Soap Warehouse Blog

For the kitchen exhaust cleaning contractor almost any cleaner you would want to use on the market today will be based on one or the other of these chemicals, or be a combination of the two.

You need to understand their differences, pros and cons to be able to best choose a product to fit your needs.

Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) and Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) are almost interchangeable. They are the most chemically similar of the hydroxides. They are both a white, strong alkaline, corrosive solid or powder. Sodium Hydroxide is more commonly known as lye or caustic soda where Potassium Hydroxide is known as potash.

Both are used to change fats into soap in a process called saponification. Even though their solubility in room temperature water are about the same, products made with potassium hydroxide exhibit a greater solubility especially as you increase the temperature of the water. Like all strong bases, the reaction of both Potassium Hydroxide and Sodium Hydroxide with water is strongly exothermic, in other words, they generate heat and give off hydrogen. But the reaction with Sodium Hydroxide is slightly more exothermic which can make up for other more positive factors that Potassium Hydroxide possess.

The biggest difference between them is in cost because of certain factors; such as their production process by electrolysis, where potassium chloride costs more than sodium chloride (table salt), in ton quantities potassium hydroxide is about three times more expensive than sodium hydroxide.¹

At the molecular level, potassium hydroxide is also slightly smaller than sodium hydroxide, therefore it can penetrate oil molecules faster than sodium hydroxide thus breaking the oils hold on surfaces quicker and since they are also more soluble can be rinsed away easier, especially when using hotter water or steam equipment.

If you are needing to clean a metal surface that is coated with a hard baked on oil  or grease, you would prefer to use a potassium hydroxide with a hot water rinse. Where as a coating of thicker or soft oil or grease could be cleaned by using a sodium hydroxide for less of a cost with lower temperature water required because of the better exothermic reaction.

Using a product which contains both chemicals is like getting the best of both, you will be get a lower in price product with a better exothermic reaction than with Potassium Hydroxide alone, but you will have a faster penetration and better rinsing product than if it just had Sodium Hydroxide.

¹http://www.ehow.com/facts_6150994_sodium-hydroxide-vs_-potassium-hydroxide.html

It was another great show this year in Louisville, KY. We again were a sponsor of Big Rig Networks MATS 2012 Sweepstakes.

Our first winner on Friday of 5 gallons of product was Keith Sermon from Louisville, KY who is a driver for Landstar.

Then on Saturday winning 5 gallons of truck wash was Chris Fowler of Jackson, MO.

We enjoyed being able to walk around and visit will all the freight companies at MATS there looking for drivers. We hope to better reach new Owner Operators through the companies they work for instead of exhibiting in a booth and trying to talk to drivers one on one.

MATS truck wash specials will still be available until April 30th, so call us if you would like to try a 5 gallon of one or more of our great truck wash products.

With this month being National Financial Wellness Month I asked a friend of mine Mr. Don Schwerzler for an article that addresses an issue that all small family business owners should hope to face, succession planning. Here is his article:

Succession Planning:
Who needs it? And when do you start?

 BY DON SCHWERZLER

Mercer Dye designs general aviation facilities such as hangars, industrial buildings, and some really good-looking airport terminals. He first began working with his father in the construction business in 1975. An art major in college, Mercer had already tried his hand as an artist for a couple of years before his wife “advised” him to get a real job. Mercer relented, but not so reluctantly, because he genuinely enjoyed working with his father. The two of them landed significant construction contracts with Delta Airlines and Hangar One, among others, and the business grew like crazy. Throughout the 80’s and early 90’s, father and son rode a wave of prosperity in general aviation, and in 1993, Mr. Dye retired and left the business to his son. Mercer changed the name of the business from Dye Construction to Dye Aviation Facilities to reflect his new focus on design and consulting. Today, he’s recognized as one of the best in the field.

If ever there was an example of a smooth and easy succession, the Dye story is it. The father establishes the business, brings his son in early and retires while he’s still active enough to pursue his passions. The son borrows on the father’s corporate relationships and track record to market his new direction – a new emphasis that suits his artistic bent and his personality. There are no other family members involved and the succession from one generation to the next was a walk in the park.

