Minus 10 degrees next week. What do you do?
- Thread starter Tpoppa
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DiamondWash
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We shut all of our washes down during the last cold snap. We shut down whenever it gets real cold, we don’t get many customers when it gets cold and all they do is make an icy mess. We don't have doors or floor heat. I don’t think the increased liability of an slip and fall accident is really worth the risk. We installed a “T” just downstream of the weep solenoid valve. Remove the guns and foam brush handles. Shut off the weep water, we have a shut off valve just upstream of the weep solenoid valve and blow down the weep system with air. Then we pump -21 deg. windshield washer fluid into weep system until it comes out of the hoses, then blow the weep system down one last time with air. When it warms back up put the guns and foam brushes back on and get ready for the rush.
slash007
Well-known member
It's going to be -6 here in Ky, Lord help us. I'm going to weep hot at one wash, no choice but to weep cold at the other, we'll see what happens.
Ric
Cantree Member
We weep hot water when it gets that cold. It keeps everything in the trough warm. We take down the foam brushes at night.
DiamondWash
Well-known member
Isn't that a pain to take the foam brushes down just for cold weather? do you have a quick connect on the top of the hose?
Whale of a Wash
5 Washes 36Bays 2Vectors
I wish it was only going to be that cold here- at least we would still have business.. Looking like sunday and monday going to -30 . a -60 windchill. We occasionally have a brush freeze when a door is left open, but have never had a problem with the brush when it thaws out, usually 10 to 15 min.
Of course with doors and a real building helps, but we have never used ethanol in the brush. We have had a problem in the last month with the weep even freezing. This cold probably costs us more to open the door than each customer spends.
Please send us some global warming- we have had more -15 to -25 days in december than i care to remember.
Of course with doors and a real building helps, but we have never used ethanol in the brush. We have had a problem in the last month with the weep even freezing. This cold probably costs us more to open the door than each customer spends.
Please send us some global warming- we have had more -15 to -25 days in december than i care to remember.
mjwalsh
6 bay SS w/laundromat
Whale - John
Me too ... since weather wise we face almost identical logistics ... ditto on your comments. Just to add about the dilemma of closing vs being open: The very numerous gas station washes have been open daily including Christmas Day. Well to make a long story short ... after a "no sloppy slush" fall we finally got some sloppy weather with extreme cold immediately after. Those gas stations
would like nothing better to see us closed so they can without competition "harvest" the temporary "window of opportunity" extra business. We are planning to stay open even this weekend with the "like you say" towards -60 wind chills (the updated more conservatively stated windchill than years ago). We just hope to God that no person (not paying attention) runs into one of our overhead doors because ... it is actually extremely dangerous working in those temperatures. There are other unforeseen door issues that can also happen depending on how well we did our pre-season inspection etc. Our new improved blodrys with the increased number of $5 & $10 bill choices "no interruptions for them" made by the customers is definitely a plus. On our new "digital tri color 15"x78" programmable sign (100 messages) continuously reminds the street passebys & across the street traffic of the actual temperature. It has proven to be very accurate for the few months of being installed. Mike Walsh http://kingkoin.com/USA_Deficit_Reduction.html
So far I've been good down to 0°...Floors are staying ice-free with the new floor heater. No doors...Weeping cold water has worked fine. Its supposed to get to -3° and -12° here in Southern Ohio Sunday night and Monday night. Its the coldest its been in 18 years. We'll see if everything holds up to this cold snap...I'm installing a NG heater today that requires no electricity to operate...Just in case!!!
Rudy
Active member
You guys have me thinking. It's supposed to be a high of -2 here Tuesday..and a low of -15.
I have a cold water weep system that just dumps into the drains.
I can easily Tee into the weep manifold. Why can't I just turn off ALL water sources, blow 100psi air into the manifold for a while, then pump some RV antifreeze into the manifold (jug says good to -51F),......and then blow 100psi air into the manifold (for a couple of minutes) and leave it that way until the deep freeze is off?
