Car-Washing Gadget Makes Splash in Japan : Turbo-Tek of L.A. Racks Up $6 Million in Sales as Cleanliness-Conscious Find Uses in the Home

Japanese consumers have shunned American-made cars, but they’ve taken a shine to a California-bred gadget that keeps their Hondas and Nissans looking spiffy.

In 1987, Turbo-Tek Enterprises sold 635,000 of its Turbo-Wash spray washers to Japan, ringing up $6 million in sales. The Los Angeles company’s worldwide Turbo-Wash sales reached $26 million last year.

Turbo-Wash, which has been a hit in the United States as well as Japan, is a 36-inch plastic wand that attaches to a garden hose. It has a soap-filled cartridge that allows users to spray soapy or clear water.

Turbo-Wash is marketed in more than 60 countries primarily as a car-washing device, but the cleanliness-conscious Japanese have discovered another household use.

“The Japanese found they could use the product to clean their public and home baths,” said Fred Reinstein, co-inventor of Turbo-Wash, which is manufactured in Anaheim.

Most baths in Japan are heated by copper coils containing tiny perforations that sometimes become clogged with body oils and hair. Brushes are usually used to clean the coils, but Turbo-Wash simplifies the cleaning task, Reinstein said.

Turbo-Wash is so popular in Japan that consumers there have been willing to pay a premium for it. It sells in Japan for about 12,000 yen (about $90), compared to only $19.95 in the United States and most other markets. Reinstein attributes the big price difference to the complex Japanese distribution system, which means that a product is marked up numerous times before it reaches the consumer.

Because the product is “fun to use,” Reinstein says, “we’re finding that Japanese men are using it even though it’s been the custom for women to do the cleaning.”

Turbo-Wash is Reinstein’s second success in Japan.

In the early 1980s, the 45-year-old Kansas native sold millions of Wacky WallWalkers in Japan. The squirmy, plastic octopuses--which later wiggled their way to brief popularity in the United States--appear to crawl down a wall after they are thrown against it.

The WallWalker experience “taught me a lot about the Japanese,” Reinstein said in an interview in his stylishly decorated office in a drab two-story building on Venice Boulevard.

One lesson he learned from the WallWalker experience was to patent his products in the countries in which they were sold. The original WallWalker spawned dozens of copies.

But even though Turbo-Tek took precautions by registering its Turbo-Wash patents in Japan before the product was sold there, it still had to contend with knockoffs.

Sixty days after the company began selling Turbo-Wash in Japan, copycat spray washers from Taiwan had reached Japanese stores. Turbo-Tek was dismayed to learn that one of its own Japanese distributors had contracted with a Taiwanese manufacturer to copy the Turbo-Wash and was setting up side-by-side displays of the two products in Japanese stores.

“They (the copies) could have destroyed us,” said Reinstein, who dispatched lawyers to Taiwan and Japan to combat the copycatters.

“The Japanese could have cared less about our patents,” Reinstein complained. “They make it very difficult to get (patents) registered, and it takes too long. They won’t really protect you.” The patents finally were approved earlier this month.

But Turbo-Tek claims to have spent about $2 million in legal fees defending its patents and trademarks in Japan and elsewhere.

With its patents in place, Turbo-Tek expects shipments to Japan to double in 1988, based on sharply higher orders so far this year. “We’re way ahead of last year,” Reinstein said.

The privately held company said its profits in 1987 were about $4 million on $26 million in sales.

Japan isn’t the only foreign market where Turbo-Wash has made a splash.

“We are selling many Turbo-Washes in China with very little ability to advertise,” Reinstein said. “Our sales in China are just unbelievable.”

The company shipped 14,000 Turbo-Wash products to China one recent month. In China, where relatively few households own cars, the product is mostly being used for household chores such as cleaning bathrooms and kitchens.

Outside Asia, Turbo-Tek’s biggest export markets are Australia, Canada, West Germany and France. The 3-year-old company says its product is now sold in 64 countries.

“What we’ve learned from Turbo-Wash is you didn’t have to be in the fad business,” Reinstein said. “You can take a product, and if there is a need for the product, we can make it grow.”