But then there are those other family businesses where the succession story better resembles walking through a minefield. When a business ages, and the number of family members in the business swells, succession issues will mount and threaten the well-being of the company if not addressed early enough. Consider the case of a 50-year-old manufacturing company in the southeastern U.S. The patriarch and founder of the business died when he was 78 and left control to his wife, who at 93 years old has outlived many of her children and even some of the grandchildren. She still has the largest office and the final decision. All around her in the corporate offices and out in the plant are thirty-plus children, grandchildren, cousins, nieces and nephews… all part of the business and all pretty sure that they deserve a piece of the pie. Succession issues in that company are a dominant part of conversation at every gathering – business and family. Lines of leadership are fuzzy and people outside the business – including clients – know there is trouble inside the business. You could easily say that succession planning in that company is long overdue.

Issues that arise around succession can get out of hand even when they are addressed early on, but much more so when they are left to sort themselves out for too long. Every family-owned business is different and succession planning is not a perfect science. There are many different dynamics and complexities to consider and there are no guarantees for making everyone happy. But successful succession planning is not an impossible task, and it doesn’t have to split families apart. There are advisors and counselors who can make sense of mayhem and guide companies through the process, no matter how large the family or how long they have waited to get started. But waiting too long to get started can most definitely exacerbate problems.

So when is the best time in the life of a company to begin the succession planning process? A good argument could be made for beginning on the day the company is incorporated. But that is rarely done, of course. In the early days of a business, owners pay most attention to growing the company and give little thought to succession. It’s just not on their radar screen. Typically, the first thoughts about succession occur when children reach their teens and consider or begin working at the company – or when the owner gives serious consideration to retirement.

Knowing exactly when to begin the succession planning process is perhaps a matter of instinctive timing, something that entrepreneurs are good at in other areas of the business. Timing is what usually makes an entrepreneur successful in the first place… knowing when to enter the market, when to build capacity, when to borrow, etc. Knowing when to seriously pursue development of a succession strategy is something entrepreneurs will intuitively know and feel at some point in the company’s growth.

A good case in point is a very successful cold storage and shipping company in Jacksonville, Florida. Paul and Julie Robbins are a husband-wife team who founded Caribbean Cold Storage in 1993. Both worked in different capacities in the shipping industry before they discovered a niche and began providing a full range of refrigerated shipping and materials handling services. Paul capitalized the business by selling his Harley-Davidson motorcycle for $10,000 and borrowing another $7,000 on a credit card. It was a risk, but the Robbins saw an opportunity and followed their instincts to quick success. Within eight years they were honored twice as Inc. Magazine’s No. 1 fastest-growing inner-city business.

During their first few years of meteoric growth, Paul and Julie were focused on the business without giving a lot of thought to succession. Julie’s sister and brother-in-law have been in the business for years but it wasn’t until Paul’s son by a previous marriage and Julie’s niece entered the business that Paul and Julie “felt a need” to pursue development of a succession strategy. The couple also has a son, Zachary, who is only eight but already considered a part of the long-term plan.

“Ultimately, we would like to set the stage for Zachary to come into the business,” Paul says. “But the younger ones are already coming up. Kelly (niece) and John (son) are both active and want to stay in the business. That’s what got us started thinking about succession. I’m very happy with where the business is today, but we have to plan our next stage of growth and succession planning is a big part of that.”

Both Paul and Julie have passions outside the business. They love to travel and play golf, and they enjoy being together because they are also best friends.

“It won’t be hard to let go at all,” Paul says without hesitation. “The first emotional curve you go through as an entrepreneur is that it is my baby, but you have to realize that you started the business so that eventually it would create wealth, a balanced life, and financial freedom. We have created a culture here but we have also created value. The company is operating at a level that I’m comfortable with. I see bigger and better things for it but I’m not the guy to take it to the next level.”

