Video and truest I have seen dealing with a car wash in awhile.
@@jakesgarage905 There is no "working on that now" Literally download the chrome remote desktop app on both your devices and watch the monitor screen from your phone wirelessly anywhere. This is not rocket science, although that plumbing might be.
Outside looking in is a lot different than being in. I always thought a car wash establishment would be a self working money machine. Thanks for the eye opener.
AND that oil tank is now about 1500$ to fill, your soap and washer fluid are probably each 500$ now as well. It's not that much different from renting apartments, people think there ought to be rent control and that landlords are rich. But, after expenses and repairs, and depending upon the eviction laws in your particular state, you can lose 3/6/10K to a dead beat tenant before you can get them out, and the court may only force them to pay 10$ a month. If they stop paying, you have to serve them and go back to court. We lost allot of money due to the Covid "eviction moratorium" and many of these people were not affected by Covid, but they took advantage of what their TV told them they could do...
Don’t you guys make like $80-$100k off those each month. I’m not worried about your little expenses when you’re making that much. The issue is that landlords and everyone wants their profit margins to be INSANE. Screw 20%, everyone wants a 150-200% return on their money or they’re not making enough.
Great content... I've been looking and thinking for years about owning one when I retire.. I've always thought about the supplies that you'd need.. but not really about the electric or plumbing.. is the upkeep on the systems that intense or frequent?
My entire knowledge of car washes consists of this one video but the answer seems clear to me, it has the potential to be very intensive. The biggest risk has to be leaving it alone. 1. Vandalism, theft and misuse. Where I live they strip live circuits in external boxes for the copper to buy drugs, all that unattended equipment, gone in a week. I am talking pilferable fuses etc, let alone 800 dollars of fuel and other chemicals.... maybe you live in a safer area but.... 2. You can not detect and correct new sistemic faults if you are not there, eg, a spring came loose on my top loading washing machine and the thing was vibro jumping for the exit, luckily I was at home to restrain it....... 3. Do you trust the specialist electricians and plumbers not to overcharge or sabotage stuff for return visits? I suspect your best mates `Honest John the Sparky` and Plumber Pat might be a bit out of their depth with that set up Set it up next to your house and get the grand children to watch it when you are out fishing That is my tuppence worth,
Idk how your video came up but as a previous business owner in the restaurant business I can certainly appreciate your video because most people have no idea of cost they only see the money coming in but not whats going out and dont get me started about those who know how to run your business but tell them there welcome to buy you out and then see what they have to say and the countless hours you work that no one but you actually knows about like when you have to go fix a problem even though you should be sleeping. I wish you success and happiness and above all an early retirement. Thats where I am heading to now well semi early retirement I still plan to work a few more years maybe lol
Don’t lose heart! It’s a lot of work but worth it! Unfortunately the gentleman I bought the car wash from did not keep up on regular maintenance so there were a lot of headaches for me in the beginning. Overall it’s worth it but make sure you know your town and do a traffic analysis!
There is a lot, lot more, to running a car wash than I gave business owners credit for. The operating costs, wow! Thx for the reveal, very interesting insight.
Yeah, cost may be high. It’s great for owner operators. But I’ve built a many that net 500k 1st year. 1 mil second. You have to spend money to make money in the wash world. Soap is important. Very very important
Yes indeed. Considering the one near me is only $4.75 to start the self service rinse bay and that gives you 7 minutes. Most people are in and out within those 7 minutes or less
Fuck what credit you gave them,who are you lmao
That’s more common sense. Otherwise everyone would own one
Think about that the next time you feel a business is price gouging or doesn't pay their employees well.
I will NEVER take a self-serve carwash for granted again. I most certainly appreciate the facilities you provide.
As a current owner of a business that sells, installs and services carwashes and someone who has worked as a carwash technician for over 30 years in several different parts of the country, I can tell you your observations are pretty accurate. There are a lot of hidden costs and unappreciated tasks that go with owning a carwash. The larger the operation the greater those become. Imagine a full service tunnel with 20 employees, 10 different machines in the equipment room, a bunch of moving parts in the tunnel and 15 different chemical products in use. Some of my customers have electric bills of over 6 grand a month and water bills to match, don't even ask about labor costs. To service this equipment I have to be proficient at mechanics, electrical, plumbing, hydraulics, pneumatics, low voltage control systems, electronics, networking, computers and have a good understanding of how and why the chemicals work together and why they do what they do.
One of the things about the videos of the guys collecting there money is that they just did the most stupid thing they could possibly have done and that is show the criminally inclined a very real target.
You're the man to be!
