Akron Car Wash Market Analysis
Akron, OH
Data updated · September 26, 2026
43,398 Google reviews across 322 car washes in 2 Akron counties. Format mix, operator rank, county breakdown, rating vs. income, aspect-level customer signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 322
- 78% independent
- Chains
- 24
- lead: Sheetz (10 sites)
- Avg rating
- 4.43★
- near national MSA median
- Damage rate
- 1.2%
- 1.3× below national norm
- Cancel friction
- 18.9%
- Top format
- detail shop
- 35% of classified inventory
- Median single wash
- $11
- range $10–$50
- Median unlimited
- $28/mo
- cheapest $17.99/mo at GetGo Café + Market & WetGo Car Wash
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 699,508
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 294,063
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 2,172
- near the national MSA median
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 0.8
- in the 0.5–1.0 filling band · classified sites
Key findings
- 322 car wash locations operated by 24 chains and 252 independents across 2 counties.
- Weighted Google rating 4.43★ across the market; structural concentration and format mix sit near US-metro norms.
- Built from 43,398 Google reviews, 12,289 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
322 car wash locations across 2 counties · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
No single structural signal jumps out for Akron — it's a mid-shape car wash market. 24 chains compete alongside 252 independents — typical mix for a market of 322 car washes. Customer-experience signals across 12,289 AI-extracted reviews produce the distinct read on this market.
Weighted rating 4.43★; damage 1.2%; membership-cancel friction 18.9%. Staff is the brightest aspect signal (0.83/+1). Per-operator and per-format cuts below are more informative than the aggregates.
Published pricing across the 39 of 326 Akron locations with menus available: median single car wash $11 (range $10–$50), median unlimited membership $28/month (range $17.99–$60/mo). The cheapest unlimited membership in the metro is $17.99/mo at GetGo Café + Market & WetGo Car Wash (Guard Pass).
See the top car wash chains in Akron
Ranked by location count in the metro
What does a car wash cost in the Akron metro?
Published menu pricing for car washes in the Akron metropolitan area, captured from operator websites and the WashIndex AI calling agent. 39 of 326 tracked locations have usable published pricing (12% coverage).
| Cheapest unlimited memberships in Akron | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | GetGo Café + Market & WetGo Car Wash Guard Pass | $17.99 per mo |
| 2 | GetGo Café + Market & WetGo Car Wash Guard Pass | $17.99 per mo |
| 3 | Clean Express Auto Wash Basic Deal | $20 per mo |
| 4 | Quality Scrub Car Wash Express | $22 per mo |
| 5 | Clean Express Auto Wash The Basic Bee | $22 per mo |
| Cheapest single car washes in Akron | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Speedy Wash and Lube-Car Wash (Lube Hours Differ, Check Website) Pit Stop Wash | $10 |
| 2 | Whistle Express Car Wash INCLUDES PROTECT | $10 |
| 3 | Quality Scrub Car Wash Express | $10 |
| 4 | Quality Scrub Car Wash Express | $10 |
| 5 | Quality Scrub Car Wash Express | $10 |
Pricing scraped from operator websites where published; the WashIndex AI calling agent rings up locations that don’t publish menus online to capture pricing directly.
The car wash industry in the Akron metro, officially
Fast-growingthe Akron metro is one of the faster-growing car-wash job markets: employer establishments grew 13% from 2022 to 2024 — ahead of the ~7% national pace — to 60, now employing about 421 people at a $31,632 average wage.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, QCEW (private, NAICS 811192). Counts car-wash employer establishments, a narrower universe than all physical wash locations — see methodology.
Car wash financing in the Akron metro
Build-out marketSince 2011, the U.S. Small Business Administration has backed 23 car-wash loans in the Akron metro worth $19.6M, at a $765,000 median per car wash and a 11.1% charge-off rate. Early read: the mix tilts toward new construction — 57% of loans funded brand-new washes — pointing to a market where operators are still adding supply.
FY2026 annualized from its first 6 months.