In other words, Paul Robbins feels the timing is right to begin sewing up a succession strategy. Like his other business instincts, this one seems to have all the ingredients for success. Without realizing it, he is meeting all the criteria that succession planners and counselors recommend. He did not wait until the last moment to develop a plan. He did not assume that the children will take over the business and has made certain they want to be there. He has not been secretive about the company’s future plans. He understands that succession planning is complicated and that the succession process is more important than the succession plan. He has brought in outside expertise to guide the family and the business through the process. And, he and Julie are giving a lot of thought to their retirement years.

It’s never too early to begin succession planning, but in most cases, an owner will know intuitively that it is time to kick it into high gear. It just feels like the right time to get started on that next stage of the company’s life and plan for the passing of the baton. In Paul Robbins’ case, he looks forward to stepping back from the primary operational role in the company and taking a more visionary role. That doesn’t mean he loses his entrepreneurial spirit; in fact, it has already opened the door for new ventures.

“I’m already involved in a start-up technology for our industry that will be as revolutionary as Microsoft was in computers,” Paul says. The technology, actually a gel material installed in the ceilings of refrigerated containers, enables shippers to maintain the temperature of cold or frozen cargo for five or six days without mechanical refrigeration. “We’re in the process of funding it and taking if from a virtual to an operating company. We received the patent on July 6 and we have a 5-year plan that is being circulated to investors.”

So who needs succession planning, and when should you get started? The answer, of course, is that every family business can use it and the sooner the better. Companies that wait until a catastrophic event (death of an owner, for example) forces change in leadership will find themselves operating in a disruptive environment, and that’s never good for business.

In the final analysis, like a lot of other decisions in family owned businesses, starting a succession planning process will probably be an intuitive, gut-level decision. And in most cases, that’s the way it should be.

I thank Don for his words and his cases that he brings to us in this post. This and other valuable information can be found on his web site http://www.family-business-experts.com.

Please check it out to learn more.

I know this week is bringing record cold temperatures, but for many so far this winter has been very mild and is causing some contractors that normally close up shop during the winter months to find their phones ringing off the hook with business.

A Minnesota contractor for example had to call to get an emergency supply of soap to him for a new job. He told me "It is unbelievable that we have zero snow on the ground and we have had only one good snow here that stayed more than 3 days since November." He also stated "I haven't had work in January for years." Minnesota is experienced its third driest autumn on record and possible drought conditions may develop in 2012 due to it, indicated by a NOAA report just released.

This warmer than normal, no large snow fall is also putting a damper on the contractors that switch in winter to other lines of work, like snow plowing, ice dam removal and other cold weather jobs. Most of the West and North East is having record low snow amounts while places not use to so much of the white stuff like Arizona and Texas were getting recording setting high levels. NOAA stated that during November only 4.4% of the country had snow on the ground vs. the normal >10%. The only area to have above normal levels in 2011 was a small area over the intermountain West.

Also that the North East had above normal temperatures with MA, RI and VT having their warmest autumn on record. This caused the normal to above average amount of precipitation to feel like a unending rain storm. A customer in Boston that I spoke with back in end of November said his business was down almost by half since September because they were not having enough clear days to do the work they had scheduled, not due to lack of work.

Let us know by your comments here or on our facebook page as to how the weather effected your final quarter of the year and what you think the Spring of 2012 will bring.

During this month of Business Planning in December, we will take a look again of how to use a customer referral program and how to analysis its progress or failure. I know this will be a long post, but please bear with me.

First of course is to all ready have a referral program in place. Next if you have been using more than one type of reward or style of gaining a referral these must be segmented out.

Next you must count the number and type of responses you got from these referrals and how much you monetarily gained from each type.

Once you have this data you will be able to make predictions for the coming year and institute changes that could improve your results.

Let us take the following results as an example to be able to follow how a referral evaluation might be done.

Say company ABC PowerWash serviced 250 customers during the past year.

Of those 250, 200 where residential and 50 commercial. And of the residential 75% where repeat customers from some time in the last three years 45% in the last 12 months.

And with the 50 commercial customers half are contract customers that you see on a monthly or at least on a quarterly basis with the rest being new or only the occasional once or twice a year customer.

Of the 200 residential customers only 20 (10%) participated in any kind of referral program the entire year: an average of 5 per quarter.

