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Cars pass through the car wash at Orem's Wiggy Wash on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. For their grand opening, the car wash is offering $3 washes for the day. Sammy Jo Hester, Daily Herald

Sammy Jo Hester, Daily Herald

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Cars pass through the car wash at Orem's Wiggy Wash on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. For their grand opening, the car wash is offering $3 washes for the day. Sammy Jo Hester, Daily Herald

Sammy Jo Hester, Daily Herald

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An employee watches as cars pass through the car wash at Orem's Wiggy Wash on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. For their grand opening, the car wash is offering $3 washes for the day. Sammy Jo Hester, Daily Herald

Sammy Jo Hester, Daily Herald

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Cars pass through the car wash at Orem's Wiggy Wash on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. For their grand opening, the car wash is offering $3 washes for the day. Sammy Jo Hester, Daily Herald

Sammy Jo Hester, Daily Herald

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When you visit Orem’s new Wiggy Wash on West Center Street, just off State Street, you might want to bring a book. Or some knitting.

You’ll get in a lot of Facebook browsing as you go through the Orem car wash, because with side-by-side conveyor tunnels each more than 200 feet long, it is the largest conveyor car wash in Utah County, and in North America, according to MacNeil Equipment of Canada.

While the Orem Wiggy Wash isn’t the longest in the nation — that honor currently belongs to Rocket Express Car Washes in Idaho and Midvale, Utah — the Wiggy Wash’s dual washes make traffic flow very quickly. 

All this size isn’t just for records or publicity — it’s essential in sufficiently cleaning the winter yuck off local cars and trucks.

Wignall said he is passionate about cleaning all sides of Utah County cars and trucks. He said the length is needed to make sure each wash removes all the dust, clay, salt and guck from each vehicle.

“You have to have that space and that much equipment for our weather. Utah County’s dirt is like no other place — it’s a type of clay that is hard to clean off a car with just one spray. And you have to have that length, so you can get the back of the car fully clean,” Wignall said.

When most people think of a car wash, they don’t really think high tech. The car wash has always been about the water and the soap. But car wash equipment has come a long way, and is much more high tech than it was even 10 years ago. Wignall takes advantage of that tech in every one of his locations.

The Wiggy Wash system utilizes multiple layers of targeted rinsing and soaping. Each section of the conveyor belt has several sensors that reads the size and type of vehicle going through the channel, customizing the wash. They also use a trench system, to funnel the vehicle and its water runoff through the tunnel.

“And the lights are fun for the kids. We always overbuild them — we build them taller and wider to keep it as bright as possible, so customers don’t feel like they are in a cave,” Wignall said. “We invented the trench system because it makes it less claustrophobic, and it’s better for maintenance.”

And when you are talking about numerous moving parts combined with water and electricity, you should expect a lot of maintenance work. Wignall or his partner and co-founder, Chris Hailstone, can always be found almost every day, out working on any one of their three Wiggy Wash locations. In addition to the Orem one, they have washes in Springville and Spanish Fork. Their goal is to always have their washes up and running as effectively as possible.

“We’re very proud that we’ve never been down for more than two hours. We get in there, and we get it back up and running,” Wignall said.

Wignall and Hailstone are both former construction workers turned car wash owners. Wignall was a general contractor and owned his own framing company, and Hailstone owned a crane company. The car wash business wasn’t something they jumped into quickly, though Wignall had the idea in mind for years.

Before opening their first location in 2006, they did three years of research, which included working for another car wash company to see if it really was what they wanted. The financing took another stretch of time because they were trying a new concept in a recession.

“It was tough to get financing — we went through 60 different institutions,” Wignall said. “But Utah is the market for this, and Utah County specifically.”

As soon as investors saw how successful their Spanish Fork location was — since opening in 2006, it has consistently won business awards — Wiggy Wash was poised to grow. Though the business started in the southern part of Utah County, Wignall sees it expanding to more locations sooner than later.

“The reason people are coming to us is because we’re putting out a good product. The conveyorized car wash puts out a safer, far superior product,” he added.

There is a lot of competition in the car wash market right now, with newer brands coming in from out of state. But Wignall said he doesn’t worry about them. Being a Utah native, he and Hailstone feel they know the right way to clean a car in this state.

“The length gets them through fast, but gives them a high quality wash,” Wignall said. “We’re trying to be the best in the industry. We’re not saying we are, but we’re striving to be. We may not be washing every car in the valley, but we’re doing everything we can do to be the best.”

Editor’s Note: This article originally claimed that the Orem Wiggy Wash was the ‘longest’ car wash in North America. That was a misunderstanding on the part of the writer. There is a difference between “longest” and “largest” in the car wash industry. This article was updated March 1, 2017, to reflect that correction.

Where: 255 Center Street, Orem

Hours: Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. – 8 p.m.

More information: www.wiggywash.com