[cybersye]

I live in a first floor flat so my ro is indoors anyhow and I fill pure water out to the van. other times of year I have the di in the van but that is now inside as well after ro. I cannot run a lead overnight out to my van for a heater and although I run the pump and hoses dry last thing at end of day some standing water still causes them to freeze.

So this is what I do now

connect pump to some hose into a 25 ltr barrel mixed with water and anti freeze
pump through entire system inc. van mounted 60 meter hose on reel
at first job in morning connect up and pump through with pure water for a few mins

takes no time at all and dead simple

thought I'd share this idea with you all as it may be of help to someone

[East coast window cleaning Services]

agreed a good idea but id be worried about my running anti freeze through my filters

[cybersye]

yeah sorry I would'nt be sure on that one. what i do is all post pump in the van, all my fitering is indoors but it certainly works for protecting your pump and stopping a reel of hose from freezing if you dont have or cant use a heater like me.

[chrisyg]

Isopropanol 

[landy2]

what is this stuff and does it stop the water from freezing on the windows

[matt]

good idea cybersye

you can allways pump the ANITFREEZED water back INTO a empty 25 L barrel in the morning, thus you can use it again and again

are you the guy who i helped set up a RO in a 1st floor flat via the DIY forum  ?? ? ?

[NWH]

You could wrap up your pump in a towel and remove the hoses from the van if it`s that cold,it`s the hoses that will give you trouble as they have water left in them.

[matt]

infact the more i think of this, its a cracking idea

i drained my trolley empty of water over the holidays

i started today and the pump was working well enough, just wasnt sucking the water in, it turned out about 9 " of pipe which go into the barrels was frozen when it was bend under the cart ( pretty silly really )

if i filled the system with antifreeze water, pumped it into a 25 L barrel when i start work, then refill at night

you dont need to take things into the house / garage etc etc

[cybersye]

good idea cybersye

you can allways pump the ANITFREEZED water back INTO a empty 25 L barrel in the morning, thus you can use it again and again

are you the guy who i helped set up a RO in a 1st floor flat via the DIY forum  ?? ? ?

I had'nt even thought of that ! totally recyclable. Cheers Matt 
Dont think it was me although I remember the thread as I look over there ocassionally

I bought neat antifreeeze (2 lrts) from halfords for £10
a 50/50 mix will give you protection down to -34 degrees c, so I've done about 75-80 % water mix thats given me nearly 8 ltrs approx and should see me to -6 ok (south coast).
Pumped through the reel and all hose in the van this evening, doubt I even used 2 ltrs of it (60 meters microbore).
shall keep the 25 ltr barrel in van and just flush it back into that before I connect the tank up again, should last me a long time.

[macmac]

Or, have a "pump box" & a non-fixed reel. just unplug & bring indoors at night. plug back in morning & away you go!

Tony

[cybersye]

Or, have a "pump box" & a non-fixed reel. just unplug & bring indoors at night. plug back in morning & away you go!

Tony

I've often thought about a pump box and its something I may do later on, I do like having a solid metal fixed reel in the van though and living in a small first floor flat with no designated parking space would make lugging a hose reel indoors and upstairs of an evening time consuming and tedious to say the least.
I may take some pics at some point to show how I've overcome the problems of wfp filter and filling set up for those with limited space or in flats if anyone would be interested.
Having done all this to prepare for the cold if its as bad as they say tomorrow I'll probably stay in bed !
cheers
Simon

[ftp]

What about your pole hose? Do you bring your poles in at night too and the brushes or do you leave antifreeze in them too?

[Paul Coleman]

I live in a first floor flat so my ro is indoors anyhow and I fill pure water out to the van. other times of year I have the di in the van but that is now inside as well after ro. I cannot run a lead overnight out to my van for a heater and although I run the pump and hoses dry last thing at end of day some standing water still causes them to freeze.

So this is what I do now

connect pump to some hose into a 25 ltr barrel mixed with water and anti freeze
pump through entire system inc. van mounted 60 meter hose on reel
at first job in morning connect up and pump through with pure water for a few mins

takes no time at all and dead simple

thought I'd share this idea with you all as it may be of help to someone

This sounds interesting and wickedly simple.  My situation bears similarity to yours - though I do have use of a wooden shed 5 miles from home containing my IBC and filtering stuff.  It's the hoses connected to the system that are the issue.  It sounds like all I need to do is to pull the feeder hose out of the van tank and pop in into a container of isopropanol (or similar) and suck that into the pipework overnight.  Not sure about some getting into the tank though (I would wish to avoid this).  My setup has an overflow that feeds back into the tank.  I would probably have to undo that pipe and put a stop end on it when leaving it stranding.  Then, when I want to flush it in the morning, I would need to remove the stop end and feed TWO pipes back into the isopropanol container to make sure none got into the tank.
Like you I am in an upstairs flat and it's a hassle taking the reel and poles in.  That can be done in my other lock-up though.  It's the pipework in the system that's been giving problems.  I have put that grey spongey stuff around them and packed fibre glass matting around the pump.  That works up to a point but won't withstand the coldest nights.
Wickedly simple yet it never entered my head.
Maybe my teachers were right after all.

[matt]

What about your pole hose? Do you bring your poles in at night too and the brushes or do you leave antifreeze in them too?

you could run the antifreeze water though your pole hose aswell, then just leave the brush to freeze, a bottle of HOT water poured over that in the morning would sort out the brush

[cybersye]

What about your pole hose? Do you bring your poles in at night too and the brushes or do you leave antifreeze in them too?

no I dont with the pole hose, I just try to empty them of water as I pack them away, they hang coiled up inside the roof of my van and I have a caged bulkhead so with the vans heater on full for 15 mins on way to first job they are usually ok.
Probably not going to work today anyhow but going out to check the hose reel in half hour and see if its worked.