By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post

A longtime car wash owner is bringing new technology to an old location in Hays.

Construction is underway on a new Buff Soft-Touch Car Wash at the corner of General Lawton Road and 27th Street, the site of a former car wash that was demolished almost five years ago.

Larry Schaffer, co-owner of Buff Car Wash, said the new facility will feature two IQ Soft Touch automatic bays and two self-serve bays and will exceed the city’s current water conservation requirements.

The new Soft-Touch technology captures a 3D scan of vehicles that enters the bay, which provides a custom wash for each individual vehicle. The system also has new cell foam brushes that provide a more efficient wash.

According to Schaffer, the automatic washes use less than half the water of traditional automatic car washes.

Schaffer said the business continues to do everything it can to provide a quality car wash but also save water.

Compared to washing in a driveway, Schaffer said, “When you wash it (car) in a driveway that water is gone.”

“As compared to a carwash, we capture about 85 to 90 percent of all the water that is used goes to the sewer, which is processed and reused again and again,” he said.

Schaffer said a similar facility was installed in Great Bend about a year ago, and it has been a success.

He hopes to open the new facility by the end of November.

Schaffer and his son, Brandon Schaffer, own five other Buff Car Wash locations, including the Buff Car Wash on 27th Street.