10 handed out your cards and got you 16 new customers from them, with you giving your old customers a $25 credit card gift card as a thank you. Total spent in gift cards $400. Say these 16 jobs brought you an average of $800 per job with a 20% profit that would have been $2,560.00. Thus it cost you 6.4% of your profit to get this work, 2560/400= 6.4. Or 2560-400=2160/16=$135 profit per job.

Now in the next few months (90 days) if you tested out a new incentive offering half of your customers a $50 card instead of the $25. If in this case you saw an increase in the number of booked referrals from the higher card offer you would be able to see if the amount of increased business was worth the expense.

For example you offer the next 20 customers (10 of each offer amount): 2 customers got you jobs at the old $25 rate but 5 customers (1/2 of those offered) got you jobs at the higher $50 per rate. Leaving the average job cost and profit the same let us look at the numbers.

2 x $800 = $1,600 x .20 = $320-$50= left you $270/2 or $135 per job for your profit.  The same 6.4% cost of return that you had this past year with this same offer. Now let us look at the referrals offered at the higher card amount.

5 x $800 = $4,000 x .20 = $800 / $250 card cost = or 3.2%. You might think that was better but look at the total profit per job, 800-250=550/5=$110 profit per job after paying out the cards. But did you lose in the long run? If you go with the set amount that only 2 out of every 10 customers will take the $25 card and give you a referral, that means you will miss the other 3 at the $110 profit for each.

You need to figure out if those potential three new customers a quarter that will cost you the extra $25 per job in profit at the initial job is worth it to you. Could be if you have lots of open time and you need that $330 cash flow for your family. Plus if they become a returning customer or better yet become a free word of mouth referer. So you increased the number of old customers that participated from 20% to 50% but did slightly reduced your profit per job from the year before for these initial jobs with the higher offer.

Now let us look at the other 10 residential referrals from last year that you had. 6 had given you names of a friend or family member that booked a job because you offered them a free service on their next years business (they had turned down the $25 card offer prior to your $100 offer), that was to say, you offered them what you would have normally charged a customer $100 for (but costs you $40 to provide) to be free at their next visit. 

Again let us use the same average price and profit for these jobs. So 6 jobs x $800 =  $4,800 x .20 = $960 / $240 (the actual cost to you) = 25% of the cost came out of your profit. This looks like a much larger cut out of your profit, but look at the profit per job, 960-240=720/6= $120 profit per job. It is actually better than the $50 gift card, since the out of pocket expense is $10 different, $40 vs. $50. While you might think giving away free services wouldn't be smart you can see it could be better on the bottom line by bringing you more work. But since they had already turned down your $25 card offer for the free service is this offer of free service something you want to keep? No real way to tell.

So as stated earlier for the next three months you offer half your customers the $25 card and the other half $50 gift card and don't make the $100 free service available at all and you still got the 5 new customers. Since you have no idea how many of these 5 (or more) you would have gotten if you had kept the $100 value offer you will just have to use the ROI of $110 per job as the result. Your next 3 month test may have to be the $50 card vs. the $100 free service offer.

Now to the last 4 referrals from the previous year. These where from customers that you had not given any incentive too (maybe you had already given them a great deal, or the job was very small and you did not want to invest any more of your profit into them) but because of your work they had referred new customers to you any way, six in fact. So the cost of a referral program was nothing, and profited you $960, but these customers consisted of less than 2% of your total client base, which is the national average of unsolicited word of mouth referrals.

Now to the commercial jobs. Of the 50 as stated above 25 are contract customers that get special pricing and you gained only two new customers as direct word of mouth referrals from them. Both were non incentive referrals since there was no incentive referral program in place for the commercial customers. So the profit you gained from these new customers was say $3,000 total for the year. Of the other 25, 12 where occasional customers which brought you no referrals and next 11 where new ones you had spent time finding, visiting and getting yourself at a cost of over 50 man hours during the year. The final two were the new referrals your contract customers brought you equaling your 50 total commercial customers for the year.

