Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: clevs on October 28, 2007, 09:22:40 pm
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Hello there, I was just wondering with the bad weather coming up, if any of you guys had any tips on how to stop the water freezing up on the window ??. Got caught out last year, bloody nightmare. Any tips would be great to know. Cheers Simon
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if its that cold i ain't working or start later
simbo
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If its that cold that the brush freezes, you cannot start......so....clean the upstairs the night before, until it starts freezing and the next morning do the bottom windows trad with a bit of antifreeze in the bucket. Aint perfect but at least you get a bit of revenue.
Crystal balls available- special offer £99, ;)
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Just to update my post, I only use Trad methods, so was wondering was there anything on the market to buy, to add to the water along with my glimmer clean. Thanks for the advice so far guys....!
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:P hot water :P
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ye get urself some screen wash, use neat if really cold
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Cheers Mike ! Will try that.......
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sounds like best bet ;)
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Cheers Mike ! Will try that.......
Yeah like Mike said use screenwash. That's what I did when trad. Never needed to use it neat though.
N.B. I'm told that antifreeze can damage car paintwork so presumably screenwash differs in some way. Therefore I didn't use antifreeze in case it damaged anything (probably unlikely but just in case).
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:P hot water :P
If its cold enough to freeze water, before it will dry it will freeze and spot, surely?
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Just to update my post, I only use Trad methods, so was wondering was there anything on the market to buy, to add to the water along with my glimmer clean. Thanks for the advice so far guys....!
Alcohol. Chuck a bit in your bucket. Thats what they use in Canada. Of course, then you have to use gloves as it will take your skin off with prolonged use, then there's the ladder problem too, you need to de-ice the ground for the feet.
Alternatively do what most w/c do when it gets that cold....GO HOME.
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Go to Florida, don't come back till weather improves.
If its that cold I don't work. Problem solved. Mind you we don't get many days that cold.
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Vince, thankfully you are right we don't have many days that this will happen...or hopefully not....WFP or Trad, if the temperature is cold enough to freeze water then you have to seriously consider should you be working at the time! Wait for a while and then start, H & S is a big issue here, someone has already mentioned ladders, would you want to be balancing them on icy conditions and wfp as your water hits the ground it freezes! not good for either yours or customers safety. Work sensibly work safe!
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Before I found this forum several years ago I used to look at a lot of American sites where temperatures are way below freezing for months. How would we cope with that?
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Vince, thankfully you are right we don't have many days that this will happen...or hopefully not....WFP or Trad, if the temperature is cold enough to freeze water then you have to seriously consider should you be working at the time! Wait for a while and then start, H & S is a big issue here, someone has already mentioned ladders, would you want to be balancing them on icy conditions and wfp as your water hits the ground it freezes! not good for either yours or customers safety. Work sensibly work safe!
compleatly agree,if its that cold i forget it and go home,last thing you want is a member of the public putting a big claim against you or hse on your back
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If water is freezing on the glass then it's probably freezing on the ground too so why would you want to be up a ladder cleaning windows considering the safety aspects :) Freezing on the glass is time for a day off or clean low level bungalows traditionally.
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I had this prob last year in Edenbridge, put water on windows, and it just frosted up !!, but the ground was ok to use ladders on, maybe I should get more work in London, and leave the outback !! Gets bloody cold out that way....... Thanks for all the tips guys, very helpful......
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Thermopure system high stuff. Salt on the ground after if required. Trad the ground floors.
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Sean thats very interesting, its called the Mpemba effect but it relies on certain conditions to be present and the exact reason for its occurance is unknown, people can only speculate. I tested hot and cold water on glass and hot water dries 4x quicker than cold, Luke
ps. I suggest everybody reads this article about the mpemba effect.
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/24493
Although it is infact sometimes true certain circumstances, you will see from this article that it isnt always true that hot water freezes quicker. To have a definitive answer an experiment would need to be carried out that applies ONLY to a WFP WC circumstances. Different things will effect the mpemba effect:
the cold waters temperature
the hot waters temperature
the windows temperature
Unless the experiment is carried out on many houses ( different internal temperatures affecting glass temperature ) then the test will not be fair as the mpemba effect is by no means reliable. It is unlikely that hot water in excess of 90c would freeze quicker than water that is 5-10c but if the hot water is at 60-80c when it hits the glass there is a chance it would freeze qucker on a freezing day. Luke
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Vince, thankfully you are right we don't have many days that this will happen...or hopefully not....WFP or Trad, if the temperature is cold enough to freeze water then you have to seriously consider should you be working at the time! Wait for a while and then start, H & S is a big issue here, someone has already mentioned ladders, would you want to be balancing them on icy conditions and wfp as your water hits the ground it freezes! not good for either yours or customers safety. Work sensibly work safe!