Where did you learn your skills for this trade? How does one get into car wash repair? Thank you
@@corysturgis6660 I stated by getting a job at a local tunnel wash. show eagerness most of these places do self repair. You can work your way in, millwrights also know as industry mechanics play a good role in the industry from what I’ve seen as wel
Thats every business in their own right. Customers don't understand that.
This video is the reason UA-cam exists! Who would've thought we could learn so much about car washes? Well presented, informative, and transparent...
Yea really show us the smoke and mirror of the business.
Breaking Bad made running a car wash look like a lemonade stand!
I can just about go point for point with you as a laundromat owner. There is an entire world behind the scenes people have no idea about. With zero problems it costs $5000/Mo for our mat to be open. With 41 machines, change machines, pay apps, and security systems, there is NEVER a zero problem month. The general public can and will destroy everything.
If you owned an anvil playground, you'd show up some day and see some Karen's kids beating the horns off them all with day old bananas. The capacity of the human mind for misuse, willful and wanton abuse is unparalleled in the remainder of animal kingdom. It makes weather abashed.
My dad was into laundry and car washes. Nightmare. I am glad it's over and I don't have to live depending on the WEATHER.
@crunthat I see you don't own a laundromat as you would not thing this is one bit funny. The app not working has the same effect as the power being off.
@crunthat You don't own a business, sit quietly while the grown folks are talking kid.
@@micheletetley6142 Sorry but even going to Target for your vegs can be affected by weather too. You kinda have to lives with that one. :)
Now I understand why carwashes do not get remodeled as often as needed. My respect and gratitude towards all who run carwashes .
My respect to the workers in the car wash. May all the owners of carwashes have a horrible life.
Owned and ran 2 car washes for 15 years. Was tired of all the issues in this video. Very accurate content. Sold them and realized there are 1,000,000 better ways to make money!!
No shit, if you dumped all that money into an ETF you'd probably have double the returns in the same amount of time. And that would literally be **passive**
Which are?
Good point. "Ego satisfaction" is the driving force behind much of the "be your own boss/own your own business" mantra! I have done both and find if you just want to earn a living and have many OTHER outside interests it's easier to just work at a company, go home at 5pm and enjoy the rest of your day/life! To me, having my own business meant it was ALWAYS living in my head. If you don't want to let your livelihood define who you are I would say don't do it, just work for a company. It's much easier and MUCH less stress!
Thanks for all the comments guys. Am I unhappy? Absolutely not! This video wasn’t intended to complain but rather share the truth. This was what I was able to afford in my late 20’s and plan to use this as a stepping stone to grow / improve /expanded. Some of the “whining” and “griping” is more for comedic relief rather than actual complaints.
Thanks for the video, it was refreshing "real talk" with no judgement. Though if I recall correctly you missed the two biggest expenses, rent/mortgage and taxes, both of which can be absolute killers.
Real talk!
Oh... Ok cool
Your the first American I see that owns a car wash... most people I bump into that own a car wash are from India or Yemen in the middle east.
It is prohibited to wash dirty ass mud vehicles in our car wash. There is a warning sign and people respect it.
As a fellow car wash owner; this is most accurate video I’ve seen by far. A couple different setups from mine, but very similar in many ways. Thanks for sharing the truth.
Kudos on providing us with an insight into what it takes to run a car-wash operation, including the logistics, costs, and life investment required. Wow! Thank you very much. Appreciate you unravelling this operation...
A man stud out side a bank handing out $5 bills to anyone walking by. He started getting a big crowd of people. The police arrived and asked him, ''what are you doing", he replied, I was thinking of opening up a carwash, but this is faster. 🤣God bless the business owner.
I have no interest in car washes as a biz but absolutely have an interest in the mentality of folks that make shit happen rather than sit on the sideline.
This is the type of person we need to speak at schools or summer camp or whatever…a mason or electrician people that are doing well with a skilled trade or being an entrepreneur.
Good work dude.
They don't want average people running their own business. They want your kids in debt with a useless degree working for a big corporation so the elites can own and control everything.
Should get a good self serve or tunnel wash owners input. This guy is trash. Been in the industry 8+ years as a service tech with my own company. He's the worst type of customer to have.
We need less masons. They discriminate against the wider population by thinking they can get ahead by being in a special club or expecting extra treatment after giving a funny handshake. I give them extra treatment. That handshake or phrase will put the price up.
Absolutely. Kids need to know there are other things in life besides electronics and these "other things" can be very interesting and fulfilling.
