Does Your Car Wash Bay Smell Like a Pit? Here’s the Fix

If you run a car wash, what you sell is cleanliness. Your customers want to drive away with a clean car smell and look.

But there’s a problem. To get a car clean, your car wash takes the dirtiness from the car and that dirtiness needs to go somewhere.

Let’s discuss the importance of smell in car washes, why your car wash might smell and what you can do about it.

The Importance of Smell in Car Wash

Much of what most businesses do for marketing involves audio and visual methods. You expect to get more customers through websites, TV commercials, Facebook ads and those inflatable wavy guys. But what about scent?

Bakeries, candle sellers and clothing stores know how a good scent brings in new customers and everyone knows the “new car smell.” That’s because scents tickle a deep part of our brain that we associate with memory and nostalgia.

We form many scent associations over our lifetime. Sometimes we form unique connections between specific smells and core memories. In some cases, your grandpa grew dill in a garden plot beside his driveway and the dill in Polish cucumber salad reminds you of him.

In other cases, bad smells are just bad. Good smells are just good. Pungent smells instantly trigger disgust. Good smells make us feel cozy.

If you’re a car wash owner or franchiser, you don’t want to disgust your potential customers. You want them to associate your car wash brand with good scents. Like the smell of fresh laundry or new soap, a good-smelling car wash is a clear indication that your customer came to the right place for a quality product.

Why Do Car Wash Pits Smell?

Before you try to cover up the bad smell in your car wash, it’s best to determine possible causes. If you can address the core cause of the odor, you’ll have much better success.

Smelly Cars Make Smelly Car Washes

Your customers bring dirty cars to your car wash. Sometimes these cars are filthy with exceptionally smelly substances. Some car wash owners who operate near RV parks complain of customers dumping their toilet wastewater from their RVs directly into their pits.

If you have a problem with a smelly car wash, it might be because a customer is dumping something they shouldn’t.

Chemicals Are Putting Your pH Off Balance

Car washes use a variety of soap, waxes and chemicals that could be reacting with something in the water in your car wash pit. A pH imbalance could, in theory, affect the odors around your car wash. It’s rare but a pH test is an easy check.

Too Much Standing Water in Your Pits

Your car wash is designed to handle a lot of water. Your car wash pits are there for a reason after all. But, if there is a clogged drain somewhere or there are places around the car wash that catch water, you may end up with standing water sitting for long enough to start breeding bad-smelling bacteria.

Why doesn’t bleach work?

Water is often home to both good and bad bacteria. If you have the right type of bacteria in your pits, it’ll keep bad odors at bay. In those cases, you need to keep the good bacteria alive. If you use bleach, you’ll kill off everything and lose an ally in your fight against bad smells.

What Actually Fixes Smells in Car Washes? Pit Cleanings

Regular pit cleaning eliminates any potential source of bad smells coming from your car wash pits. While many car wash owners shovel out their car wash pits, a professional car wash pit cleaner can actually pump the wastewater out of your pits.

At Pit Crew, we offer quick and complete car wash pit cleaning. If you schedule regular pit cleaning, we’ll keep your car wash from building up bad-smelling sludge in your car wash pits.

Once we’re done cleaning your car wash pits and you’ve successfully eliminated bad odors, we recommend adding good scents. Give your customers a distinct “clean car” smell to associate with your brand.

Call 804-PIT-CREW to get started!