Another issue I found on the colder days was mud freezing up on the rungs. It can be lethal.
Be careful out there !!
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The hot water warms the glass this buys some time. The hot water tends to run off more readily so less is left on the glass to freeze. The coldest air temp we have worked in is about -5 degress cent. We ended up with a few drops of frozen water on the windows when finished. Customer was commercial and was quite happy with results. Res customers tend to have their heating on full pelt and we have no problems at all. Sometimes the odd frozen drop of water but nothing more. Only problem is with consevatories. Usually can do them trad or just miss em out that clean and reduce price.
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Vince, thankfully you are right we don't have many days that this will happen...or hopefully not....WFP or Trad, if the temperature is cold enough to freeze water then you have to seriously consider should you be working at the time! Wait for a while and then start, H & S is a big issue here, someone has already mentioned ladders, would you want to be balancing them on icy conditions and wfp as your water hits the ground it freezes! not good for either yours or customers safety. Work sensibly work safe!
Another issue I found on the colder days was mud freezing up on the rungs. It can be lethal.
Be careful out there !!
Good point one that comes to mind from last year was water freezing up around peoples front doors after cleaning the windows i warned me customers when i finshed that it might be slippery most seemed ok
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A couple years ago I couldn't work one morning because the water in my tank was partly frozen with ice floating at the top of the tank. The pump would work but couldn't get it to pump through microbore hose. So I swapped my microbore (6mm internal) for minibore (8mm internally) and sorted myself out with a hot water system after insulating my tank, hoses, r/o, the lot. Never had anymore problems with very cold morning starts and can easily clean windows that would normally freeze up if cleaning traditional method. The water is more or less dry before it has a chance to freeze nowadays.
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I have personally done a test with freezing a glass of hot water, and a glass of cold water. The cold water froze first, perhaps it hadn't heard of the undergraduate or the Mpemba effect.
A hot water system will keep you working a lot more hours in the winter than a cold water system will.
A good idea on houses is to do the doors with a scrim, this reduces the amount of water lying around the door area.
Peter
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out of interest what temperature was the hot water when you put it into the freezer? luke
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out of interest what temperature was the hot water when you put it into the freezer? luke
Luke, It was water boiled in the kettle, and water from the tap. I put them outside.
It dosn't really matter though, the hot water will give you enough time to clean and rinse the window before the water freezes on the glass. The droplets left behind when you are finished the window will or can freeze, but they will evaporate spot free when they defrost. More importantly (because most buildings have heat inside),hot water in your tank or container will stop the water freezing in the pipes, or brush jets.
Peter
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I'm looking into water heaters at the moment,.. If anyone knows of cheap ones that could be adapted for WFP use, let me know!
There's no way I'd spend thermopure kind of money for maybe 2 weeks out of the year below freezing though.
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I'm looking into water heaters at the moment,.. If anyone knows of cheap ones that could be adapted for WFP use, let me know!
There's no way I'd spend thermopure kind of money for maybe 2 weeks out of the year below freezing though.
below freezing I doubt they would work, if the tips freeze at the end of the hose and on brush, warm water traveling through a freezing pipe would be cold by the end of it and frozen straight away. Please correct me if I am wrong.
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Well im glad to see my post has created so much interest !! Getting a little techinal now I think LoL Thanks guys for all your comments, very helpful........ Cheers
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how do you use heated water? do you have a special heater for it or what?
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At what temp do you hot system users heat the water to so you don`t crack the glass on houses on really cold mornings.
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25-40 degrees Celsius. The colder the day the cooler the water to minimise the risk of cracking panes of glass.
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For traditional window cleaners I remember someone saying that Isopropyl (also known as rubbing alcohol) can be added to your bucket to prevent the water from freezing. Is this the case? If so at what quantities and is it damaging to your skin?