Just by your uneducated response I sure do not want to have you as an investor
Been in the industry for some time and it is accurate you really have to be a jack of all trades! Equipment always breaking down, especially for customers that don’t do preventative maintenance, one of the many keys to a successful wash, happy washing!
Love it. My dad taught me very young in life, there is no such thing as easy money. I don't mind working hard every day and I don't feel entitled to free money. No matter how complicated it is, I think the car wash business is cool. It's a service that's valuable and important, and it can't be offshored.
There is such a thing as easy money. Crypto.
@@ewicky lol
@@ewicky cryptocurrency and the stock market in my opinion is legalized gambling.
Unless you're joking
I know a lot of people that lost a boat load of money in the market for the exception of one man.
One trick pony that's what he was good at. Nothing else. Needs help putting batteries in a flashlight type of person.
@@ewicky This bot aged poorly
@@Mr.Robert1 I agree that short term traders are just skimming value and causing market volatility, however, their losses can be your gains if you’re a value investor. :) I’m interested to see what becomes of the crypto market and how it could transform the way we do things in the future. Think of someone from the 1940’s seeing the technology we have now. I hope I live long enough to have a similar experience.
Working my way up to manager of a exterior car wash was my first career, 4 years when I was 16-20. During the winter line out to street days, I could get 135 cars/hour through that wash with a 4 man team. In the summer, you worked on your car in the parking lot or read books most of the day. So many stories, and all of this looks so familiar. Video enjoyed.
Outstanding ! As usual, there's much more to running a successful business than the initial purchase. You've brought reality to those thinking instant money-maker. I get the feeling you'll, make it work one way or another. Now what's your next venture ? Godspeed Jake !
As a classic car owner I can confirm I'm the one who gets mad about rocks and shit.
Great video sir!! Love seeing some of the details we all take for granted while loving your company! Thanks for the hard work and blunt honesty!!
I used to work for a guy that owned a car wash when I was in college. My entire job was either cleaning the bays for the exact reason you mentioned or troubleshooting the constant problems that occurred every damn day.
Thank you for going through the details of carwash business responsibilities and educating us. It sure needs a good amount of patience.
Wishing you,family and loved ones a prosperous life.
Liked and Subscribed.
Worked in the business for many years in many capacities on washes from dirt to squirt phases and from maintenance to executive level as well as all types (IBA, tunnel, ss etc...) and must say that I completely agree that there is way more that goes into it that they will tell you. You must absolutely be either unafraid to learn or be proficient in most all trades and business accumen including electric, plumbing, HVAC, chemistry, water quality analyst, security, maintenance, grounds, marketing, landscaping, I.T., customer service, janitorial, hurt feelings counselor, carpentry, HR, legal defense, acconting etc.... When you look at a run down wash that is typically an owner that was sold a bill of goods about how easy it is and how it is mailbox money...let me assure you it is not. As far as the muddy bays that's a cost of doing business I mean it's a car wash what can you really say....only wash a clean car? Having shoveled and hosed down many sandbars in my day trust me I get the frustrations. Membership is a great way to help your ebbs and flows of seasonal change for income. Interesting system for anti freeze why wouldn't you just weep your bays especially with a well? I left the business because literally every owner I ever worked for was a complete self absorbed bat shit crazy lunatic, but I do miss it and long to have a wash of my own though the costs are such that the big outfits have all but taken over in many markets. Anyhow sorry for the rant I guess it's my way of saying "I agree" great video and best of success.
You basically described the required skills for every successful entrepreneur. Although, “hurt feelings counselor” made me laugh out loud. Thanks for the laugh! 😂
Thanks for sharing Jake. There are a lot of people out in the interzone being sold on "passive income" without knowing there is still some heavy work involved. It would be nice for everyone to see this video before taking the plunge.
Honestly at this point it's just like running any other business. Even online businesses can be full of smoking mirrors of uncertainties, WEIRD ASH failures that you didn't expect/could prepare for, etc.
Thanks. Far too many folks think its easy. One of my good friends just sent me a video about 3 days ago just like the ones you described. I dont own a carwash but I explained a small portion of operating costs. You put it out in the light with all the small details to the large details. 100% Great Job. Keep Hustling
Love your presentation style - informative, easy to understand, frank and honest.
I notice you have only posted two videos
I think you should consider posting more videos like this about managing a business etc.
We have more coming!! Stay tuned
I recently purchased a car wash and it wasn't in that good of condition when I purchased it the automatic Bay did not work and the property itself had not been well maintained. I considered keeping it as a car wash but the cost of a new automatic Bay was little above $400,000. So I tore the car wash down and put self storage on the property.