I have a cold water weep system that just dumps into the drains.
I can easily Tee into the weep manifold. Why can't I just turn off ALL water sources, blow 100psi air into the manifold for a while, then pump some RV antifreeze into the manifold (jug says good to -51F),......and then blow 100psi air into the manifold (for a couple of minutes) and leave it that way until the deep freeze is off?
Bubbles Galore
Active member
That is what I will be doing for my auto and my bays since there is no point of the added expense.
Jimmy Buffett
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I'm going to close on Monday and Tuesday since I had some freezing at 18 degrees. I'm thinking of removing to tips to help the weep flow. Does that make sense?
Cheap insurance. I installed this yesterday in the ER....It will be running for the next few days just in case there is a power outage and I don't know it. It runs even if the power is out....Mr Heater 10,000 btu....It was easy to tap into the supply to the floor heat boiler...
mjwalsh
6 bay SS w/laundromat
2Biz,Cheap insurance. I installed this yesterday in the ER....It will be running for the next few days just in case there is a power outage and I don't know it. It runs even if the power is out....Mr Heater 10,000 btu....It was easy to tap into the supply to the floor heat boiler...
Good idea on the heater ... that way if you were not able to respond to a temperature alarm ... the non dependent on electricity heater ... probably is pretty fail safe. At one time, we had a ventless heater but discontinued it because of carbon monoxide & other axhaust concerns. On the other hand if it only goes on in that worse case emergency then it would be a good trade off.
Based on one of your pics ... it appears like you are balancing your flows with ordinary ball valves. It is just a thought ... but another alternative to them could be Gerand Ball Valves. We have a bunch of them strategically located to take some guesswork out of the process ... & I purchased a Gerand Meter off of Ebay pretty reasonable not too long ago.
Mike Walsh King Koin North Dakota
There really is no guess work here. I have a 1" supply rated at over 500,000 btu capacity. My floor heat boiler is max 199K BTU and the Mr Heater is 10K BTU...Way under the rated capacity of the supply pipe. Plus the ball valves are WOG rated...So I guess I'm not following your suggestion? Can you be more specific?
I would up pulling the water lines and cutting power to my 2 busiest bays and brought the guns into the ER. I'll hook them back up on Wednesday.
I left my 2 slowest bays open. I am kind of curious to see if they'll be OK when it gets to -10 tomorrow night.
I left my 2 slowest bays open. I am kind of curious to see if they'll be OK when it gets to -10 tomorrow night.
mjwalsh
6 bay SS w/laundromat
2Biz,
Thanks for giving me a chance to clarify. The Gerand Metering Valve comment was unrelated to the Mr Heater ... so that is probably where the temporary confusion is. It is just that it appeared to me that you went through a process of tweaking flows of some of your ball valves. I assumed that by observing that some of your ball valves were more closed or more open judging ... by the levers on the ball valves. I just commented based on our need to balance flows accurately ... the Gerands with the ability to verify flows more precisely has been helpful. I am not saying for sure that it applies to your system but just wanted to share the good experience we have had with Gerand Ball Valves vs ordinary ball valves when it comes to balancing & verifying flows. I hope this at least makes sense as to where I was coming from in posting in the manner that I did.
As far as the exhaust considerations of at least most ventless heaters ... it might not be relevant to your situation. In our situation ... we have to be very careful not to have any exhaust seep in to other areas of the rest of the adjoining areas of our facility. I remember visiting with Kate Car when she was Editor from Professional Car Washing on the phone once about carbon monoxide ... but that was a quite a bit different ... it was in one of our isolated separated car wash bays & occurred because of a driver leaving his vehicle on while he was washing & was rendered unconscious (but was rescued by an alert person waiting in line at the car wash). A car wash owner without doors on both the entrance & exit probably would have more difficulty relating. The guy needed to be emergency airlifted to a Minneapolis-St.Paul Medical Center ... so it was not trivial.
Mike Walsh King Koin North Dakota
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Earl Weiss
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Why am I thinking our local codes will not permit this?
