Weep Saving Tips Help

[tdlconceptsllc]

Hey guys at my 10 Bay SS+1 carwash that i have, I was wondering if anyone is doing anything else besides a weepmizer on the HP wands not brush to save on the water bill. I installed a weepmizer about 7 years ago and its helped but I have to turn the water/weep wide open on the 10-12 degree nights we have on some nights now in NC the past couple winters and my utilities are higher than ever. If I don't weep wide open on those extremely cold nights my farthest bays freeze up it looks like spot free rinse is how much I am talking about through the HP wand.. I was thinking about blowing them out with compressed air and shut them down a couple days. I would be tickled for any advice and ideas to save on water nobody washes there car at my place when its 28 degrees for the high around here and 10 degrees at night. My Laser will still wash but the bays are slow. thanks in advance for any tips or ideas. (Yes I know my SS is way to Da* big I know but i'm just trying to work with what i have.) Thanks alot Thomas.

 

[soapy]

With 10 SS bays I would shut most of them down and purge the lines with some RV antifreeze and run no weep in those bays. Then as demand dictated all you would have to do is turn the weep back on to each bay.

 

[2Biz]

To help with shutting bays down, I redesigned my weep system to make it easier to blow down the bays I want closed. The lines that come in from the bottom left are air and Washer Fluid. Washer fluid is pumped with flowjet. The ball valves make it easy to shut off weep and purge the lines. I can shut down 2 bays in about 2-3 minutes. 2 bays shut down saves about 400 gallons of water and sewage a day below 15°. It adds up with the cost of utilities today! This was very easy to make and works great!

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

With 10 SS bays I would shut most of them down and purge the lines with some RV antifreeze and run no weep in those bays. Then as demand dictated all you would have to do is turn the weep back on to each bay.

Hey soapy thanks man. Quick question when you inject the RV antifreeze do you just go to each pump shut the water valve off to that bay and let the pump suck up the RV solution till it comes out the tip in the bay and your good or to i need to trap that fluid by installing a 1/4 brass plug in the wand so that solution is full through the entire wand and line. Thanks a lot for advice.

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

2Biz that looks nicely piped up do you operate off a weepmizer is that where the green solinod is plumbed in. Very thought out and good pictures. I am going to have to rig it up for the next extreme freeze suppose to get to 10 degrees Saturday night here in NC I won't have time this round but want to get mine set up for next hard freeze. Thanks a lot. What psi did you run the flow jet on. I might call you and take some pictures of my old system if I could figure how to upload to the form here.

 

[2Biz]

Yes I run a weepmiser...

I run air at about 40 psi and 40 psi on the flojet. It doesn't take much. Heres the procedure I use. Turn off weep to the bay you want to purge. Turn on the air and go to the bay and wait for all water to be purged. Then shut the air off. Then open WF valve. I let it pump about 15 cycles. Probably doesn't have to be that much....Then blow out with air again. It goes really quick.

Opening the bay back up is as easy as turning on the weep ball valve to the bay that is shut off. I always check the bays with HP to make sure there isn't any blockage. Since switching out the wands with SS, I don't have blockage issues anymore.

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

2biz that's a sweet setup I need about 20 1/2 shut off valves it looks like some T"s and plumb it all up I will have to do this soon. Do you dilute the WF any or just run it straight. I was thinking about just blowing down each bay tomorow night with compressed air to get me through the weekend, or will I have issues if I don't inject washer fluid. Hey thanks a lot Thomas.

I might PM you a week or two later and ask a question. Thanks a lot.

 

[cantbreak80]

To help with shutting bays down, I redesigned my weep system to make it easier to blow down the bays I want closed.

I'd probably automate that system. But, you probably already knew that.

 

[Randy]

When it gets down into the low to mid-teens and it’s not going to get above freezing during the day we shut down the car wash, we do very little business so there’s not much sense in staying open. The added liability and the cost of the weep water aren’t worth the effort. Blowing down the lines with just air won’t clear all the water out of the lines, to many low spots for the water that isn’t blown out to run back into. We use -22 deg. windshield washer fluid after we blow down with air. We have a “T” just downstream of the weep water solenoid valve. I turn off the weep water connect an air hose to the “T” and blow air into the weep system, while we remove the guns and foam brush handles and put the hoses into a bucket. After all the guns and foam brush handles have been removed we pump windshield washer fluid into the weep system with an old Flo-jet pump and catch what fluid that comes out in the bays in the buckets, when we get a nice blue stream out in the bay we blow air into the weep system again and catch any WW fluid in the buckets in the bays to be reused. When it time to reopen turn the power back on and put the guns and foam brush handles back on and you’re back in business. It takes about 20 -30 minutes to do a 6 bay car wash and we use about 6 gallons of WW fluid. Last year we shut down twice both times for almost a week, this it’s been pretty mild and we haven’t had to shut down.

 

[2Biz]

I'd probably automate that system. But, you probably already knew that.

Yes, I know! If it wern't for that pesky SFR issue. Right? Hey this is at least semi-automated. Its really easy to do. Being the designer has its benefits!

Thomas, no need to use 1/2" ball valves for each bay. Mine are only 1/4". 1/2" main trunk off the weep solenoid. The solenoid is only 1/2", so no need to go with bigger fittings. As for the individual bay weep ball valves, 1/4" is big enough since I use 1/4" poly from the needle valves over to each of the high pressure hoses. I got all my supplies/ball valves from Supplyhouse.com. $3.35 each for 1/4" ball valves. They are also very reasonable on all their brass.

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

Thanks man will have to give it a try when it warms up very informative info. Thanks for help

 

[2Biz]

To give you some ideas, here's a pic of my air manifold and valves used to blow down the bays. See horizontal poly tubing. These go over to my weep tree....

The kip solenoids go to another system that automatically blows down and injects washer fluid to all the LP hoses, 4 FB hoses and 4 foam guns...

 

[Earl Weiss]

When it gets down into the low to mid-teens and it’s not going to get above freezing during the day we shut down the car wash, .

Just left the SS / Tunnel location. High of 15 today, cars lined up at the tunnel and the 4 working bays being used. Those people are nuts! 4 bays not working - 3 Frozen FB or HP, and one had a guy Friday try to put an 8 foot Sprinter van into the 7 foot opening. (He forgot he was driving the taller vehicle) So, this is why I would not close down on a day with a high in the teens.

 

[Robert2181]

Kleen-rite sells a unit

 

[sparkey]

Have you guy that blow down with antifreeze tried it on a touchless automatic? Did it work very well?

 

[2Biz]

Kleen-rite sells a unit

Do you have a link?

 

[Robert2181]

I seen it on their web site

 

[Randy]

Do you have a link?

I think this is the one Robert2181 is talking about https://www.kleen-ritecorp.com/p-45991-polar-freeze-guard-4-outputs.aspx

 

[2Biz]

Oh...OK...Went right over my head! I was looking for something manual like we were talking about!

I think I have less than $100 in mine v/s $3700 for a 4 bay PFG system! I'll take the manual way for now!

 

[MEP001]

I'll bet I could develop something that would work as well as a Polar Freeze Guard and include a way for it to purge in the event of a power failure on battery backup for less than $3700.