Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: dai on December 28, 2005, 06:11:18 pm
-
I was going to do my own windows this morning, no chance all my gear was frozen solid in the van. My pump was frozen on my trolley system, and the hose reel was frozen too. It was -8c last night. I can't see how we can work WFP in these conditions, unless we heat the van or bring the gear inside.
I suggest you make sure your hoses are empty at night. It would only take a tiny bit of ice to block your brush jets, mine was frozen solid. I had to unreel all the hose and coil it in a big bucket of hot water. I then had to play a hot air gun over the reel for 15mins to thaw the last bit.
Condensation had formed inside the Unger teleporter pole, the sections were frozen together. I thawed out the pole, took it apart and cleaned each section.
Then I sprayed it with a silicon release agent. This turned out to be a bad move . The bloody stuff worked so well that the clamps wouldn't hold the sections in place no matter how much I tightned them. I will have to sort that out tomorrow. Back to work on friday. Glad I havn't sold my big ladder, Dai.
-
i might have sourced some EBERSPACHER HEATER's
they are original german MOD type, small and compact and run on DIESEL and are 24 Volts
Im just about to secure them (i think)
the only issue is, the fuel tanks ( i plan to use Bike fuel tanks for the diesel, if your van is diesel then no probs) and the 24 Volt, i have a guy working on this issue, he says it shouldnt be a major expense
i will post when i have it sorted, for any1 in the know, EBERSPACHER are the dogs danglies of lorry / night heaters, then run for hours on 1 L of fuel and last for ever
-
It was minus 8 here too last night fan heater in the van, and no problems at all.
First job at 8am and worked all day.
Roy
-
started at four no problems i have open bulk head with air con just enough to take edge off i just keep door shut when reeling out and working
-
All my equipment is removable except the water tank which is insulated,so i don`t have any problem with anything freezing,except when the water freezes on the windows like it did this morning >:(
does anyone know if pure water clears ok when its defrozen? Gaz
-
Matt is right
The eberspacher ( or however you spell it ) ??? are the tops when it comes to heaters. They are fitted in the top trucks for all night heating. Use hardly any fuel and like he says will last forever.
If he can pull this deal off get one. You wont regret it.
Andrew
-
Either provide heat in the van or prefarably bring your tackle in the house. Or if you have won the lottery put it all in the heated garage.
-
My backpack was frozen this morning. Luckily enough I tested it before leaving home.
I thawed it by pouring warm water into it.
I had a few millimeters of ice in each of my barrels too.
Anyway; thanks for the reminder; I'm going to bring my pole in the house.
-
It is now coming up to 7am on thursday morning and its bloody cold outside, colder than yesterday.
All my gear in the van is fine though, have a fan heater in there all night set on the frost stat setting.
Had no probs yesterday morning while working, have plenty of road salt in the back of the van to throw down where needed.
So far no problems with water freezing on the glass, and so far no problems with the water freezing on the bristles of the brush or in the jets...but it is colder this morning, so we shall see!
Lets hope we don't get too much of this through January and February eh?
Right, it's 6:54am, work beckons :-\
Ian
-
Went out to work this morning. Large hotel takes me on my own nearly all day.
But after an hour there had to pack up and come home due to my jets constantly freezing up.
Roll on the summer.
Rob.
-
list of regional dealers.
http://www.eberspacher.com/dealers.php?type=heating§ion=dealers
-
or have a look at this.
I think he sells these outside Ebay as well.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EBERSPACHER-D1LC-COMPACT-12VOLT-A-BRILLIANT-HEATER_W0QQitemZ4599758519QQcategoryZ15263QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
-
I AM THE FOOL OF THE WEEK HERE !
Just gone out to load the van for back to work tommorow and its all solid , even the tanks are are frozen to half way down , just stuck a lot of boiling on the top and it seems to be thawing nicely .
What i want to know is ...... will the pump be shot ? all the pipe work to and from it is solid , i have put hot water bottle around it ..... will i be ok or does this mean its a cert to be shot ?
