[Joe W Brown]

I left my chemicals and machine in the van the other night when it dropped to minus 10. Luckely my airlfex storm is ok, accept for the pressure guage which has gone haywire (it shows zero pressure as 600psi). Normally I bring this in every night when it plans to freeze, however I got distracted by the excitement of snow. My chemicals I have always left in my van, however it has not been this cold before.

I have a very wide range of products all of which I keep in my van - solvents, enzyme powders, microsplitters, coloidal fluids, scotchguards etc etc. Which of the chemicals will have been ruined if any?

Im reluctant to bring everything in at night. 1 i have no room in my bedsit and 2 its prrobably an extra hour or more work per day to move everything in and out.

[Neil Jones]

Your quite lucky really it wasn't the machine or tools, I wouldn't let snow distract me from looking after the machine that costs £1000's. In chemicals all I know is that protectors can be ruined by freezing, have you got a heater for the van?

[Joe W Brown]

I realise how lucky I am with the airflex storm being out there. Normally I bring machine and wand in most nights when its cold.


I dont have an electric supply to van for heater, nor much room in my van (vauxhall combo) for insulation.

I guessed protector might be ruined. Is there any way of telling or should I just bin it?

[John Kelly]

Your protectors will be knackered. Check with the relevant manufacturers regarding the others.

[Nick Attwood]

I'm sure Chemspec posted on FB just the other day advising that products with enzymes "even powders" should not be left in freezing conditions! Not sure why but assume the cold must affect the enzyme and probably affect its performance!

[Billy Russell]

I'm sure Chemspec posted on FB just the other day advising that products with enzymes "even powders" should not be left in freezing conditions! Not sure why but assume the cold must affect the enzyme and probably affect its performance!

Yes they did, it was on the one with my new employee! 

[dustee]

looks like reluctance has just cost you money   ,  thats how i learned ( the hard way )

[Eddie Conroy]

From my distant school days I seem to remember that 'Hope's Experiment' (or Law) states that water reaches it's densest point at 4 degrees centigrade. From that point down to freezing the water starts to expand until it arrives at an ice state. It is possible that some products will deteriorate at this point.
 It happened for me on a badly made up micro splitter where the phosphate went grainy and on one detergent based prespray product. I monitor the max and min tempertures on my van during the colder months and am still surprised beween forecasted temperatures and the actuals
When I first started I had the brass male joints on my wands ruined and a hose blown in my Ninja. So now I tend to unload the more sensitive / or expensive chemicals and equipment as a matter of habit (luckily I have the room)
Regards to all

Eddie

[Jim_77]

In answer to your question (I presume you already know you screwed up and don't need your nose rubbing in it )

- your microsplitters and colloids will probably be OK, depends on the formulation
- solvents should be fine
- powders no problem
- detergents may be OK but as a first visual inspection: pour some of each one into a glass and see if it looks separated or cloudy (helps if you've got some un-frozen product to compare with).  Ultimate test, clean something with it and if it works no problem!  I think there may be a large psychological element involved with that, if it fails to bring something up brand new you'll automatically blame the freezing but it might not have done the job even if it hadn't been frozen!
- your protector will be burgered, bin it, not worth the risk!

Tricky situation if you can't heat your van.  Makes it hard with such a small van too... it would probably ruin your organisation inside but you could try using a couple of storage boxes to keep all your susceptible chems in... that way they're easy to pick up in one hit and carry inside.  You might be able to minimise the screwing around to 3 or maybe 4 trips back and forth, including machine & wands etc?

[Joe W Brown]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

Thanks everso much Jim. I will get hold of some large containers for my liquids.

[robert meldrum]

Filling a coupl of 25 gallon containers with hot water and placing close to your machine then covering with a couple of old duvets could be worthwhile if you can't get a power lead to the van.

[JandS]

Takes me 6 trips and 7 minutes to load and unload.
There again I have the space for it all.

[Jim_77]

You do get it down to a fine art with a bit of practice!  When I had my Scudo and Ninja I put one storage box of chems on top of the machine and wheeled that with one hand, whilst carrying the wand and small sprayer in the other hand.  Next trip big sprayer and another box of chems, third trip lock van up and carry any other bits back to the house.

Glad I only had to do that for one winter though, previous to that I could pull right up and unload in to an internal garage that had the boiler in it so nice and snug... since then truckmount with insulated van, just chuck the heater and fan in the back and leave it!  Outdoor sockets are very handy!