Ok? Thanks for bragging
@@jacobpie3692 how was I bragging I simply stated I bought land with a car wash on it, it was too expensive to do a $400,000 repair to the auto wash bay so I tore it down and put something else on the land that wasn't bragging I just made a statement.
@@20truck don't bother explaining yourself, some people just can't accept that they can't do what others can.
@@RichRotorhead I still don't understand your sarcasm, I had not intended to run the car wash when I purchased the land, because the cost was more than the income the car wash would make, smart business decision not because I couldn't afford to operate the car wash.
@@20truck he means the Jacob fellow is still in high school thinking he can get TikTok famous and make bank that way
Was a manager at an express carwash for over 4 years, running the place day to day was a colossal amount of work and required a team of people. From the plumbing, car wash equipment breaking, relays and electrical failures, moving and getting covered in chemical, dealing with freezing lines and ice in the winter, and worst of all negligent customers that damaged equipment and caused collisions (not to mention the ones that would become enraged over any and everything) . Owning and operating a car wash is no easy task, props to you sir!
I'm a controls engineer, familiar with all that electrical equipment. It looks like a fairly simple design. I notice you are operating a 25hp motor without a variable frequency drive. Maybe a vfd would reduce the number of motor rebuild events because startups and shut downs would be smoother. There are just too many relays on that panel.
I also noticed you are on the hook for chemicals that maybe you can dispense with. I really appreciate the spot free rinse and don't mind paying the $12 to get it (what I pay here in southern Minnesota).
Anyway I like your video talking about the business, really cool.
Used to work in the industry. Yea they are available, but they cost alot of money. There are many mechanical designs. Recently they have been mostly electric motors directly onto the brushes. Extended towards the vehicle by air pressure. Although alot of them still use a main hydraulic motor with valves to control spin on the equipment. This can get quite messy. Now, the actual controllers are pretty much archaic. Only a few support direct vfd control, and they are limited by the number of vfds they can control. Most of the time vfds are connected to a normally open contact on the controller which basically tells the vfd to ramp up, basically binary on off. I don't know if I can technically disclose more than that but there are better ways of controlling those motors during steady days where they ramp up and down many times a day.
Soft start is also an option
Free advice let's see if that guy is posting for likes
@@NotnaRed An opinion or an experience kind of goes hand in hand. Especially in a UA-cam comment section
I know what you mean about the dirt left from some patrons,...That being said, I've been an offroad motorcycle rider and racer for over 45 years and have used these car wash business all over the SE US. But because of probably the way I was raised or military background I've always had the decency to clean up the bay afterwards....because I also use these for my on road only nice cars and it socks when the only bay available is full of mud. Nice video and something to think about....every business has it's downside.
You gotta sell drugs outta the car wash…you are missing the mark.
I've often thought about what it must cost JUST in water and power bills to run a car wash, let alone supplies and maintenance! Your video helped put it all into perspective. Well done
My uncle owned a self service car wash in Western Pennsylvania years ago. It payed for all of his kids college. He was a head mechanic at US airways so he could do all the repairs. Then he sold it for a great amount.
This fellow would not be in it, if he wasn't making a profit.
In the video he talks about his profit margins and how he is making money in other businesses.
Yes its turns a profit. He's trying to explain that there are expenses that people do not consider. He is just trying to open people's eyes nothing wrong with it.
You don’t know who to believe now, your uncle, this guy, oh man….
@@dok2304 That’s ok. Believe in yourself and you’ll be fine. 😜
@@dok2304
Why would he lie about the fact that every business has expenses to run and his case he actually goes from item to item it explains it that was actually very nice of him
@@dok2304 my uncle would have dumped it, if it wasn't making money. That being said, he never hired any repair guys because he could do it all himself.
Thank you for your service!!! I didn’t know,any of,what you were, talking about!! G
One of the best youtube contents I watched in a long time. Thnaks a lot for sharing and being so upfront and not sugarcoating it. You were very transparent on your description.
We need more videos like this for all industries. Very neat look into what you do, cheers!
Owning any business is difficult. I live in Latin America, and I love the how resourceful the people are here running small businesses. You'll see teenagers with full food service carts they created and operate.
That is so true. I spent several months in Medellin, Colombia over the last year and was astonished by the small business operations I saw. Many people are desperately selling whatever they can to stay alive and the rest of the population supports them with patronage rather than just buying things at bigger stores. It's part of the fabric of their society. It's sad to see people struggling so hard but it was heartwarming to see the respect that Colombianos show for small vendors.
