Quote:
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Originally Posted by evoq
I have read that the crspotless system works very good, and one of the advantages is the cost vs mr clean autodry, and also that you can add your shampoo, or don't use any shampoo at all."
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I was intrigued and ran some numbers to see if the CRSPOTLESS system really did have a cost advantage (a way to justify purchasing it because it looks cool
) Unfortunately it doesn't appear to be the case in less I planned on using it for over 20 years (see below)
The average car wash uses 20 gallons of water [
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ga..._teacher.html]
The D300 filters 300 gallons before the filters need to be replaced [
http://crspotless.com/pgroup_descrip/4/7/] they cost $99.95 plus shipping.
Lets suppose 3 gallons are used in the average car wash for rinsing. With 300 gallons you would get 100 car washes with the D300 before the filters needed to be replaced.
$99.95/100= $0.99 per wash
The Mr. Clean Autodry replacement filter is $5.99 at Autozone [
http://www.autozone.com] and filters enough water for up to 10 washes.
$5.99/10 = $0.59 per wash
Now, if you factor in the initial cost of the units the difference becomes remarkable.
First year cost difference (Assume 52 Washes)
CRSPOTLESS ($309.95 includes filters for 100 washes)
$309.95
Mr. Clean Autodry ($19.99 includes filters for 3 washes)
$48.90 ---- $19.99 + $28.91 (.59*49) in filter replacements
Two Years Out
CRSPOTLESS $311.93
MR Clean $77.81
CRSpotless definately looks cooler, and would be the envy of the car washing neighborhood - and it very well may work better the the Autodry (both being sufficient reasons to purchase it) however by my calculations it is not cheaper to use.
If you became very skilled and were able to use just 1 gallon to completely rinse your car the cost would come down to $0.33 per wash. At that rate you would break even over the Autodry system after approximately 1115 washes or slightly over 21 years.
Oh well...