our story

After realizing the need in Thurston County for a tunnel car wash, Shirley and Ron Ryder built the first Shur-Kleen in Lacey in April of 1985. Because of its success, in February of 1988 they opened a second location on the west side of Olympia. In June of 1993, Shur-Kleen became incorporated with the Ryder family members becoming its corporate officers. In November of 1996, Shur-Kleen’s next wash opened in Bremerton, WA.

Then in July 1998, Andrew Ryder, son of Ron and Shirley, bought an existing wash and remodeled it in Lakewood, WA. He introduced something that none of the other Shur-Kleen’s had offered before, extra services including drying down and cleaning the inside of the customer’s vehicle on the exit end of the wash. The extra services were so successful that most of the Shur-Kleen Car Washes have since followed Lakewood’s example converting to the “flex-serve” car wash model.  

The newest car wash is the Ft. Lewis Shur-Kleen that opened in December of 2004. Upon opening, it became the most successful Shur-Kleen which required a full service canopy to keep up with the growing demands for interior services. At this time, Andrew’s partner, Liberty Hetzler joined in the business.   

Along with these tunnel car wash locations, there are also two Shur-Kleen self-serve washes in the Bremerton area.  In 2009 Andrew Ryder and Liberty Hetzler purchased the Shur-Kleen Corporation and continue to be hands on owners.

Thanks to great customers and team members, we look forward to continued success and growth! As we look into the future, we will be continuing our efforts to continuously update all the Shur-Kleen Car Washes to the most environmentally friendly products, services and equipment possible.