@@billbmsn
That's actually where I live right now, and have lived before (amongst many other places). I actually change my consumer habits while living here. I buy fruit from the guy at the bus stop, a coffee from a guy selling it from a pot backpack he designed, get a viva 100 from the dude in the street selling them.
I completely agree with you. They are so resourceful here. I live their spirit, ingenuity, mentality, etc.
Pues me encanta vivir aquí en Medellín parcero.
The best friends to have are plumbers, electricians, HVACS, lawyers and mechanics…
Thanks for the solid insights on the car wash business!! In line with conversations with friends who have owned or still own these businesses.
I love the flow of this video. Straight to the point!
I always wash down the stall if I leave mud everywhere. It’s called courtesy.
When the machine charges me by the second with a countdown alarm and everything, there's no chance I'm wasting that time rinsing down the bay.
I’m very sorry for your problems man.
I truly can’t believe that you put up with that bullshit.!!! Your the best business man that takes care of yourself with stressful times.💯💪🏻💪🏻🙏🏻
I REALLY appreciate the truth! Never once came off as complaining! There is a car wash owner doing videos on here for nothing but “clicks and views” and he tries to make it look like it’s all pure profit. Your video taught me more than all his videos combined.
Thanks Jake for sharing your concerns and thoughts on the car wash. I had no idea there was so much involved.
As a fellow car wash owner of 25 years I can totally appreciate this s***. I'm retiring from this BS and two more years
That was absolutely eye opening and fantastic. You have a knack for talking to the camera and I anticipate a much larger channel in your future.
Thank you for sharing the truth about carwashes.
Hi! I run an automatic car wash. Please save yourself the headache and order a Hydraflex board. They are super helpful and should cut your soap costs. Currently we run through about 800 lbs. of salt per week, and have a soap cost of 6000 per month. We do around 600 cars on the weekday and 800-1100 during the weekend.
If you were a coin collector and had time to observe the quarters, it could be a second income.
Fr tho
I work at a car wash facility that is the one that pulls you through and I gotta say while I make good money and have met some awesome people along the way, it can be a living hell when I have to fix crap that people don't give a crap about and break. I also hate to say it, but it is actually a majority of people who don't care. You can't do anything about it though and just gotta keep fixing things and pushing on. Awesome video that describes car washes in general!
Great video and opens the eyes to being a business owner.
There are many ways to make your wash more efficient and to extend the life of the equipment. I work for a national car wash equipment manufacturer in their service and install department. They own Ryko, MacNeil, TSS, Carolina Pride Vacutech and Baywatch. I build and service self serve, in bay automatics and tunnels. And I see that you have quite a bit of outdated equipment. That means, unless using the correct formulation for your soap, you're actually accelerating the aging of your pumps, poly, metallic plumbing, metallic nozzles solenoids, diaphragms and wands. Your automatic controller is very old and had been made obsolete for a decade at least. Newer controllers use far less energy, more precise soap dispensing, better foaming(so less soap use) and less water use. If your soap isn't as close to neutral pH as possible, you're actually ruining that equipment. I also cannot imagine why you'd be changing the media in your sand filters so frequently as it should last you 2 or 3 years at least. And instead odd using a chemical anti freeze agent, you could install a weepmizer to eliminate freezing your self serve water lines. So no more chemical purchase and users only water flow to stop freezing. I live near Denver and winters are very cold so we use weep valves to stop freezing. It cost the average 4 Bay self serve about $100 for 4 months of weeping. Water harness is the largest impact to cost of operation. You mentioned you had welll water. That has the highest hardness reading of any water you could use. Hard water means FAR less soap foaming so people don't think there's actually soap and they crank up the soap use with larger injectors and flow rates and then need to crank up the air and water pressure to get bubbly water. I didn't see your whole filtration system but I suspect it could be vastly improved. Our customers average 35 cents in chemicals per car washed when the system is set up properly.
That was a work of art.
I got to know the owner of a nee car wash he built locally. The permits and fees and environmental equipment and building code requirements were crippling. And the stories of vandalism, theft and stupidity of people were horrendous.
In hunting season, he would occassionally get hunters who clean deer guts and body parts out of the back of their pickups.
Stay in school kids.
Yes. Stay in school so you can work for the guy that owns the car wash.
God forbid anyone use a car wash to clean a dirty car. If they aren’t spotless rich people already, you don’t want to see them. The entitlement is amazing
@@jimmyparris9892
Good point.
It would pay for the owner of this wash to hire somebody with brains to manage his wash and to keep this place running properly. Turn people away that are doing what you say.
@@jimmyparris9892 if you go to school to wash cars you might be retarded
That's how you make a video straight to the point. Thanks man so useful info.