- Summit 19
- Portage 4
- New build / open57% · $874K
- Expansion / improvement22% · $835K
- Working capital13% · $20K
- Unclassified9% · $208K
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration 7(a) & 504 FOIA datasets (NAICS 811192), data through 2026-03-31. See the Car Wash Lending Tracker for national figures and methodology.
About the Akron car wash market
How many car washes are in the Akron metro?
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What is the best-rated car wash in the Akron metro?
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Which car wash chain has the most locations in Akron?
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What is the average customer rating in the Akron car wash market?
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What is the typical household income near car washes in Akron?
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How much does a car wash cost in Akron?
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How much does an unlimited car wash membership cost in Akron?
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What is the cheapest car wash in Akron?
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What kinds of car washes does Akron have?
Format counts below split Akron's 322 car wash locations by operating concept. Each format serves a different customer occasion — express tunnels for throughput, full-service for staffed convenience, detail shops for hand-finished work — and the rating column lets you read whether each format is meeting its own expectations here.
Highest-rated format: Detail Shop at 4.93★ across 35 locations. Lowest-rated: Self-Serve Bay at 3.61★ (4 locations).
221 (68.6%) of 322 locations are unclassified — small independents whose websites don't surface enough signal for format assignment. Format-level statistics describe the classified subset only.
| Format | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage Rate | Cancel Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unclassified | 221 | 68.6% | 20,324 | 4.50 | 0.42% | 20.0% |
| Detail Shop | 35 | 10.9% | 2,375 | 4.93 | 0.15% | 0.0% |
| In-Bay Automatic | 31 | 9.6% | 4,581 | 3.77 | 1.76% | 12.0% |
| Express Tunnel | 24 | 7.5% | 14,240 | 4.51 | 1.83% | 19.1% |
| Full Service | 7 | 2.2% | 1,506 | 4.17 | 9.74% | 21.7% |
| Self-Serve Bay | 4 | 1.2% | 372 | 3.61 | 2.78% | 0.0% |
What is the household income near Akron car washes?
Each ZIP in Akron is joined to IRS Statistics-of-Income (tax year 2022) and to the per-location Google rating dataset. The scatter below sizes dots by review volume and colors them by format.
Pearson r between ZIP income and Google rating across 174 qualifying locations: -0.05 — effectively zero. Operating quality dominates over neighborhood income. Scatter mean: $73K AGI/return, 4.20★.
Car wash count and quality by income tier
Blue bars: location count per tier. Orange tick marks: average Google rating (same y-axis).
| Income tier (mean AGI/return) | ZIPs | Locations | Reviews | Avg Rating | Top Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $50K | 9 | 51 | 13,503 | 4.62 | Detail Shop (5) |
| $50K – $75K | 13 | 98 | 14,034 | 4.29 | In-Bay Automatic (16) |
| $75K – $100K | 10 | 61 | 13,491 | 4.40 | Detail Shop (14) |
| $100K – $150K | 3 | 8 | 252 | 4.34 | Detail Shop (2) |
| $150K+ | 3 | 15 | 1,481 | 4.13 | Detail Shop (3) |
Income band spread: 15/4.13★ at the highest tier; 51/4.62★ at the lowest. In a balanced market, the per-tier read is most useful as a sanity check on whether the operating quality is income-uniform or income-stratified.
Who operates the most Akron car washes?
24 chains alongside 252 independents make up Akron's car wash supply. The chain rank below shows the multi-location operators' position; the per-location detail near the bottom of the page captures the independent layer.
