Water Works Car Wash started in the early 1970’s in the Midwest and continued serving those customers until the 1990’s when the locations were sold to concentrate on the Colorado locations.
OUR FIRST COLORADO LOCATION: We enjoy the great weather in Colorado and it sure beats washing cars in the winter in the Midwest. That’s one reason our first Colorado location was purchased in 1980 at our current Nevada Avenue address.
The 5,000 square foot building and equipment we purchased were a little tired in appearance and functionally. We knew that customers wanted a clean facility that processed vehicles quickly with an emphasis on quality, so a complete overhaul was needed in both the facility and the process.
Customers appreciated the new approach to car washing, especially the quick, friendly service. We still guarantee 20-minute service or the wash is free. The Nevada location has grown to over 12,000 square feet with the addition of a complete detail center as our customers demanded more auto appearance services other than simply car washing. We now offer a full array of auto appearance services at all three of our locations.
OUR SECOND LOCATION: We built our wash on La Montana in 1985. Customers appreciated a wash in an area of the city that was then the far north side. Our grand opening featured a free wash and we processed over 1,800 cars that day. 180 cars per hour isn’t an easy feat but we always believed that our assembly line techniques could not only wash cars quickly but also clean every part of the car, inside and out.
Using the latest building and equipment design we thought that cleaning cars would be easy; it wasn’t. The problem was that the rotating brushes all car washes used at the time didn’t get in all the cracks and crevices, so those areas had to be done by hand. We thought there had to be a better way. Inside of two years we removed all the brushes and made this location the test site for touch-free washing, one of the first in the country.
RIGHT TOUCH WASHING: In the early days all car washes used spinning brushes or soft cloth to clean cars, as most conveyorized car washes do today. We knew there had to be a better way to safely wash a car, to do away with the damage caused by the spinning brushes or cloth dragging over the car's surface, and to provide enough agitation to clean the car. We knew if we could somehow develop a process to clean cars without anything touching them it would be a win-win for our customers and us.
The problem was that the equipment and cleaning solutions to go touch-free wasn’t available commercially. The only option was to design our own equipment, which was based on oscillating zero degree nozzles utilizing water and cleaning solutions at high pressure to agitate the dirty car instead of the using friction from the brushes. That was only part of the solution. PH balanced cleaning solutions had to be formulated and applied in the tunnel in a precise way to loosen the dirt before the zero degree nozzles could blast the dirt away.
Water Works still formulates our own solutions to wash cars safely.
Many car washes and manufacturers realized the potential to wash cars without touching them and manufacturers over the years have made equipment available based on zero degree oscillating nozzle design.
Many car washes tried the touch-less process but realized how difficult it was to get clean cars using only the touch-less concept. The one variable that touch-free needed to be successful was great quality water, which is not available in most parts of the country. Colorado Springs is blessed with pure rocky mountain water that made touch-free washing without brushes work for Water Works when it didn’t work in other areas of the country. We also found out that we could use less water with touch-free because we didn’t have to lubricate all the brushes with water and the final rinse could use a lot less water because all the dirt didn’t have removed with the final rinse.
Most conveyorized washes now rely on a little touch-free technology and again have added a lot of brushes or soft cloths to the wash process, which brings back the same safety issues as in the past. Water Works believes that customers want their cars washed safely and we believe that our process assures safety.
In 2008, we enhanced our process using a new finish friendly material called NeoGlide. We use this new material to add a Polishing Foam to the body of the car then buff the polish into the surface with the NeoGlide. We think the new process produces a phenomenal effect to the finish of the car. NeoGlide is soft and safe...check it out. We call it "The Right Touch".
OUR THIRD LOCATION: In the late '80’s we purchased an existing wash one block east of Academy on Maizeland Rd. We tried to operate the location as a “hand wash,” a big fad at the time. Hand Washing sounded good but turned out to be a huge mistake. Washing cars with essentially a bucket and a sponge doesn’t produce clean cars and it takes forever.
So in 1990 we closed this location and built our 1108 N. Academy wash. The building was a health club that was remodeled. A tunnel was added to the rear of the existing building and a complete detail center was incorporated into the 15,000 square foot facility.
WHAT IS IN OUR FUTURE? We don’t see a new full service wash in our future but have added self -pay terminals for customers that wanted an exterior wash with super quick service. Simply pay at the terminals and enjoy the ride through our wash process with the personal touch of having your car towel dried at the end of the line. Five minute service isn't unusual and at $5 the price is right.
Today you will see car washes developed that simply run the cars though equipment and provide no additional services, our philosophy is that we want to provide customers with many more services. We look forward to providing washing and detail services with quality, speed, low cost and service for many years to come. We’re constantly learning from our customers and are continually adjusting our menu of options to maximize the value they receive during their visits. You have made us who we are. Come visit a real auto appearance center that does it all when you are in the area.
