Weep Temp Off at night

[slash007]

This is now my 3rd year with this issue after not having any issues the 1st 7 years. For some reason many nights when it's cold, my weep miser shows a temp of about 6-8 degrees higher than it really is. Of course this leads to frozen bays most mornings. My temp sensor is in the bay right next to the ER. I know that is not ideal, but it has been there since the wash was built and never had any temp issues. The first year this happened, I replaced the sensor and figured that was the issue as it's logs showed some erratic readings. This was at the end of the season, so I didn't really get much use out of it until the next year where I had the same issue. It is the old style sensor and I have checked it during the day and the temp is right on. This would tell me it's getting heat at night, but I can't figure out where from.

I had installed a new LED light nearby that year, so a couple of weeks ago I unhooked it thinking maybe it was the heat source. I still had the temp problem this morning, so that's not it. The ER wall is block and has the white panels on the bay side. I even put a piece of cardboard between the sensor and wall just to provide some spacing in case the wall warmed up. The sensor also has a metal cover over it to shield it.

Any suggestions? I am about to run a 2nd thermostat to another side of the building, but can't understand why the sudden issues after it worked fine for so many years.

 

[Randy]

The sensor should be on the north side of the building about 6 inches away from the building. I always mount them on an "L" bracket so they aren't mounted directly on the building. Floor heat can have an affect on the sensor. When you check the temperature of the weepmizer to see if it's accurate don't use the temperature reading that on your phone, car or truck dashboard or off the radio as they are normally wrong. Another temperature sensor could help.

 

[slash007]

Hmm. Never thought about floor heat having and effect. That could be it, but floor heat has always been there as well, so still curious as to why it started now. Any chance you have a photo of how yours is mounted?

 

[Randy]

Hmm. Never thought about floor heat having and effect. That could be it, but floor heat has always been there as well, so still curious as to why it started now. Any chance you have a photo of how yours is mounted?

Having your weepmizer temperature sensor mounted in the wash bay with floor heat is probably your problem. Move the temperature sensor to the north side of the building in a shady location and get piece of sheet metal about 2” wide and 7” long bend it into an “L” so you have about 6” to mount the temperature sensor, drill a few holes in it to mount the sensor and to screw it on the wall and you should be good.

 

[slash007]

I plan on trying that out this week. Have plenty of old signage that I can cut up and bend. Thanks.

 

[Randy]

I plan on trying that out this week. Have plenty of old signage that I can cut up and bend. Thanks.

It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just a bent piece of metal that you can mount the sensor on. You want the sensor to be away from the building, away from any heat sources, out of the direct sunlight and in the shade.

 

[GoBuckeyes]

I have had to send a couple of my Weepmisers back to Dixmor for service when they got some age on them to have them recalibrated. They have one right now I sent in that seemed to have an issue right around 35-36 degrees. It would actually bounce between temps which its not supposed to do. That was becoming problematic since I used the second output to turn on my floor heat and it was set to come on at 35. Nothing lasts forever. Dixmor's service is very reasonable.

 

[slash007]

I have had to send a couple of my Weepmisers back to Dixmor for service when they got some age on them to have them recalibrated. They have one right now I sent in that seemed to have an issue right around 35-36 degrees. It would actually bounce between temps which its not supposed to do. That was becoming problematic since I used the second output to turn on my floor heat and it was set to come on at 35. Nothing lasts forever. Dixmor's service is very reasonable.

I had planned on sending it in over the summer, but every time I called them, they insisted it was fine and that the issue had to be something else. I was never sure, so I just waited. If a 2nd thermostat doesn't fix it, I'll have to send it in.

 

[slash007]

After my last post, I installed a 2nd thermostat on a different side of the building and the temp on that one seemed to read about 2-3 degrees lower than my thermostat that is installed in a bay. 2.5 months with zero issues or freeze-ups but this morning my two furthest bays were frozen up again. It still doesn't make sense to me as all 3 functions that weep in those bays are frozen (FB, TF and HP hose) and they are on two separate solenoids, so it's not a solenoid issue. But not a single function in the 1st 3 bays froze. If the weep was turning on later than it should have again, is it really possible that those 3 functions in the last 2 bays are freezing up before the weep starts, but not a single function in any other bay is freezing? I mean the HP hose in bay 3 is 2 feet away from the foam brush and tri foam hoses in bay 4 and they freeze but bay 3 doesn't. Anything I'm missing?

 

[Eric H]

Probably a long shot but is there anything that the city is doing that might affect water pressure overnight?
My city was doing overnight work several years ago where they were switching to a different pump house. The water pressure would drop to a point where it couldn’t support the weep of all of the bays. When one or two hoses would freeze the other hoses would have enough flow to prevent freezing.
I only figured this out a couple of years after the problem went away. I was talking with one of the guys from the water Dept and he mentioned the overnight work he used to be forced to do. That’s when it occurred to me that the incoming water was the issue. In my case the problem went away on it own because everything I tried didn’t work.

 

[slash007]

Probably a long shot but is there anything that the city is doing that might affect water pressure overnight?
My city was doing overnight work several years ago where they were switching to a different pump house. The water pressure would drop to a point where it couldn’t support the weep of all of the bays. When one or two hoses would freeze the other hoses would have enough flow to prevent freezing.
I only figured this out a couple of years after the problem went away. I was talking with one of the guys from the water Dept and he mentioned the overnight work he used to be forced to do. That’s when it occurred to me that the incoming water was the issue. In my case the problem went away on it own because everything I tried didn’t work.

I with it was that simple, but unlikely to be the case. I have separate water lines feeding the 2 solenoids, one for HP hose and the other for TF and FB, and everything in those 2 bays freezes. When I turn it on manually, it works fine and the flow matches the others. Only thing that would make sense kind of is that they are freezing before the weep turns on, but having the cut off be exactly those 2 bays every time seems weird.

 

[Randy]

Why don't you try disconnecting the first weepmizer sensor that's in the bay and run all your weep water from one solenoid valve.

 

[2Biz]

After my last post, I installed a 2nd thermostat on a different side of the building and the temp on that one seemed to read about 2-3 degrees lower than my thermostat that is installed in a bay.

What side of the building did you put the second sensor? It must be the north side. I have floor heat with a sensor (for coin box heaters) next to the ER. Sometimes I see as much as 10 deg difference between the weepmiser sensor and the one inside the bay. I only have one sensor, you might take Randy's advice and disconnect the bay sensor. Btw, I have FB and FG winterize with air and washer fluid at 32 deg activated by secondary output on weepmiser. Been years since any LP hoses have froze.

 

[slash007]

I think next step is to disconnect the original sensor, but doesn't it take the lowest of the two? Or is it an average? I can also easily change back to one solenoid. I had it that way originally, but couldn't get enough weep output out of the HP guns and tried separating them from the FB and TF. At the end it turned out being the guns themselves, just couldn't get enough output out of the Adams guns so I switched and everything was fine.

One common theme is that it always freezes at night. If temp drops during the day, it's fine. No sun at night, so that's not affecting the readings at all.