So let us say you are thinking about expanding your referral program in to your commercial side to see what could be the benefit. You also choose to try the $50 gift card as your incentive. In the next three months this was your result: of 12 customers offered, you got 2 new referrals, one being a new contract customer and the other will probably only be an occasional once or twice a year job. Already you have gained the same number of new referrals that you got in total the previous year. If the one contract customer will give you a profit of $200 per month and the occasional job bring you and estimated $550 of profit for the year you gained 12 x 200 =  $2,400 + $550 = $2,950 / $100 (gift cards) 2.9%, or 2950-100=2850/13 (jobs)= $219.23 average profit per job. And since the previous year you only got the two new contract customers by the free word of mouth method you can look at the $3,000 they brought vs. the estimated if the trend holds of 2 new customers a quarter to bring in around $6,600 over they year. 12 + 9 + 6 + 3= estimate of 30 jobs x $220 average profit = $6,600 estimate. This could be over twice the amount you received with no referral plan in place. It could be more or less depending on when they come on board and if they are monthly or only an occasional customer. And if you can handle the increase in your work load.

I hope these examples has you looking over your referral plan and running tests to see what profit increases and improved cash flow you can make this next year in your business. Happy New Year.

Do a Competitor Comparison Chart to see where your business stands in your market.

First list who your competitors are by name and address. Do they compete with you in just one area, for just one service or type of customer? Do you only have competition with one other business for one service by five for another? You might want to switch your service emphasis more to the one with less competition for a possible larger profit?

Not all of you competitors may be easily recognizable. They may not be listed in the yellow pages, have a physical office, or even have applied for a business license that you can reference.

Look in your own mail for coupons for those advertising to do your services, keep your eyes open for signs, vehicles, other print advertisements. Check on line by doing a search by service name and location name. For example: "Roof Cleaning" + "Snellville, GA". I just did and got over 4,000 results, basic "pressure washing" was even higher, 6,780. But more specific services like "exterior house washing" + "Snellville, GA", got only 49 results. So who's name keeps coming up? Those are your competitors.

Just because some may be small does not mean that they are not a threat to you. Nor does the fact that your area might have some big players mean that there is not enough business for you all. What you need to find out is what each player is doing so that you can do it better and gain a larger and hopefully a more profitable share of what is out there.

Here is an example analysis grid. Make changes to headings and cell sizes as needed. For example: Many may not need a selection row. Fill out the me section to compare. You may also have to break down some cells in to sub cells, like "Service" in to multiple services. You might also first fill in what the competitors have to be better able to fill in ours to match "apples to apples". Do not be afraid if you find that you have something no one else does. That may not be bad at all but in fact a great marketing and value point for new customers.

Table 1: Competitive Analysis 

After you finish filing it out you will have a better understanding of who your competition is, what a customer may see in them and how to improve your postion to these customers to gain their business.

We are starting out November asking the users of our most popular truck wash product "Brown Derby" to send us comments, testimonials, before and after photos, results you made happen for your clients and even video clips telling us what you like about using Brown Derby.

And as appreciation for the responses, we will offer up to 20% off product costs on your next order placed before December 31, 2011. Good on any of our products not just Brown Derby. This offer of course can not be combined with other customer discounts or used on shipping. Amount of discount will vary between 10-20% depending on the amount and type of the response.

We hear all the time from our customers that they love using Brown Derby but we would like to learn specific information, a detailed account and results for clients so that we can use them later in promoting this great product.

So if you have used "Brown Derby" in the past or are using it now, weather you bought it directly from us or even just through one of our customers, go to http://bit.ly/BrownDerbyStories and tell us your Brown Derby stories.

As we mentioned in our last post the Power Washers of North America was set to have their annual convention in Nashville, TN and it was a great success. We introduced four new products, held booth drawings, donated two $100 product coupons as door prizes and two cases of our new Dyn-O-Coil as auction items.

The PWNA hosted almost 100 contractors from all over the country, even as far as Hawaii and over 12 vendor exhibitors at the Hotel Preston. Although the weather was cold and gloomy the accommodations were well received and did not require that anyone leave the hotel during the entire event. Which was convenient because the time was packed morning to night with courses, learning sessions, snack and chat lunchs, and trade show vendor times. There was even a special cocktail hour, award event and following meet and greet Saturday night.

