Not only are Viega fittings going into several locations of a car wash chain in Utah, but they’re replacing a competitor’s fittings in other locations that were previously piped.
Cody Kimber, owner of Colf’s Plumbing, said the owners of Tagg-N-Go car wash were thrilled with how Viega ProPress Stainless fittings performed and looked in more recently completed locations. So much so that they asked Kimber to change out the first two locations that didn’t contain Viega.
“We felt very confident that Viega ProPress Stainless would be able to handle the weather conditions, and it worked great – flawlessly, without a problem,” Kimber said. “When the owners saw the finished product, they were sold just on the way it looked. They ended up liking it so much they wanted the first two car washes we plumbed to have the ProPress Stainless too.”
At the Tagg-N-Go locations, ProPress Stainless is being used for the air lines. As typical with many car washes, the franchise includes a vacuum bay. However, less typical, the vacuum bay also has a compressed air system.
“You pay for your wash and the racks pull you through the car wash where it does its thing,” Kimber explained. “Then you go into another bay where you have vacuum and air lines. You have the capability of vacuuming your car out, but there’s also compressed air to blow out, for the places the vacuum can’t reach or doesn’t work for.”
And that’s where ProPress Stainless comes in. The first Tagg-N-Go locations are in southern Utah, where the temperature is regularly over 100 degrees in the summer and the piping is exposed to direct sunlight. It was thought that Aquatherm, the product originally used, would be enough to withstand the intense sun, but Kimber said they quickly discovered it didn’t do so well in the heat.
Unfortunately, the second location of the car wash was done directly after the first, so they hadn’t yet seen the issues with the competitor’s fittings and sun exposure. As the fittings began to deteriorate, Kimber said they knew something different was needed at the third location.
There were new challenges with the third location, as it was located in a colder climate in Utah and lines would also be subjected to snow, ice and below-freezing temperatures.
“I thought about stainless tubing,” Kimber said. “I’d seen other air lines run in stainless, and I knew that Viega had a stainless product, but I didn’t know then what the capabilities were with it. I called our rep (Marty Ellis), and he said ProPress Stainless would be perfect for the application.
“Then I proposed it to the owners and said that we could save labor and time on installation, and that they’d save overall on the costs with Viega, and they were on board.”
Piping at the car wash fared well through the winter, and upon seeing how flawlessly the Viega
fittings worked, the Tagg-N-Go owners then asked Kimber to replace the fittings at the first two locations, confident that Viega could withstand the varied weather conditions.
At each car wash location there is about 80 feet of 3⁄4″ stainless steel 304 pipe. The lines include 15 drops for air stations, and each station splits, so it can service two vehicles each. Colf’s Plumbing used a variety of 3⁄4″ ProPress Stainless 304 fittings, including tees, 90-degree elbows and couplings.
Inside the car wash there is some ProPress Copper used for water lines as well. Kimber said, “Anything that we can use ProPress on, we do. The labor savings outweighs any difference in cost – I can save so much.”
Although Kimber hadn’t used ProPress Stainless before the Tagg-N-Go jobs, he had plenty of previous experience with Viega. He’s been using PureFlow products for a number of years, and ProPress for the last several years. His company does a lot of residential home builds, and he said they are all done with Viega PureFlow products. It’s what gave him confidence in choosing ProPress Stainless for the car wash projects.
“Viega is more streamlined. It’s a great product,” Kimber said. “It’s straightforward and easy to put in, and it looks great.”