| # | Chain | Locations | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage | Cancel | Upsell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sheetz | 10 | 2,234 | 3.45 | 0.20% | — | 0.00% |
| 2 | bp | 7 | 410 | 3.59 | — | — | — |
| 3 | Quality Scrub Car Wash | 5 | 1,252 | 4.18 | 12.50% | — | 1.92% |
| 4 | United Auto Wash | 5 | 748 | 4.10 | 1.32% | 11.4% | 0.66% |
| 5 | Ultimate Wash | 4 | 372 | 3.61 | — | — | — |
| 6 | Blue Falls Car Wash | 4 | 424 | 3.91 | 9.09% | — | 0.70% |
| 7 | Hometown Car Wash | 3 | 381 | 4.20 | — | — | — |
| 8 | Sgt. Clean Car Wash | 3 | 1,055 | 4.40 | 3.88% | 3.4% | 1.19% |
| 9 | ModWash | 3 | 4,695 | 4.86 | 0.56% | 17.0% | 0.22% |
| 10 | GetGo Café + Market & WetGo Car Wash | 2 | 202 | 2.90 | — | — | — |
| 11 | Petit Auto Wash | 2 | 377 | 4.00 | — | — | — |
| 12 | Country Clean Car Wash | 2 | 312 | 4.06 | — | — | — |
| 13 | Clean Express Auto Wash | 2 | 633 | 4.37 | — | — | — |
| 14 | Macedonia Laser Wash | 2 | 175 | 4.14 | — | — | — |
| 15 | Hoodiewan’s Mobile Car Detailing | 2 | 70 | 4.80 | — | — | — |
| 16 | Whistle Express Car Wash | 2 | 795 | 4.22 | 11.03% | 24.2% | 0.00% |
| 17 | Stow Laserwash | 2 | 404 | 4.64 | — | — | — |
| 18 | Splash Car Wash of Green | 2 | 1,206 | 4.05 | 4.82% | — | 1.81% |
| 19 | Rubber Duck Auto Wash | 2 | 131 | 4.01 | — | — | — |
| 20 | Take 5 Car Wash | 2 | 3,478 | 4.60 | 0.87% | 24.1% | 0.40% |
| 21 | Waterway Carwash | 1 | 239 | 4.10 | — | — | — |
| 22 | Soak City Car Wash | 1 | 482 | 4.30 | 6.03% | — | 1.72% |
| 23 | Wheely Clean Car Wash | 1 | 214 | 4.20 | — | — | — |
| 24 | Willo Wash Ravenna | 1 | 124 | 4.00 | — | — | — |
Which counties have the most car washes in Akron?
Counties of the Akron CBSA are listed below by car wash count. Summit County is the most density-concentrated. Reading the rating column tells you whether quality is uniform across the metro or whether specific counties pull in either direction.
Cross-county rating dispersion: 0.26★ between the highest- and lowest-rated counties with meaningful sample size.
| County | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summit County | 257 | 79.8% | 38,530 | 4.46 |
| Portage County | 65 | 20.2% | 4,868 | 4.20 |
What do customers love and complain about in Akron?
Seven aspects, 12,289 reviews, 322 locations. The grid below gives a quick read on which dimensions of the experience Akron's car wash market does well at and which generate friction.
Where are all the car washes in the Akron metro?
322 car washes are tracked in Akron; below is the top of the list by Google review count. Locations with fewer than 10 reviews are excluded from the rating column.