Rich P @ F :'(
-
Your pump will be fine once thawed. :)
-
Cheers Jeff , thought i was gonna have to run and get myself a new pump then for a minute
Rich P @ F
-
It must be flameing cold here in Gloucester,The bristles on my brush keep freezing up,and poles sections freezing together,I was afraid that ice in the brush bristles might scratch the glass,so packed in for today.Does anyone else think that ice in brush head could scratch glass.Van not a problem,i run electric cable from house to van and keep van warm with electric oil filled radiator.
-
Allow it to thaw naturally. I have a friend who supplies spring water and his used to regulary freeze up.
You should always keep a spare pump on the shelf although most suppliers offer next day delivery. I made my spare into another spare sytem so get more use of it.
-
Good idea Jeff , i think i will get another pump as a standby , my supplier is only 10 mins away from my house , but he isnt open 24 hours a day !
RICH P@F
-
all frozen up this morning so no work for me today (ha ha)
spent a few hours fawing everthing out so i can work 2morrow
-
i might have sourced some EBERSPACHER HEATER's
they are original german MOD type, small and compact and run on DIESEL and are 24 Volts
Im just about to secure them (i think)
the only issue is, the fuel tanks ( i plan to use Bike fuel tanks for the diesel, if your van is diesel then no probs) and the 24 Volt, i have a guy working on this issue, he says it shouldnt be a major expense
i will post when i have it sorted, for any1 in the know, EBERSPACHER are the dogs danglies of lorry / night heaters, then run for hours on 1 L of fuel and last for ever
Darn, Eberspachers are expensive. We recently bought a 12v one which are also available. It cost us over £700 - NOT fitted!
-
im looking at sub 200 a unit, so a fair saving, these are all ex german MOD units
the deal is taking its time as we have issues with the lingo, i run my e.mails though a translator and i dont think its that good (or the words i use are not understood by him)
Ive got a first come first getting the goods type of post on the DIY forum
http://d.co.uk/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=163
the deal isnt 100% YET, but looks VERY likely
-
Did an experiment last night. It was -7c I ran an extension lead to the van and left an inspection lamp with a 100 watt bulb on all night. It did nothing as far as thawing out was concerned, but it did stop new water from freezing. A 100 watt bulb gives off enough heat for an escort van. Dai
-
you can get special "heat lightbulbs" give 1 of them a whirl
-
Dont forget the trip device on the extension and ask for "Rough service" bulbs- they are robust.
One prob with all the electrical answers is a power cut- thats where Matts eb***acer units come in or a paraffin heater or whatever as a stand by. We get a lot of power cuts round here.
-
have electric oil filled rad in van thermostatic control, ideal for keeping everything thawed out, but as soon as hoses touched the icy sub temp ground, bingo frozen no work today :-[
-
Hi CWS
You say your hoses froze after they touched the frozen ground.
Are you using a small bore hose?
As I use 1/2" Tricoflex hose this has five layers to stop it from kinking, and have had no problems at all.
Roy
-
can not see what the problem is convector heater in argos £20 quid plug it in and put in the van done this for 25 years now no problem just go to work.As for freezing buy a thurmo pure like mine edd nice hot poles ummm!!
-
Lend us £10grand :o
-
how about £20000 better deals on £20000
-
Got up super early ( 4.30) yesterday to do a large supermarket , took most of the gear out the night before so thats was ok , got to the site about 5.30 and started , water iced up on the windows and after about 5 mins the jets stopped , the alloy connecter that connects the 6mm hose to the big hose froze - plus the water running down onto the pavement froze turning the path into a ice rink :-[
after doing WFP for a while there was no way I was going to do all 2-3 floors by ladder .
Back home in bed by 7am ;D
went and done it today instead
-
does the hot system really help much
cause as soon as the water hits the cold glass and the cold pavement, its still going to freeze
init ??? ??? ???