If you are a contractor and are not a member of the PWNA you should really think about joining The PWNA.

Here are a few shots from the event:

The 2011 Power Washers of North America convention is next week. It will be held this year in Nashville, TN, October 20th-22nd.

Soap Warehouse will be there as an exhibitor and is also a Gold Sponsor of this years event.

We will be introducing some new products, a few that are to full fill needs that our customers and past trade show participants indicated that they wanted.

First is our Dyn-O-Coil Mineral Scale Preventer System. Many contractors complain about how their hot water machines get fouled and had problems stemming from hard water issues. So with that in mind this new product will inhibit scale crystal formation and even remove existing scale on coils, in a pump, on valves etc. with no harm to the machines parts.

Just a 1/2 ounce of preventative per gallon of soap mix is all that is needed, 1 quart per 55 gallons of water for prevention or 1 gallon per 55 gallons of water to work on removal of existing scale buildup.

Soap Warehouse will be giving away 4 gallons a day as a booth drawing during the event as well as donating 2 cases to the PWNA auction to raise money for the organization.

Next is a product for roof washers that were having trouble with their bleach solutions staying long enough on steep pitched roofs that they did not want to be up on. This product we are calling "Hang Ten". Because this solution additive will thicken to hold the chemical on the roof even at a high degree of roof angle. All that is needed is for "Hang Ten" to be 5% of the solution mix. Ex: 1 quart (32 ounces) per 5 gallons (640 ounces). The quart being 5% of the 5 gallons.

Hang Ten can be mixed into straight 12.5% sodium hypochlorite or into a dilution. It even has aded surfactents such that other cleaners should not be needed in most cases. But it can be used with our product Citrus X-terior if added cleaners and fragrance is desired.

Hang Ten will not thin out over time, in fact it may get slighty thicker than its original thickness at 30 minutes out. The normal rest time we suggest after mixing and before use.

We also have two new Kitchen Exhaust cleaners; "Bonzi" and "Hood Cling" These are for our Hood cleaning customers that either wanted a product like another "Bonzi" product that is out on the market or one that had longer cling time on veritcal surfaces but with out adding any foam component to get it.

Both are sodium hydroxide products and should be very price competitive with others in todays marketplace.

Be sure to stop by our booth at the PWNA for a special thank you gift, to register for a chance to win some Dyn-O-coil for your self or to order product at show special savilngs.

See you there. To read more about Dyn-O-Coil or to order

How Hard Water Effects Pressure Washing 

For most of the country hard water is a way of life, the only difference may be in the degree that you have it. So how does hard water effect pressure washing and what can be done about it?

First lets us discuss where hard water is found and where it comes from.

Water hardness is rated by GPG - grains per gallon, and hard water, higher than 1 GPG includes 85% of the country. The amount of hardness will vary from slight to extreme, see map.

Hardness Levels

• Soft water – less than 1 grain per gallon
• Slightly hard – 1 to 3.5 grains per gallon
• Moderately hard – 3.5 to 7 grains per gallon
• Hard – 7 to 10.5 grains per gallon
• Very hard – 10.5 and higher grains per gallon

Rain water dissolves minerals present in rocks as it passes though the ground down to the water table, aquifers and wells. Carbon dioxide being heavier than air also combines with rain water underground and helps convert the carbonates of calcium and magnesium into bicarbonates. These bicarbonates being soluble in water cause hardness. These bicarbonate salts exist in the form of positive and negative ions which can be used, as you will see later, in ways to help incapacitate or remove them by certain methods, one being ion replacement.

Disadvantages of hard water

For the pressure washing contractor the first effect of hard water is on the soaps and detergents. Because soap and detergents have an ionic nature, when they dissolve in hard water, each soap molecule reacts with any calcium ions, limits the formation of lather and instead forms precipitates or scum. This scum essentially renders the detergent ineffective, so much more soap is needed to clean if used with hard water.

