Car Wash Centre Waschtreff Wildeshausen - Germany

Performance and exclusivity

When Hayri Cansa, who was 16 at the time, started cleaning trucks as a temp in a Hamburg commercial vehicle wash, he had his first real contact with professional car washing. Later, he worked as a shop assistant behind the counter at a petrol station. "Even back then, I had it in mind to run a car wash one day," he remembers very clearly. However, "to realise such a 'crazy' idea at the age of 18 was not possible for me. So I continued to work at the petrol station and in 2001 I was lucky enough to take over a BP petrol station in Buxtehude, which shortly afterwards became Aral – a BP Group brand since 2002." A double gantry washed the vehicles at this petrol station.  Hayri Cansa bought a plot of land in 2010, built his petrol station and intended to have a car wash conveyor tunnel system built there as well. When he learned that a site with a car wash already existed in Wiefelstede, a municipality in north-western Lower Saxony above Oldenburg, "it sounded very interesting to me. I decided to acquire this property in the Metjendorf district first."

Vision – courage – initiative

The contact with WashTec came about in 2012 and resulted in the installation of efficient and reliable technology from the world market leader for both the automatic and manual washing and care of vehicles as well as other service technology in the "Waschtreff Metjendorf". "Regardless of that, my vision was to build a car wash centre according to my own ideas. In Wildeshausen, there was a suitable plot of land with a car wash that was to be leased out. Talking to the owner, the situation then arose that he was also selling the plot of land. I finally bought the plot in mid-2019. I sold the petrol station and decided to do only what I enjoyed from then on. As I enjoyed working in the car wash industry the most, I concentrated together with my wife and my son solely on the car wash business.

With a great deal of courage, the Cansa family started building the "Waschtreff Wildeshausen" on a 6,500 square metre plot in 2021. Hayri Cansa describes the difficult construction phase like this today: "With the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, my metalworker passed away. So I had to find a new company. That was very, very difficult. Then at some point we said: Okay, if there is no other way, we have to take action ourselves. I bought excavators and wheel loaders so that I could do a lot of the construction work myself, which in fact eventually involved a great deal of work on my own." It would not be an understatement to say that the result of his thinking was grandiose. On the approximately six and a half thousand square metre site, a modern washing and care bay was built with everything that the world market leader WashTec currently has to offer in terms of technical know-how for automatic washing, care and drying. The central focus of attention at Waschtreff Wildeshausen is a 45-metre-long textile conveyor tunnel car wash "on which I had all the units installed that are justifiably a sensible investment in the future in order to offer car wash customers everything and at the highest level, not to mention a perfect wash, protection and, above all, drying. It is fitting that the two men greet and advise their customers in proper work clothing. Their ideas of expanding the range of services fit in with this. "The as yet undeveloped land on the site will accommodate a gantry car wash, which can also wash vans, a self-service car wash bay and an office building, as well as an open-air caravan wash station."

Something not everyone can do

At the official opening of the "Waschtreff Wildeshausen" car wash centre in February 2022, customers were then able to directly experience how much importance the Cansa family placed on not only celebrating an extremely thorough manual pre-wash with the best WashTec equipment, but also positioning exclusive cleaning, care and drying technology along a two-track plastic conveyor belt. "Anyone can clean vehicle paintwork," says Hayri Cansa. "Wheel arches, sill areas and front and rear surfaces are important. You really have to treat these areas very intensively." Against this backdrop, he reasons: "That's why we equipped the plant with an automatic wheel sprayer, longitudinal wheel/sill washers and a high-pressure wheel washer. Four oscillating BPS high-pressure nozzles then work very intensively and effectively to remove any surface dirt, even from hard-to-reach areas of the vehicle."

Intelligently separated

The washing, care and drying tunnel indeed features WashTec technology at its best, providing every customer with a special experience as well as perfect results. This was made possible by Hayri Cansa choosing one of WashTec's flexible and variable SoftLine² conveyor tunnel car washes – a perfectly coordinated solution with a customised design for the best performance in terms of highly satisfied customers. WashTec's units in the manual pre-wash area lay the foundation for a perfect finish. Hayri Cansa had a catch basin installed under the pre-washing area for the particularly dirty washing water. Above this, on an area of 3.20 x 7.20 square metres, lies an extremely sturdy hot-dip galvanised grate about five centimetres high, on which the vehicles stop for the pre-wash. "The dirty water produced here and collected in the catch basin does not run into the circuit of the ecological water treatment plant. "I really wanted this separation," says the experienced car wash operator, "so that the recycling of the wash water from the car wash is not contaminated with high levels of dirt. It is treated through a separate separation chain before being discharged into the sewerage system." It also keeps the mixture of chemicals and water that flows out of the wax or paintwork protection arch away from the treatment process. "I also do not allow the excess of the emulsion mixtures produced there to pass through the water treatment system. This in turn reduces the process water contamination considerably and keeps the values of the treated water stable. I really didn't skimp on that."

