YSK: Automated Car Wash Dyers are a Potential Death Trap

[bubstance]

I haven’t been around in a long time. I apologize if this is considered inappropriate for General, but I have nowhere else to tell people. I have tried Reddit, they refuse to put my posts up. I keep getting errors, and this is something people need to know.

This is a crosspost from multiple threads I’ve tried to release, but all keep getting removed. I feel it is important for you all to know, no matter the personal repercussions.

YSK: Automated Car Wash Dryers are a Potential Death Trap

I have worked for one of the primary automated car wash dryer system manufacturers for over 5 years. I will tell you now, they are completely unsafe. They are aluminum death traps.

Car wash dryers are built by less than 10 companies in the USA. There have been many mergers and acquisitions over the past decades in an industry that already has essentially no oversight by any agency, but it all boils down to this:

The basic design of a car wash dryer has not been changed significantly in over 30 years.

In the event you do not know, I am talking about so-called “touchless” car wash dryer systems, specifically the type where a large series of “blowers” air drys your car at the end of an automated wash cycle.

They are death traps.

They can kill you at any moment.

I have worked for one of the largest suppliers of stand-alone dryers in the entire industry. They are based in the Southwestern USA. The company employs less than 10 people with no oversight into production. They are not OSHA compliant. The workplace is hazardous to employees, with those working in our facility having no health insurance, no benefits, and more importantly, no direction of oversight. We are dying to make a useless product.

The “designs” of the company I have worked for (which is the original company that designed the basic dryer system) goes back to at least the ‘70s and has been almost unchanged since then. I have documentation, experience, tales and stories, as well as actual blueprints that prove my point.

What I’m telling you is this: if you see a label or badge (usually a bright red sticker) that proclaims the dryer system was made by either SUPERIOR or THE DRYER PROS, those systems are potentially faulty, have no oversight in their build process, and CAN KILL YOU.

As a side note, if this alone doesn’t convince you, any dryer system or automated car was system you drive your car into that has either of those labels on it—DO NOT ENTER IT. ESPECIALLY if it looks in any ways “rusted” or has a ”patina” or matte finish. Those are the primary causes of fault. Units manufactured within the last 30 years have components primarily made of zinc and WILL rust to the point of failure. The company I worked for specifically has hundreds of requests each year for replacement of suspect parts and components. They are built by only a handful of people (primarily myself as well as our SINGLE welder) and if the system is older (10+ years) they are built with components (zinc bolts and thin aluminum) that rust and begin to decay within ONE YEAR. Our new units do not fare much better. And our products are all over the world. USA, Canada, UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, China... you name it, we sent product there.

DO NOT USE AUTOMATED CAR WASH SYSTEMS. THERE IS A RISK OF DEATH IF YOU DO. WASH YOUR CARS BY HAND.

In our industry, if the primary impeller (the single piece that moves air, the “fan”, if you will) fails, it becomes what we have termed a DEATH FLOWER. It shoots MASSIVE (5” square) pieces of solid aluminum STRAIGHT INTO YOUR CAR OR INTO THE AREA IN FRONT OF THE UNIT.

If you feel you absolutely HAVE TO use an automated car wash, DO NOT, and I repeat, DO NOT, under ANY circumstances, stay inside your vehicle and ride through the car wash. There is a substantial risk of death, especially in units that stand by themselves in various parking lots or nearby basic automated washing systems.

I am risking a lot by telling you this. My life is on the line and the company I work for will likely sue me into oblivion for telling you this information.

Thank you, and I hope someone reads this.

[bubstance]

Please, if someone could say I'm not crazy and that this is valid, I would love and appreciate you eternally on a deeply human level. I've wasted years of my life to write those paragraphs; there's even more, and OSHA has elevated my complaint to a supervisor for my state.

If the OP needs to be rewritten, just say it. PM me, post, whatever.

I'm dying here and need someone to add their opinion.

[D.o.S.]

Haven't owned a car in five years and this post makes me feel better about this.

[bubstance]

You are absolutely better off for that.

Love you FuzzBro, even if we've never had direct contact.

[D.o.S.]

Stay safe my dude.

[bubstance]

I'm tryin'

[Dandolin]

1) this is a lot

2) good that you're in process with OSHA, but have you considered going to the Consumer Product Safety Commission? or the press?

3) not to be flip, but it really sounds like its time for a different job. like now.

[Achtane]

Yeah dude. It sounds like pretty much anywhere else would be better.

[JonnyAngle]

It’s pretty dangerous driving in a car too

[Drunkdriver]

but, like, how though? Does it launch dislodged rusted components at you?

[fcknoise]

but, like, how though? Does it launch dislodged rusted components at you?

You signed up to a guitar fuzz forum for the car dryer thread

[Dandolin]

waited for a month for the right thread to come along tho

[sears]

but, like, how though? Does it launch dislodged rusted components at you?

Yes! Read it again!

If this is true it's a major bummer. Going through an automatic car wash is one of the innocent joys of my life. The blower at the end, which I go through as slowly as possible to get all 45 seconds, nursing the clutch "just so," watching those bubbles of water skate across the clean, waxy windshield? And now I can't do that anymore? Frankly, if I'm gonna go via DEATH FLOWER, maybe it was all worth it.

[Dandolin]

only one way to find out

[qersty]

but, like, how though? Does it launch dislodged rusted components at you?

You signed up to a guitar fuzz forum for the car dryer thread

cause we have threads about fuzz