Hey I'm a car wash Manger and i would definitely reconsider your soap vendor, a 30 gallon barrel can last us about 3 weeks and are bays use 10 gallon jugs and those last about 3 weeks
It would depend on how busy the facility is to get numbers on soap usage comparisons.
@@canlib even if I average around 800 cars a day and 30 gallon barrel can still almost last me a month. Winter is different
Yeah, because like most crappy car washes it takes like 2 minutes for the soap to start coming out of the damn sprayer and brush And most of the time, hardly any soap comes out. Total rip off
@@andrewready1137 sounds like you need to find a new car wash. Definitely don't have that problem
I've been a car wash technician for 6 years. Literally anything in the equipment room or tunnel, I've seen and worked on. Electrical, plumbing, mechanical, you name it. I feel your pain!!
I own a full service car wash and everything you said is spot on. You should try having employees, well there goes 40 to 50 percent of the intake. Then deal with them doing a poor job, or not show up for work. Some days are nightmares.
Don't you just hate those employees? Like fuck dude why can't people do their jobs right.
@@NevrrPresntt cough cough pay enough cough cough
@@jacobpie3692 40 to 50 % of the intake goes back to the employees. Cough, Cough. I'm struggling now cough, cough. Need a new roof 30 thousand cough, cough. Need to upgrade equipment 200 thousand cough cough. The bank wants their money back cough, cough.
@@hturbo1007 not my problem
@@paullewis4134 who's talking to you???
I know you posted a video a while back. Thank you for showing the insides of the cost of running a business. Also thank you for staying on top of cleaning and maintaining your car wash.
I managed a car wash for a friend for a year. There is actually an ordinance here in Florida. No dumping. That includes washing your mud off and leaving 6 inch thick pad of it all the way around a car wash area. I called the police they took my video they got the guys plate number they drove to his house! They told him $250 littering fine. The guy was back with a police escort and a flat bladed shovel so he didn’t have to pay the fine. I stood back and watched it!
Thanks for actual honesty! I’m so tired of people thinking you get rich. It’s a slow grind and your actually doing pretty good. I’m not near break even but would be nice hopefully soon. Then you have to not take a paycheck for your hard work. Lol
Set up a prerinse station for Muddy vehicles away from the stall.
Lol if you aren’t rich and your car isn’t spotless already he doesn’t want it because it could mean actual work for him.
Respect the honesty it hard to find.
Where I live our car wash has a water recycling system in it where the dirty water goes into a plumbing system and basically gets recycled. Clean water is also added back in. The reason why our car wash has that system is because we have very tight rules on waste water.
I'd assume this might be common in places where water is really scarce too. I have relatives in one of those places where it costs a lot to get water because it's all piped in from the far side of some mountains
Those late night calls. And good old flowjets. Love the video.
Wow! you’re very generous waking up in the middle of the night to get the nickel out of the vacuum cleaner. Here in Miami. They don’t care. We need owners like you. 👍
Thanks for being in your community actually taking care of a car wash. Probably won’t hear about it but it’s nice. Those diy car washes are really fun as a car guy for taking care of your car.
This is very informative as I always wanted to get into the biz. This is a lot of work and overhead. I'm no slacker but wow profit on average $1000 a month? You would still need a job and this $1000 a month is small residual income. Definitely a fallacy of the cash cow. Thank you so much for being so real about it.
If he optimized the business, he'd have greater margins that what's described! But it's not a business for everyone. Some locations (like further down south), are more profitable than others!
As someone who cleans self serve car washes there really is a lot to do with them every day. Sweeping the lot, getting the garbage cans that are full multiple times a day, spraying down the bays, cleaning out the vacuums and a whole list of other little things and that's if nothing breaks, which happens very often. There is also climbing into the attic if you have problems up there. I love my job and we have a couple maintenance guys that I text if anything major breaks.
Hope you have good prints for the panels. Very interesting behind the scenes look. Thanks
Thanks for this reality check - appreciate the honesty.
Looks VERY stressful to me, and it's unbelievable that just a bunch of quarters can pay for all of that!!
$12 in quarters each car for $2-3 in materials is a good profit. He’s fine.
My dad is a "small to medium enterprise owner" as well and while working with him you start to appreciate a good customer. that is why i always try to be a good customer. Do enough research before going to any store which is why i appreciate online stores. There is a limit though when it comes to things you simply can assess online like mattresses, clothes, pillows.
As far as muddy wheelers go, you need to tack on a surcharge for the extra cleaning. They’ll either pay it or go somewhere else. Win win.