| Location | City | Format | Chain | Rating | Reviews | ZIP AGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Coast Mitsubishi Akron 1875 Brittain Rd | Akron, OH | — | — | 4.7 | 10,115 | $37K |
| ModWash 3152 Manchester Rd | Akron, OH | Express Tunnel | ModWash | 4.9 | 2,705 | $74K |
| Prestige Auto Mall 1559 State Rd | Cuyahoga Falls, OH | — | — | 4.4 | 2,254 | $83K |
| Take 5 Car Wash 4573 Kent Rd | Stow, OH | Express Tunnel | Take 5 Car Wash | 4.6 | 2,042 | $84K |
| Take 5 Car Wash 8581 Darrow Rd | Twinsburg, OH | Express Tunnel | Take 5 Car Wash | 4.6 | 1,436 | $88K |
| ModWash 505 West Ave | Tallmadge, OH | Express Tunnel | ModWash | 4.8 | 1,217 | $75K |
| Perfect Auto Collection 895 E Tallmadge Ave | Akron, OH | — | — | 4.7 | 928 | $37K |
| Speedy Wash and Lube-Car Wash (Lube Hours Differ, Check Website) 3160 Barber Rd | Barberton, OH | Express Tunnel | — | 4.3 | 776 | $56K |
| ModWash 1788 E Main St | Kent, OH | Express Tunnel | ModWash | 4.8 | 773 | $65K |
| Splash Car Wash of Fairlawn 130 S Cleveland Massillon Rd | Fairlawn, OH | Express Tunnel | Splash Car Wash of Green | 4.1 | 656 | $166K |
| Whistle Express Car Wash 135 Tallmadge Rd | Kent, OH | Express Tunnel | Whistle Express Car Wash | 4.4 | 636 | $65K |
| Splash Car Wash of Green 3405 S Arlington Rd | Akron, OH | Express Tunnel | Splash Car Wash of Green | 4.0 | 550 | $56K |
| Sgt. Clean Car Wash 3673 Massillon Rd | Uniontown, OH | Express Tunnel | Sgt. Clean Car Wash | 4.3 | 543 | $93K |
| Sheetz 6941 OH-44 | Ravenna, OH | In-Bay Automatic | Sheetz | 4.0 | 527 | $60K |
| Soak City Car Wash 2156 E Waterloo Rd | Akron, OH | Express Tunnel | Soak City Car Wash | 4.3 | 482 | $56K |
| Quality Scrub Car Wash 2960 State Rd | Cuyahoga Falls, OH | Full Service | Quality Scrub Car Wash | 4.3 | 455 | $83K |
| Clean Express Auto Wash 9475 OH-14 | Streetsboro, OH | Express Tunnel | Clean Express Auto Wash | 4.4 | 446 | $71K |
| Big Mike's Automotive & Collision 556 4th St NW | Barberton, OH | — | — | 4.7 | 400 | $56K |
| Splash Car wash of Coventry 3385 Manchester Rd | Akron, OH | — | — | 4.2 | 351 | $74K |
| United Auto Wash 1021 Graham Rd | Cuyahoga Falls, OH | — | United Auto Wash | 4.1 | 338 | $84K |
| Sgt. Clean Car Wash 2743 2nd St | Cuyahoga Falls, OH | Express Tunnel | Sgt. Clean Car Wash | 4.5 | 334 | $53K |
| Sheetz 20 W Waterloo Rd | Akron, OH | In-Bay Automatic | Sheetz | 3.1 | 330 | $74K |
| Falls Laserwash 1675 Portage Trail | Cuyahoga Falls, OH | In-Bay Automatic | Stow Laserwash | 4.6 | 316 | $83K |
| Quick Clean Car & Pet Wash Store, Ltd. 2500 Mayfair Rd | Akron, OH | In-Bay Automatic | Hometown Car Wash | 4.2 | 282 | $56K |
| Collision Service of Green 3663 Massillon Rd | Uniontown, OH | — | — | 4.9 | 277 | $93K |
Compare Akron to other OH car wash markets
Each link drills into a full per-metro analysis — operator concentration, format mix, and customer-experience signals against the same methodology.
Data as of 2026-09-26. Pick a format and click Copy.
WashIndex. (2026, September 26). Akron car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/akron
WashIndex. "Akron car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified September 26, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/akron.
"Akron car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Sep. 26, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/akron.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_markets_akron_2026,
title = {{Akron car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Sep},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/akron},
urldate = {2026-09-26},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for the Akron, OH CBSA is determined by point-in-polygon test against the official US Census county boundaries (TIGER/Line, 2024) for the 2 counties that make up the MSA. Each location was verified to fall inside one of those county polygons; lat/lng comes from Google Maps metadata.
Operating-quality signals are derived from 12,289 customer reviews processed through WashIndex's 55-field LLM extraction pipeline. Format classification comes from a separate per-location website-reading classifier. ZIP-level income data is from the IRS Statistics of Income (tax year 2022) — mean Adjusted Gross Income per tax return, which is directionally aligned with ACS median household income but available without authentication.
See our full methodology for the extraction pipeline, validation samples, and aggregation logic. Term definitions in the glossary.
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