Car washers heading for the "Waschtreff" in Wildeshausen drive into the most modern car wash centre 'far and 'wide' and, after the meticulous manual pre-wash by Hayri and his son, onto a plastic double conveyor belt. "The advantage for every customer is that their vehicles stand safely and freely on the conveyor belt with all four wheels. Rims can no longer be 'knocked out of line' and damaged by sudden steering movements. "I chose a plastic double conveyor also because it is very important for the washing and care of electric vehicles. So I think I'm positioned for the future in that direction as well."

This is how it works with WashTec

The wash bay walls are clad with light grey plastic panels. Hayri Cansa had the bay ceiling suspended and also clad in the light grey plastic material of the walls. Two rows of LED fluorescent lamps on the bay ceiling running directly above the two very wide walkways on the left and right of the washing, care and drying lane on the bay ceiling ensure, thanks to their tremendous luminosity, a pleasantly bright wash bay in which customers driving up from the pre-wash bay can drive onto the plastic belt comfortably and without stress. You then have the Smart-LED entrance gantry, backlit over its entire surface and equipped with a two-line ticker, "in front of your nose" and can see almost the entire technology of the SoftLine² Vario. The automatic wash starts off impressively with the multi-coloured FoamSensation foam wash. The intensive chemical application to each rim by two diagonally arranged, rotating pairs of nozzles continues the cleaning journey as soon as the front wheels reach their rim spray area. In the next cleaning step, the two-and-a-half-metre-long brushes of the two longitudinal wheel sill washers begin to rotate. The vehicles now reach the position of the statically mounted rotating wheel washers equipped with high pressure. This is followed by four BPS high-pressure jets that oscillate up and down, perfectly fulfilling the task of cleaning the rim and sill areas a second time, as well as pre-cleaning the side areas and roof surfaces. Then a stainless steel column positioned on both sides, each equipped with eight TurboNozzles, again "sets its sights" on the rims and sills to get to work at high pressure at up to 2,000 revolutions per minute. A half-height side wash brush is positioned on both sides between the BPS high-pressure jet nozzles and the TurboNozzles. There is certainly no better way to clean vehicles in their critical areas. "TurboNozzles are a fantastic invention that no car wash should be without. They really are superb," emphasises Hayri Cansa with shining eyes, who at the same time had a high-pressure underbody wash installed at the same height as the TurboNozzles. The unit uses 22 wash nozzles to clean the underbody of the vehicle, with two nozzles angled to clean the wheel arches. The always friendly expert has this to say: "I believe that as a car wash operator you should always be honest with your customers. For this reason, I see washing the underbody through my eyes as an underbody rinse. The underbody is then sealed with wax." – The floor in the wash bay is striking. Hayri Cansa explains: "I decided against sealed floors and in favour of stoneware tiling material. It meets the highest safety requirements and is also very easy to clean."

The main washing of the vehicles is carried out by the roller station of the SoftLine² Vario. From the modular Vario concept, Hayri Cansa selected a roof brush and four angular swing-out side brushes mounted on a travelling system inside the hot-dip galvanised and powder-coated frame structure. The brushes are equipped with SofTecs, a durable material that washes vehicles extremely gently. As soon as AUWA's ShineTecs, a high-quality paintwork protector with a "repair effect", flows out of the nozzles of the downstream spray arch, multi-coloured LEDs begin a second light show. The rollers of the polishing station massage in the paint protection before the powerful roof and side nozzles of the contour-tracking double blower dryer, which is also equipped with linear technology, fire up. The contour-tracking construction dries close to the vehicle and saves up to 40% energy. The textile roller dryer and a diagonally circulating cloth dryer absorb residual drops from the vehicle surfaces to achieve a drying result that meets the highest standards. At the end of the washing, care and drying process, "we show the customer once again on the programme column what services they received from us. This additionally builds trust with the customer and strengthens our relationship with them. At the same time, this is also a check for us as operators." Finally, WashTec's LED countdown light ensures a safe exit from the wash bay into "our huge glazed vacuum cleaner bay with a total of 20 double vacuum cleaner stations. On the five-metre wide parking spaces, customers can vacuum out and maintain their vehicles very conveniently from both sides. Soon, the installation of compressed air guns, which has already begun, will be completed in the 40 x 20 square metre building."

In dialogue with customers

Nothing is left to chance at the "Waschtreff" Wildeshausen. For example, the son bought a machine to embroider the blue and red car wash centre logo on his work clothes himself. He is also responsible for marketing and social media, developing and maintaining the company website and designing layouts and customer flyers. "We use outdoor advertising, including digital advertising space on a local supermarket. We are on the relevant social media channels and have our customers rate us on Google." A white quartet of flags with the blue and red "Waschtreff Wildeshausen" logo flies at the side of the road right by the entrance. Finally, Hayri Cansa says: "We are a family business. I really want to work for it myself and therefore employ as few people as possible. I've been in the petrol station and car wash industries for about 35 years now, so I bring a lot of experience with me and I want to pass a lot of that on to my son."