So…. You should charge more for someone that needs to use the service as opposed to someone that just want their vehicle to sparkle… makes a lot of sense
@@Foxhole11 Usually prices go up proportionally to how services are utilized
@@Foxhole11 absolutely charge more. It’s not an ATV/UTV wash and therefore customers using it for that should pay more. The only reason they go to the car wash is because they don’t want that mess in their own driveways.
Should a truck have to pay more than a car? Should a motorcycle pay less?
Of course they don’t want the mess in their driveways. That is the point of a self serve car wash…
Thank you for laying everything out. I truly appreciate your video.
Hello, look into nordic geothermal heat pumps. Can heat floors and water with them. I have one in my house .
I'm not to sure how good one would be at keeping the floors from freezing, unless you had enormous system. It's one thing to heat a floor inside, trying to heat a floor outside that's always wet is a whole different thing. Also, I think most if not all geothermal systems, use a liquid through pipes to heat floors. So he would have to rip up all the floors and redo them.
I absolutely respect your raw honesty
If the muddy four wheelers are truly that much of a hassle, I would have to ban four wheelers at my CAR WASH
And lose all that business?
Sue there azz for clogging up the drains then trespass them hahaha lose what trash hell ya
This is funny…so you are going to ban 4 wheelers? How are you going to do that? Are you going to put up a sign? Get in a fight every time it happens? Call the police? (They won’t handle a call like this) Stay there 24hrs a day to make sure? …you don’t truly have a handle on what you are suggesting.
Please open a car wash like this in Hawaii on Oahu…we are in need of this!!!
I know a guy who purchased a used car wash at the beginning of this past winter. He must of had at least 6 service calls(hiring company that specializes maintaining car washes) for misc issue's. Not including-Pipes busted twice. One time flooding the bathroom of the attached building. Ended up deciding to replace damn near everything(pumps, motors, hoses, wands, foam brush system, chemical measuring system). I think the only things he didn't replace was the user control boxes and the heat system.
Ok
I Know A Guy” 😂 well I know a guy he could’ve gotten all that equipment for less than half the price, according to the guy I know it all fell off a truck. 👍🏻
Wow! Thank you very much for the knowledge. So real 💯 factz
Kinda sounds like you just bought a shitty car wash
Thank you for this video it's amazing, God bless your business and God bless you family.
My friend owned 2 of the 6 bay units. He put in cameras, caught a competitor stealing the nozzles off the hoses! He took the tape over to the guy and showed it. Guy had to return the nozzles AND pay for lost business. He also caught a guy ready to wash an extra muddy dump truck, backhoe, and trailer. It would have cost him $2000 to clean sewers after that. We are talking early 2000's money.
If you own a car wash and bitch about people washing muddy things off you shouldn't be in the car wash business.
Ok
Since when does soapy, diluted mud clog sewers?
@@ewicky The mud would come off in chunks, and guys forced the chunks thru the drain by stomping on them. My friend learned the hard way and was very tough about not allowing it to happen again. Also, the amount of water and soap used is not much compared to the volume of mud.
As a 40 year landlord the same thing holds for apartment houses. I would change out the bearings in that 25hp motor myself and save a ton. For a car guy it is very straight forward job just don't wait for them to spin. (water/wastewater operator before landlording) with 3 phase you shouldn't be cooking the windings. Great video!! People just don't get how complicated the electromechanical world is.
It sounds like basic overhead ... we all have overhead unfortunately in businesses but yours sounds pretty normal with the exception of some of the chemicals I guess. I would imagine it's still worthwhile and depending on the location should be a pretty sound businesses right ? I know the self car wash places around me are always packed! Best of luck with your business!!
Dude is making bank, just complaining that he has to spend a little money and put in a little effort to do so.
@@jacobpie3692 i wouldnt call 2k a month profit or less making bank...i make that with my $16/hr job..and i have a lot less to manage then this car wash does
@@TechMaster2133 True, why would you want all the stress? Oh, so you can brag that you own a business, pfff, I rather go work for someone, get paid, go home and not worry about anything. Leas stress, you live longer.
Great informative video.
I was not looking for car wash videos but watched this one until the end, Great job!
5 years managing a wash near Boston. This was no franchise operation and had been in business for 35+ years. (The owner retired and sold the business).
Yes, plumbing and electrical... and hydrolics and welding and fabrication and framing.
#1 requirement is PATIENCE. Every service industry has to deal with customers. Car wash customers are... special.
You’ve got “special” customers in every industry. They come in lots of variations and you don’t see it until you’ve either worked in a service job or have become a business owner. People, they/we are the best and the worst!
@@transphotography
I agree.
