Steam Car Wash Business in comparison to other car wash businesses has lesser requirements. In a Steam car wash business, you shall be majorly doing the cleaning using the steam and a few other cleaning chemicals. Technically, it is a very simple process and has a very short learning curve, which means that your workers can get trained very quickly and a lot lesser dependence on specific employees.

 

Requirements to Start a Steam Car Wash Business

1. Place

Like any business, you would require a place, shop where you can start your business. Goes without saying that you would require local regulatory compliances like business registration and tax registrations based on your locations and local laws in Ireland.

Location of your business is very important for your business as you would want a place with a large car population in the vicinity. We cannot call a highway a place with large number of cars crossing as the people would not have the mindset to get the cars cleaned especially when they want to go out of the city. Steam cleaning takes time and the person should have the time to wait for that much time.

The parking lot of shopping malls, office areas, residential areas are some of the good locations for a Steam Cleaning Business.

 

2. Equipment

Steam Generator

One of the main equipment which is required for a Steam Car Wash Business is a Steam Cleaner or a Steam generator. It is very important to go in for a reliable steam cleaner which suited for professional use. A professional Steam Car Cleaner would be able to sustain continuous operation for the entire working day. Low-end steam cleaners or small steam cleaners would reduce your efficiency drastically as they are not meant for professional use.

Vacuum Cleaner

Another tool which is required is a Professional Vacuum Cleaner. Vacuum Cleaner is required for removing the dirt and debris from the car prior to the steam cleaning. Again a professional Vacuum is much better than a home vacuum cleaner.

Washing Machine

Steam Cleaning uses Microfiber towels extensively. You need to wash them before each use. Washing machine help you save the washing time and the drying time so that you are able to operate in lesser number of towels.

CCTV

A CCTV cameras are a must wherever customer's property is being handled. If you read the ISO 9001 document which is one of the finest quality management standards, it has a separate subsection of how the customer property is secured and handled. In your case, customers cars and their belongings in the car are very important. Many false claims of thefts and breaking can arise if you do not have a proof of how the car is being handled inside your premises.

 

3. Workers

Steam Car Wash Business requires semi-skilled workers who can be trained for cleaning the Cars. Based on the number of cars per day, you would need to decide upon the number of cars. If you expect around 4 - 6 cars per day, you should have atleast 2 workers who work on the car.

A Manager is also required to entertain the customers, explain the processes, upsell services, Billing etc. The manager would also be required to make sales calls to customers, giving discounts and offers to bring more customers into your business.

 

4. Initial Consumable Stock

You would require a stock of Microfiber towels. generally you would require an average of 10 towels per car which need to be washed after its used.

You would also require some chemicals which are required for giving finishing touches to your customers cars. In fact, these are the value-adding services where you can increase your revenues once the customer has already opted for your basic services.

• Dashboard Polish
• Tire Polish
• Leather Conditioning Polish
• Fragrances
• Stain Remover Liquid

 

5. PPEs

In the current COVID times, safety of your employees and your customers  is very important. All your employees should be provided with PPEs like Face Mark, Gloves, Face Shields.

All employees should be only allowed to work if the temperature is below 100 deg and a person not feeling weel should be sent home for rest. Same for the customers, where the temperature should be checked. If the

 

Steam Car Cleaning Process

Step 1

When the customer car arrives, you need to :

• Inspect the car and inform the customer of any earlier damages/dents/cracks in glass.
• Handover belongings to your customer ( You should have Transparent plastic Bags)

If the Steam Cleaner is switched off, you switch it on now.

 

Step 2 : Vacuuming

Once the customer has selected the package or services, you start by vacuuming the car from inside to remove loose dirt from the car seats, dashboard, Carpets, Luggage area.

 

Step 3 : Places needing special attention

Now you need to check the areas which would require special attention. Stains on seat, carpet, mustard sauce on the gear stick, etc. Use loosening agents like All Purpose cleaner to loosen the dirt.

 

Step 4 : Interior Car Steam Cleaning

Start the Steam cleaner begin the cleaning process. First, clean the interiors and then the exterior. Spray the Steam outwards to remove any condensed water in the hose. Once the steam starts coming from the nozzle, direct it towards the dashboard and wipe it. Continue this for the entire car. Sequence for Interior of the car is as below :

• Dashboard
• Steering Wheel
• Music System
• Gear Stick, cup holders, Hand Breaks
• AC Vents
• Door Handles and Inside of the Car Doors
• Front Seats
• The rear portion of front seats
• Rear Seat Head Rests
• Rear Seat Armrest
• Rear AC vents
• Rear Door Handles
• Rear Seats

 

Step 5 : Exterior Car Cleaning

Cleaning the exterior of the car would require somewhat more number of microfiber towels if the car is very dirty.  The first step in exterior car cleaning is to wash down the excess mud sticking with the high-pressure steam before using microfiber towels. Once the debris is removed you should start with a clean set of microfiber towels from the top of the vehicle. You should clean the car in 3 sections

• from Roof coming down till the windows
• from windows up to the bottom ridge
• bottom ridge till the bottom of the vehicle

Maintain different sets of microfiber towels for each section. If your microfiber towel becomes dirty, replace it with a clean one.

 

Step 6 : Finishing Touches

Once the entire vehicle is done, you can take a clean Microfiber towel and give finishing touches where you find streaks caused due to dirt on Step 4 of cleaning.

 

Step 7 : The Glitter Step

Use Dashboard polish, Wheel Polish, Leather Polish to give a clean new look to the car. Spray a little quantity of fragrance to give a good fragrance when the customer enters the car.

 

Hope this makes your concepts clear about the Steam Car Wash and you would be ready to start your own business!

KKE has an entire range of cleaning products for your business. In fact, DR100 Steam Cleaners use the patent-pending Steam Generator which uses multistage boilers for quick start-up time and energy conservation.

 

KKE Equipment Reference

• Electric Car Steam Cleaners
• Centralised Vacuum Systems
• High Pressure Cleaners
• Automatic Car Wash Machines