IQ System Milestone – 500 Units in Operation

D&S and the IQ recently reached a momentous milestone: The 500th operational IQ unit was installed on March 26, 2020 in Sharpsville, PA by Wash Kingdom.  This mammoth achievement is a proud landmark for both D&S and the car wash industry at large – but it didn’t happen overnight.  It took the hard work, dedication, passion, and inspiration of many over a ten year span to reach this point.

A decade ago, a meeting of the D&S Management Team was held to map out a strategy for designing the next generation of car wash equipment. With the successes of the Odyssey, Quicksilver, and i5000 models, D&S had established itself as a major player in the car washing industry and aimed to create a model of car wash equipment utilizing advances in technology occurring since the design of those earlier products.

It began with a wish list; a compilation of the greatest wants and needs of the car wash industry.  Something smarter – possessing the ability to give each customer a customized wash for their vehicle, something cleaner – granting every single customer the absolute best wash possible, and something greener – reducing required chemicals, energy and power to decrease operation costs while remaining mindful of the effects on the environment.  As the ideas took shape, the wants and needs turned evolved into core features of the new machine – giving life to the wash’s moniker: “Smarter, Cleaner, Greener”.

It was these revolutionary core features that inspired the naming of the machine as the “IQ” for its intelligence, performance, and one-of-a-kind scanning ability.  As with any new invention though, the initial challenges and a few headaches were experienced after the first IQ’s installation in 2010.  It was the feedback and experiences of early adopters such as Brian Merz, Troy Roush, and Brian Templeton among others that assisted in the machine being enhanced, thus creating the refined line of equipment in the IQ 2.0 – which today includes Soft Touch and Touch Free models and the IQ Express.

Though much credit is owed to those who spawned the ideas, a host of other individuals have played an integral role in the IQ success story.  First and foremost, we are truly grateful to our D&S distributors and IQ customers in the car wash, auto dealer, and convenience store markets. Through their success selling the system and investing in the IQ to delight their consumers we are able to celebrate this milestone.

D&S CEO Jon Jansky would also like to personally credit the following individuals for their contributions to the success of the IQ line of equipment:

Jerry Canfield – For having the vision and creativity for designing and building such an incredible machine.

Wanda Stilwell – For being here through all the ups and downs of building and shipping every one of the 500 units.

Brian Templeton, Brain Merz, and Troy Roush – For having faith in the machine and being the early adopters on the machines and made so many contributions to make the unit dependable.

Drew Dressler – For selling the units and for handling the Trade Shows over the years.

Cody Cross – We’re on the 6th revision of code and it has never been better.

Process Engineering (John Arras, Ken Canfield, Jason Burgess, and Warren Mason) for all the little and not so little improvements that made such a difference during the equipment evolution like the wheels etc.

Chris Matz – Who wrote every one of the 500 quotes for the IQ and helped do the bay layout.

Bill Hoaglin – For sales, service, and support all over the country.

Dave Marsh – For the DSF (D&S Financial Program).  We sold a lot of IQ over the last 10 years because of DSF.

And all of those I did not mention who helped out in so many ways.”

In the words of D&S COO Tim Huntington “We have a special machine that others have tried to copy without success. This is a credit to our engineering team and other key suppliers.  We have a good team of folks at the plant from building, to designing, to selling the IQ.”

In the 10 years of its existence, the IQ has proven itself times over – now becoming the main revenue and growth engine for D&S and our Distributors.  With the 500 unit milestone, the IQ has surpassed the combined unit count of the Odyssey, Quicksilver, and i5000 washes in the field. That fateful meeting changed everything for D&S, and has significantly impacted the car wash industry at large.

Jansky went on to say “I am very grateful, proud and happy that we have hit this major milestone, here’s to the next 500!”.

Congratulations to everyone involved with the inception, growth, and spread of the IQ line of equipment, and congratulations to D&S!