The only car wash I'd ever own would be a quarter activated manual setup. One setting for soap, and one for rinse. Have one area just for muddy vehicles.
Who would have thought it?
A business has operating costs.
What a surprise.
Thanks for being truthful in your video!
I didn't want the mud in my driveway. :-)
I can relate! lol Only difference is I had natural gas floor heat and rebuilt my own pumps and motors. I will admit I got pretty good at sourcing all kinds of crazy stuff for parts so I could channel my inner MacGyver to fix stuff. Example: I used a tore rubber hot tub liner I got from the pool store for free, two C-clamps and a hose clamp to fix a leaky hot wax tank because the stainless steel tank rusted out in so many places. Lasted for 2 years!
You forgot my favorite, people trying to fish money out of the Hamilton (Change machine) using notebook paper $20 written on it, or the cost of having it reprogrammed every time a new type of bill came out or quarter. I kept a locked metal cover over the trash cans so they could not put full bags in the trash cans, about the height of 20 ounce bottle of soda. But never stopped them from throwing them over fence all over the dumpster. Good Video and truest I have seen dealing with a car wash in awhile.
5:19 if you need a subscription to get the CCTV on a app you should switch to a better CCTV system
Agreed. Working on that now!
Just pay me to sit there and snitch.
I’m just gonna blame everything on the coloreds anyway.
@@jakesgarage905 There is no "working on that now" Literally download the chrome remote desktop app on both your devices and watch the monitor screen from your phone wirelessly anywhere. This is not rocket science, although that plumbing might be.
Outside looking in is a lot different than being in. I always thought a car wash establishment would be a self working money machine. Thanks for the eye opener.
AND that oil tank is now about 1500$ to fill, your soap and washer fluid are probably each 500$ now as well. It's not that much different from renting apartments, people think there ought to be rent control and that landlords are rich. But, after expenses and repairs, and depending upon the eviction laws in your particular state, you can lose 3/6/10K to a dead beat tenant before you can get them out, and the court may only force them to pay 10$ a month. If they stop paying, you have to serve them and go back to court. We lost allot of money due to the Covid "eviction moratorium" and many of these people were not affected by Covid, but they took advantage of what their TV told them they could do...
Don’t you guys make like $80-$100k off those each month. I’m not worried about your little expenses when you’re making that much. The issue is that landlords and everyone wants their profit margins to be INSANE. Screw 20%, everyone wants a 150-200% return on their money or they’re not making enough.
good job presenting the real deal. Very complete
Great content... I've been looking and thinking for years about owning one when I retire.. I've always thought about the supplies that you'd need.. but not really about the electric or plumbing.. is the upkeep on the systems that intense or frequent?
My entire knowledge of car washes consists of this one video but the answer seems clear to me, it has the potential to be very intensive.
The biggest risk has to be leaving it alone.
1. Vandalism, theft and misuse. Where I live they strip live circuits in external boxes for the copper to buy drugs, all that unattended equipment, gone in a week. I am talking pilferable fuses etc, let alone 800 dollars of fuel and other chemicals.... maybe you live in a safer area but....
2. You can not detect and correct new sistemic faults if you are not there, eg, a spring came loose on my top loading washing machine and the thing was vibro jumping for the exit, luckily I was at home to restrain it.......
3. Do you trust the specialist electricians and plumbers not to overcharge or sabotage stuff for return visits? I suspect your best mates `Honest John the Sparky` and Plumber Pat might be a bit out of their depth with that set up
Set it up next to your house and get the grand children to watch it when you are out fishing
That is my tuppence worth,
@@josmith9662 🤣🤣🤣 quite funny
Idk how your video came up but as a previous business owner in the restaurant business I can certainly appreciate your video because most people have no idea of cost they only see the money coming in but not whats going out and dont get me started about those who know how to run your business but tell them there welcome to buy you out and then see what they have to say and the countless hours you work that no one but you actually knows about like when you have to go fix a problem even though you should be sleeping. I wish you success and happiness and above all an early retirement. Thats where I am heading to now well semi early retirement I still plan to work a few more years maybe lol
Worked at a big-ish carwash... Figured it wasn't cheap. Thanks for the confirmation.
Thanks for telling us truth. I was excited to buy one but now am not.
Don’t lose heart! It’s a lot of work but worth it! Unfortunately the gentleman I bought the car wash from did not keep up on regular maintenance so there were a lot of headaches for me in the beginning. Overall it’s worth it but make sure you know your town and do a traffic analysis!
Have often wondered about the economics of those, thanks for posting this.
There’s overhead when running a business. Who would of thought?