2008 ICA Trade Show – Page 3

April 15, 2008January 18, 2024

coinco’s new bill acceptor – Vantage

I also checked out the coinco booth at the ICA show. I was looking at the BillPro-CRX Card acceptor which attaches on the front of a standard BillPro-CRX bill acceptor so you can accept credit cards. It costs around $150 and it has a metal bezel.

I really liked coinco’s new bill acceptor: the Vantage. This has the coolest features concerning the bill surpressor and others. The red arrows (left picture) show the suppressor in the out position and the (right picture) shows it in the in position. This can be activated when somthing strange is inserted into the changer or it can be set to surpress on every bill accepted and stay in that position until another bill is inserted. There are 3 setting on the suppressor that change the length the suppressor stays back, to help with speed. Also is has a nice feature that when the bill acceptor gets wet, it will not shut down and the next bill inserted will go in and out to dry out the acceptor. Cool. I believe (I did not write it down) that it also can accept 110 different coupons. The coupons are different then the old ones and use a fancy printing process instead of the old way. The blue arrows show the bill box locking hasp, which is an add on; pretty worthless but cool if your maintenance man hates quarters and only steals bills. It also programs easily, but how many time do you really have to do that?

April 14, 2008January 18, 2024

Etowah Valley Equipment ICA booth

I checked out the “Genesis” Rowe conversion kit $995 (last picture). It replaces the bill acceptor, ccc, and power supply. The Rowe people were saying that the BC-200 conversion kit will cost around $800 and replace all the same parts.

I really liked this switch (middle picture) that they were selling; it seemed very heavy duty (10 position around $110). It reminds me of the iwash switch.

I also post the fliers that Jim Gosnell was handing out. http://cwguy.com/?page_id=2514

April 14, 2008January 18, 2024

ICA Education Session Handbook

I enjoyed the ICA meeting this year and appreciate Jeff Byma from the International Carwash Association, for helping me attend the show and to attend the educational sessions.

I also enjoyed meeting Eric Hanson from Boston? who invited me to a party I was not invited to. I believe he said that he was going to send in some pictures of his wash for me to post. I also enjoyed meeting Kate Carr and Pat Harrington from Professional Carwashing & Detailing. I also talked to Greg a couple times while he was running away from me and others.

I could not attend very many sessions this year because I was extremely tired but I did attend “Going Green” by Bill Sartor, Washem Car Wash.

The ICA meeting only had 16 sessions this year, but in 2005 (the last time I attended) they had 29 over 5 days instead of 3. Also the session handbook was a lot larger then this years.

April 13, 2008January 18, 2024

Self serve necessaries

I picked up my 2008 catalogs at the ICA meeting, I think that everyone should have one of each for self serve car washes or just a pressure washing business. Why? because each company seems to have different products. The new catalog I added this year was “CarWash Superstore” which I have never had but Greg really loves them.

Kim Supply kimsupply.com 1-800-444-2783

CarWash Superstore carwashsuperstore.com 1-877-663-9274

Windtrax.com “The Car Wash Store” windtrax.com 1-800-443-0676

Dultmeier Sales dultmeir.com 1-800-553-6975

Kleen-Rite Corp kleen-ritecorp.com 1-800-233-3873

April 13, 2008January 18, 2024

Giant Towels

I went over to Giant Industries booth who sells the high pressure guns that I use. The lady at the booth explained to me the difference between the stainless steel guns and the all brass gun. She said that the only difference was the discharge fitting was stainless and should provide better life to the gun.

She also gave me some towels and a “Moistwipe”.

April 12, 2008January 18, 2024

Cool air fresheners

I talked to the people in the Sonny’s booth and they said they are selling more self serve supplies. I am not really sure but while looking in their “2008 Auto Accessories” catalog I found my “I Love Jesus” and “Mossy Oak” air fresheners. So I will have to purchase them and see how they sell.

I always liked the “Cherry Bomb” air fresheners and the customizing idea, but never have done it. To customize one side (with their stock image on the other side) $.36, for 2 sides $.39 (also a one time setup for $75).

I went past Average Joe Auto care products and checked out “The Amazing Aroma-Disk”. This air freshener seems like a good idea if they sold a special vending machine that you never had to stock (which I asked them about), but you have to just use your current vendor. Average Joe’s web site says they cost $9.99 for 10 but they might sell through a distributor cheaper?

April 11, 2008January 18, 2024

What happened when I got home from the ICA meeting?

A large storm came through and the power went out, so I went to sleep. Our neighborhoods power is underground but the people with all the tress have above ground power, which caused all the problems.

April 11, 2008January 18, 2024

Alabama / Florida rest area

As soon as I got to the Alabama line I saw a convertible Corvette motorcycle hybrid. When I pulled into the Alabama rest area I saw a helicopter about to land and some nice wood paneling. I also witnessed two of the most retarted people when it come to using a vending machine. Maybe the drink vending machine should have had a sign stating “make sure coin acceptor is attached to the vending machine you want to use”? Maybe not?

April 10, 2008January 18, 2024

Well, I did not make it to Birmingham….

I did not make it to Birmingham today and needed to spend the night at a Days Inn in Tallahassee Florida. I started going through the information that I collected and realized that I got too much crap. I will be going through all my pictures of the ICA meeting and posting them soon (along with posting pictures and descriptions of products that I talked to vendors about). I also stopped at some car washes in Orlando and on the way to Tallahassee and plan to post those pictures soon.

I guess the hotel was in a bad part of town (last picture), maybe that is why it was the cheapest in town?

April 10, 2008January 18, 2024

The long drive home…..

I picked up a flier from a Florida rest area and realized that I needed to “Slow Down!” to protect black bears. Did you know that 160 bears were killed in 2007?

I was very tired after the party and still did not get over the drive to Orlando. So I took a break at Petro and noticed a common site, an out of order Rowe changer.

While visiting the Rowe booth at the ICA meeting, I noticed that all but one of the Rowe changers had Mars bill acceptor. Which is weird because the Rowe acceptor seems to have problems all the time. Did Rowe even figure this out?