Some days you just can't win.
After spending nearly the whole day closed because that stupid wind-storm knocked out the power we were finally able to open around 4:00. Or so we thought. After waiting for a while, (and having time to type up why I liked electricity) I finally got a customer for the car wash.
I rang up her service, pulled her truck onto the track and started everything up. Except not everything worked. The pre-spray, high-pressure sprayer wasn't running. So I ran around and checked all the breakers. Nope still not on. I ran around and double-checked everything again. Still not on. Finally, I checked the computers. Yep. Even though they are not normally turned off, they were to protect them when the power came back on. Oh good, now everything should be fine.
Wrong.
When I was done pre-spraying the truck, I hit the button to call up a roller on the track. Nothing. This is normally done by a pneumatic actuator, so I figured that the air valve must have been left closed. Nope, that wasn't it. The air compressor wasn't running. I ran around again and checked all the breakers and switches, but I couldn't find anything that I saw as wrong. After making the decision that I couldn't get the compressor running, I called my Dad (who put most of the equipment in) to see if he had any ideas.
Somewhere around there, I had to refund the money to my customer and rinse her truck off and back her out. So the only sale of the day for the car wash was lost there.
But back to the compressor - My Dad suggested that I check the compressor's control unit. So I got out the multi-tester to check things out. Oops, the multi-tester needed new batteries, had to change them. Ok, so a poke here. A prod there, and to make a long story short, too late, it seems that the power outage may have damaged the coil to the compressor motor starter. So no compressor - no air. No air - no car washes.
There is an outside chance that everything will re-set overnight if the power is left disconnected. Right now that's all I can hope for.
I hate electricity.
Posted by GEBIV at September 29, 2005 07:04 PM | TrackBack