christo124
New Member
I was wondering if anyone has ever built their own hotbox. It sounds like it would be more trouble than it is worth to save a few bucks. Anyways I was just wondering if it is even possible. Thank All.
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Home Built Hot Box
- Thread starter christo124
- Start date
I was wondering if anyone has ever built their own hotbox. It sounds like it would be more trouble than it is worth to save a few bucks. Anyways I was just wondering if it is even possible. Thank All.
I SORT OF did. And the guy i do some work for sort of did too. I took a Whitco stinger 2 steam cleaner, and took the motor, pump, hoses, wiring, switches, etc off of it. I put on a 110v motor, a fuel solenoid, thermostat, flow switch and my own wiring . Now it functions strictly as a 110v pressure washer heater. Its temperature controlled, and shuts off when the trigger is released. Just like a normal power washer. I run 4000 psi through it @ 4gpm. Works great.
Now the guy i work for (that's how i started out, working for him but I'm going out on my own now) he had a Hotsy unit but there is nothing left of the original unit. the coils were replaced and its got a new case/frame. The burner isn't original either and its been rewired completely. Wish i had pics to show, but the trailer has a 7gpm 4000psi pump and 4cyl diesel motor up front, 550 gal tank in the middle and all the hoses, reels, burner, fuel tank, in the back. All the burner/engine controls are up front. and since its a custom job the flow switch it up front with the pump and a boiler thermostat (power washer thermostats like i run just don't seem to work real well, yes it took modification to make it work) in the back with it. He uses a 12v burner with a 110v transformer run from a 12v power inverter(the normal 12v transformer isn't very reliable or powerful, and running a 110v transformer from a 400w inverter is much much better and still doesn't require a generator) This is probably how i am headed. I only have 4 or 500 in my setup, and my boss well... he used new everything... so his is totally custom and was expensive. The coils alone were $500+
But, mine was pretty cheap and I haven't had any problems so far. I plan on going the 12v motor 110v transformer route to eliminate the need for a generator. I still want and need the generator but i don't want to run a fuel hogging generator AND the power washer when not necessary . That'd be three fuel hogging devices (generator, power washer, hotbox) on one trailer running at once. Lots of unnecessarily spent money.
Tom Stetina
New Member
I'm doing something similar to Torque454. Got a 3 phase Landa unit REAL cheap. Ditched the 7.5hp 3 phase motor. Mounted the pump on a cart with a 13hp gas engine and I'm going to plumb it through the Landa coil/burner and run it's 220v single phase electric through my generator. I'm actually going to fire it up this week and see how it works.
Don't like having to run a PW AND generator and double my fuel cost, but it's all I have right now.
Building one from scratch probably isn't cost effective. You could search the trade rags for a 3 phase unit for your parts like I did. I've seen quite a few pretty cheap. I'll have less than $1200 into mine. (plus the generator I already owned.)
Don't like having to run a PW AND generator and double my fuel cost, but it's all I have right now.
Building one from scratch probably isn't cost effective. You could search the trade rags for a 3 phase unit for your parts like I did. I've seen quite a few pretty cheap. I'll have less than $1200 into mine. (plus the generator I already owned.)