Dixmor Weepmizer – Using Air

[Kevin James]

We’ve got a pretty good argument going on here in the shop. One of our mechanics wants to connect air to the Dixmor Weepmizer instead of water and purge the lines with air just as if it was water. We have the Weepmizer set to come on at 34 deg. 10 seconds On 50 seconds Off and so on, staying on longer as it gets colder. I say it won’t work, he says it will work, but will use a lot of air. Has anyone ever tired this or do they think it will work?

 

[washnvac]

Well not exactly that, but one time we had a four day cold snap. So I thought I would shut everything down, and blow all the hp lines out with air. I unhooked them in the room, and blew through at full air pressure from compressor (150 psi). This blew the guns right out of the wand holders. I nozzled it back a bit then blew them a good 3 or 4 minutes each.

Came back after freeze, hooked everything up, all 5 bays frozen. Five hours later and two burned up heat guns, I learned my lesson with air. I agree with you it probably will not work.

Just thought of another issue with that--if your power goes out, compressor will run out of air; then what?

 

[lag]

We tried years ago,as a test. Seems water likes to run to the lowest point and freeze? We however didn't run constantly.

 

[MEP001]

We tried years ago,as a test. Seems water likes to run to the lowest point and freeze? We however didn't run constantly.

That's exactly the problem. The only way an air blowdown will work is if the lines are also purged with antifreeze. And that only means you can open up once temps come above freezing again or you risk that first flow of water freezing in the hoses and wands.

 

[Robert2181]

That is why if you are going to do a blow down you need to do both RV and air. With air only, does not get all or enough moisture out. Unless your air is dry. Even then it will only work for a short time.( 20 to 25 degrees).

 

[2Biz]

I closed 3 bays down last week using air blowdown and Washer Fluid in the HP hoses...In the past I also blew out the WF as the last step....The only issues I had was debris would often clog a tip when reopening...Changing from galvanized wands to SS helped with that...But this time I tried something even a little different. Instead of blowing out the washer fluid, I left it in the HP hose...I think allowing air inside the hose and leaving it that way for a few days isn't good...

Opening all 3 bays below freezing was easy....Turn the breakers back on, open the weep ball valves to each bay, then blowing the WF out with HP rinse...Just took a few minutes to open the bays back up. At minimum, I always leave 1 bay open...Even down below zero....I have had people wash down to -5°....They did say they were driving home a short distance and putting their vehicle in a heated garage!

Since I work a full time job like most SS operators, keeping at least 1 bay open during extreme cold is easiest for me while saving on weep water/sewage costs. If it warms up through the day, at least I can keep 1 or 2 bays open till I get home...Then open the rest if the temps permit.

For those of you that want to incorporate a semi-automated air and washer fluid blowdown for your HP lines....Heres what I did...Air and WF come in from the bottom left...The Washerfluid hose is connected to the washerfluid flojet that winterizes all my LP hoses...The ball valves take care of the rest. Shutting a bay down only takes a few minutes.

Kevin, to answer your question, I don't think air alone will work. Even after blowing down the HP hose with air, I still get a little water come out when I pump in WF....So for me, blowing out with air alone would be a huge mistake!

 

[cwguy.com]

We’ve got a pretty good argument going on here in the shop. One of our mechanics wants to connect air to the Dixmor Weepmizer instead of water and purge the lines with air just as if it was water. We have the Weepmizer set to come on at 34 deg. 10 seconds On 50 seconds Off and so on, staying on longer as it gets colder. I say it won’t work, he says it will work, but will use a lot of air. Has anyone ever tired this or do they think it will work?

Where are you located? It sound like all the statements in this thread might be true where it is cold! I disagree though.... but I live further south. I have never used washer fluid either. Yesterday/today it was a low of 28 and around 30 when I got to my wash.... I tested all the bays and they worked fine. I used this setup all last winter also.

 

[mjwalsh]

We’ve got a pretty good argument going on here in the shop. One of our mechanics wants to connect air to the Dixmor Weepmizer instead of water and purge the lines with air just as if it was water. We have the Weepmizer set to come on at 34 deg. 10 seconds On 50 seconds Off and so on, staying on longer as it gets colder. I say it won’t work, he says it will work, but will use a lot of air. Has anyone ever tired this or do they think it will work?

Kevin & others,

We have three bays of our six bays that are very sheltered & deicer installed but not totally enclosed with overhead doors like the other three bays. We use air to blow out the lines & they are ready to go when the temperature again as soon as temp reaches the thaw point. The bays are ready to go if & only if the nozzles are put in warm water during blow out to prevent the compressor air's cooling effect from freezing the nozzles. Making sure no water is in the air compressor tank helps. A check to see if air is finally dry is also helpful.

I understand that your application is a bit different ... so 2Biz's solution sounds the best if I read what you want to do correctly.

We have had roller coaster weather lately with as low as -30° F with 30+ inches of snow & ice that really is not shrinking or melting much at all since it first started a few weeks ago here in North Dakota ... so you can see the totally enclosed doors or the "blow out & leave ready to go later approach ... consideration in our area.

On a side note ... maybe relevant ... maybe not ... some of the "still here" extra entrenched NoDapl pipeline protestors from California, Florida, & Hawaii etc who are driving further than the gas station convenience store laundromat "closer to their outdoor campout area" ... are coming to the laundromat portion of our business. I am not sure why ... but most of them seem to be extra moody & jumpy lately.

mike walsh www.kingkoin.com