Protecting epuiment

[Troy F.]

I own a 16ft' cube truck where I keep my equipment. Since everything is bolted to the floor and the freezing season is right around the corner, will the machines be ok in cold? If not what can I do to protect them from damage? Thanks Troy

 

[Douglas Hicks]

search for cold weather, freezing

 

[See-It-Clean]

Throw a heater in the truck, thats what we do. just make sure it is not close to anything and there are no gas cans in the truck

 

[Doug T]

Drain any and all water/chem tanks, run anti-freeze through the system. Recover anti-freeze when you use the machine and reuse it when you shut down.

 

[A Plus Power]

Troy
You didn't say if you are closing it up for the season or intend to operate all winter.

If you are closing it up you can run NON TOXIC antifreeze ( the pink stuff) into the system by emptying your drop tank and adding antifreeze . Don't use auto antifreeze as it is toxic an youwillhve to dispose of it in the spring in compliance with EPA regulations. Run the machine until you have pink coming out of the gun and the pump, heater, hoses and gun should be ok. Don't forget to blow out your chem lines with air and empty your chem tanks or put them in a warm place.

Any water anywhere will freeze an cost you big time.


I blow out all of my lines, take off my pumps and empty all my chem tanks and don't put any anti freeze in the system as I completely empty it of water.

If you are going to stay open you need to get enough pink stuff to run through your system nightly and then pump it out with water in the morning and go to work.

If you are putting a heater in you truck use a "radiator heater". This looks like an old fashioned radiator and is full of oil. There is no exposed heating elements or flame and they are pretty safe.

Use common sense and keep the heater away from any flamable or combustible materials.

 

[Troy F.]

protection

When you say run anti freeze thru the system, do you mean pour into the water tanks and run it that way? Where are the drop tanks you were talking about? Thanks Troy. Yes I will shut down for the winter when the temp. falls below 40. I had a very difficult time washing last year as a result of the wind chill.

 

[Troy F.]

What do you plug the heater into? (power source)

 

[north coast]

Since you are in business how about having shop/office space and pull the truck in a heated garage rather then in your driveway.

 

[Troy F.]

I converted my basement to my office and my garage is only big enough for one car.

 

[On The Spot]

You can always run a deep cycle 12V battery (or 2 or 3 batterys, etc.), with one or two 12V water heating elements, a 12V water pump, a dual battery isolator (if you want to use the vehicle's alternator to charge the deep cycle batterys) and a small sealed metal tank where the heating elements would be installed. By circulating the water it wont freez as easily plus since you would also be heating the water and running it thru your PW and water tanks you could keep everything from freezing with one deep cycle battery for about 8 hours (depending on equipment, amount of water in tank/tank size, weather/temp and open or closed vehicle). This setup will work best when installed right before the pressure washer. Oh and lets not forget a thermostat so you dont have a 12V meltdown...

 

[On The Spot]

One more thing i forgot add some alcohol to the water too, that will help stop it from freezing...

 

[Troy F.]

Thanks, Sounds like a lot to put together.

 

[On The Spot]

Not at all, this works inline with the PW water supply and feeds back into the water tank with the PW HP hose. You put the system together once and just flip a switch when you need it. Then again you can always do what the others have recomended. All of these work it just depends if you want to drain everything dry everyday and fill with antifreeze, that sounds like more work to me. As the other people say on here "just my 2 cents"...