-
i reckon, if its warm enough (ie not gone through some really long hose) it will only starts to freeze when its lying on the pavement, having done the job.
just a reckoning
-
definatly does not freeze on windows like i said just do your work with nice hot poles and no equipment problems either, plus with a convector in van all night its nice a warm anyway. Just switch the thurmo pure heater on as i drive to the first job and leave it on all day or as needed proberly uses 1 litre diesel a day but who caires ive got nice warm hands edd
-
PUT A GAS BOTTLE IN ME VAN FIRST FROST,HOW HOT WAS THE VAN COULD BOIL A KETTLE,MAKE TOAST AS WELL,BRETT STOOD AT THE SIDE TO GET WARM[DIDNT YOU BRETT] ;D
GAZA
-
Do I see the birth of a new business selling tea coffee and toast as a side line :)
-
I'm resurrecting this thread as we have had two horrendous days with the cold, pumps frozen, hoses frozen and also the DI cannister appears to be frozen. I have not run any water through the RO unit as we haven't used any, that may be frozen too.
Does anyone know of any heaters that can be safely plugged into the 12v cigarette lighter overnight without flattening the battery?
-
hi all
ive just secured hot water systems for our sytems , they will be coming out near future at a fraction of cost of thermo pure .
they will work on similar principle as the heat exchanger units for caravans and lorry heaters . the company themselfs will develop the best way to heat the water,and maintain heat the up side is it could also provide heat for the van . the issue is now just power as want it to run of 12 volt which means larger battery so that the booster systems can still work whist making water it may just be as simple as 2 115 amp , watch this space .
web site for essentially pure should be active next week or so
-
It must be flameing cold here in Gloucester,The bristles on my brush keep freezing up,and poles sections freezing together,I was afraid that ice in the brush bristles might scratch the glass,so packed in for today.Does anyone else think that ice in brush head could scratch glass.Van not a problem,i run electric cable from house to van and keep van warm with electric oil filled radiator.
very cold in gloucester! ice doesnt scratch the glass.
am in gloucester too. if you need any help with anything 'gis a shout.
regards.
Russ
-
Does anyone know of any heaters that can be safely plugged into the 12v cigarette lighter overnight without flattening the battery?
even the 12 V thats do drain the battery are not worth it, they are useless
-
If you are new to wfp read this thread, you have a couple of weeks to winterise your kit before the clocks go back. Could save you some costly mistakes.
-
wow not gone below 15 hee yet but i remember the last one only got caught out when trying to work as the water was freezing just as it started to come through brush
-
Hi all
no ice here just the warm rain all day two days solid sun shine today though
I usually wrap up the r os and filters in tank lagging for the winter and put oil filled rads in the vans for rreally cold nights
If the R Os freeze it will ruin them it can also distort the casings so beware expensive mistake!
must get the thermal underware out
regards grant
-
I see Sair essentially pure was threatening a web sight is it up and running yet and if so anybody got the link?
-
Thanks for raising this one - Made me think!
At last a usefull post!!!!!!!!!!!!!
David
-
This is a very important issue, whether you have a hot water system or not, as overnight is when most of the freezing goes on, when you are not using the system.
Interestingly when in use hot water freezes quicker than cold water (check your science books, it's to do with evaporation).
Insulation and bringing equipment indoors is still the cheapest way of protecting your system. If you use an RO system make sure that you wrap this up well as frost will damage your membranes.
I have to admit that I am quite lazy with this issue as I live in mild Cornwall, and it rarely causes us any problems, although even down here we did freeze up the 1 1/4" delivery hose once last winter (waz a cold'un). When I used to use Omnipoles poles we use to have the aluminium jet manifold freeze up (we keep our poles in a tube on the roof) but since going over to other brushes/poles it never seems to happen.
Alex
-
to prevent the water freezing in jets and hoses, could antifreeze be added to the pure water without affecting its cleaning abilities, would anyone know?