The second major problem with hard water is that when it is heated, it will deposit solid calcium carbonate or lime scale. Scale is a poor heat conductor and in a hot water pressure washers scale insulates water from the coils heat source. For many pressure washers a hot water machine is a necessary time saver, since heat increases the effectiveness of soap and helps break down and dissolve the contaminates they are trying to remove for their customers. But the scale produced in their machines when using hard water will very quickly start to reduce the machines effectiveness to heat and maintain hot water as well as restrict water flow in the other pressure washing equipment, even to the point of changing the flow rate Gallons per minute or PSI that the machine should be producing. As flow is restricted it places a heavier strain on the pumps motor which can cause early wear and failure.

Water Softeners

To reduce the negative effects of hard water, many ways have been developed to remove hardness. These techniques range from adding softening chemicals, to either the soaps, the water or both, in order to avoid having to use larger quantities of detergent and stop lime scale. Portable filters can be used to filter water running through the machine to change the ions to prevent scale build-up on the heating element. Water softeners work using a technique called ion exchange, whereby calcium and magnesium ions are replaced by sodium ions, which do not cause hardness. Even separate machines containing magnets are now being used to alter the molecules action in the water just before entering the machine to inhibit scale build up with out using chemicals at all, just electricity.

You may already be using softeners

Soap manufactures are very much aware of this problem and many add softeners to their chemical mixes without the customers not even knowing it. These softening benefits may be communicated in the detergents description with phrases such as "superior ingredients", "great suds action", "works well in hard water" "cleans well in cold water". Just like car wash patrons that are not aware that they are probably getting extra sheeting and quick drying chemicals added to their final rinse whether or not they are paying extra for them, just because the car wash owner wants you to be happy with a dry car and come back again. And since these chemicals are not hazardous they are not mandated to be listed on a MSDS or reported to consumers.

Local water departments may also be adding softeners to the water supply that you are not aware of. In known hard water areas ground waters may be treated by lime softening, as are many hard surface waters, or by ion exchange softening, in which calcium and magnesium ions are exchanged for sodium ions as the water passes through a bed of ion-exchange resin. The only way to know how hard your local water is, is to have it tested or read up on it in the latest water departments federal reports. Most are easy to find or copies supplied when requested as long as you live or own a business in their jurisdiction.

Costs to create a balance

You as the pressure washing professional must gather information and then weigh the options available to find the most cost effective way to combat hard water and it effects on your equipment and bottom line.

Here are some numbers we have gathered from speaking with owners of pressure washing equipment businesses that also handle pressure washing repair.

The pressure washer part most effected: the hot water coil, second is the pump itself.

The time and cost of de-scaling a coil; time 4 hours, cost average $260.

Cost of replacing a coil $800 - $1,800 depending on size and brand of machine.

Infrequency of run time is a larger factor in regards to scale build up compared to the length of run time. In other words you can't just say you should clean your coils after every 100 hours of run time. A machine that was run 100 hours in 5 hour long sessions all in one month will have much less scale build up than a machine that ran 100 hours used in only 1-2 hour sessions that covered a 6 month long time period. It seems one point is the frequency of heating and cooling, along with the length of time that water circulates through the machine, that can play a role in build up. For instance here is a photo of the inside of a home owners pump that was used only twice but three months apart and when the owner pulled it out again 6 months later was having trouble with stuck valves.

You can work from the front of the problem and buy soaps with added softeners, buy additional softeners to add to your chemical mix or water tanks, attach filters or electromagnet systems as water comes into your machines or on the back side just periodically use coil cleaners or pay to flush the scale from out of your machine to deal with hard water. Any way you go, costs will occur. It is just up to you to evaluate your options and find the most cost effective solution. Because the only other recourse is to ignore the facts about hard water and pay for it over and over again in mechanical repairs and replacement costs.

Soap Warehouse has just added a new product to our line called Dyn-O-Coil. This is a additive to use in your mix water or any soap product that will prevent or even remove scale deposits over time. This product is in addition to our So-Soft water softener and our Non-Acid Coil Cleaner that we introduced earlier this year. Call to order 1-800-762-7911 or view pricing on line in our catalog.