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Thawing frozen hoses

A

Andy Burn

Member
Yesterday afternoon we had a moron that used the HP hose in a closed off bay. Washed his car in one bay and mats in the second one. As the weepmizer for the closed bay was shut down, the HP hose is frozen solid. I was planning to buy a Heat Cable (Easy heat brand. Can't find Raychem) and wrap it around the hose in the trough, boom and finally the hose that connects the boom to the trigger gun. I am concerned about damaging the rubber hoses and was wondering if there are any precautions I should take or another best practice to thaw the hoses.

Regards,

Andy
 
I use a blowout system with windshield washer fluid. That way I don't weep water in a closed bay and save some money in my water bills. I haven't had anyone use a closed bay until yesterday. Removing hoses will be a bit challenging and I was wondering if the heat cable trick will work?
 
I once had bay 3 freeze in the attic (don't remember the reason). Bays 1&2 didn't freeze. I unhooked the HP hose from the bay 3 manifold and pulled it back into the eq. room 16', so it would lay alongside the working hoses for bays 1&2. By the next day it was thawed. In my experience, the hoses handle freezing quite well. The bay hose, I always unhooked at the swivel and took into the eq. room to thaw.
 
Andy Burn said:
I use a blowout system with windshield washer fluid. That way I don't weep water in a closed bay and save some money in my water bills. I haven't had anyone use a closed bay until yesterday. Removing hoses will be a bit challenging and I was wondering if the heat cable trick will work?
Click to expand...

How about turning off the power to the closed bay's coin box?

I've used Raychem and EasyHeat cables inside insulated rooftop troughs.
Raychem is $$$$, EasyHeat is $$. Both work without wrapping the hoses...Just lay the cable alongside the bay supply hoses.
Raychem is self regulating and maintains about 80 to 100 degrees of trough temp.
EasyHeat is either On or Off. I use a temperature controller to energize EasyHeat cable at 35 degrees...with a 6 to 8 degree differential.
 
Another idea...
Install eyehooks on the entrance and exit of the bays.
Add a plastic chain with a BIG sign: "Bay CLOSED!"

Orange Cones or barrels in front of a bay? Some folks don't believe that means closed...for them!
 
I've used a welder to thaw bays before. Hook the ground to the hose in the equipment room and the electrode to the end of the boom or somewhere near (you will need a heavy cable to use as an extension). Turn it on the lowest setting and let it cook for a while. I think I did about a minute on and a minute off cycles until it thawed.
 
cantbreak80 said:
How about turning off the power to the closed bay's coin box?
Click to expand...

OurTown said:
^This.^
Click to expand...

^Yep, This^

Install a toggle switch inside the ER where all of your 24V wiring is. If you dont turn off power when a bay is closed, people will move the cones/ropes/etc and use the bay, this will happen again.

As far as thawing, yeah, the hoses hold up to heat pretty well. The heat tape will work, but might take a while if you use it outdoors. I'd pull the hoses and put them in the ER to thaw, use the heat tape in the ER if you want to speed it up.
 
Ghetto Wash said:
I've used a welder to thaw bays before. Hook the ground to the hose in the equipment room and the electrode to the end of the boom or somewhere near (you will need a heavy cable to use as an extension). Turn it on the lowest setting and let it cook for a while. I think I did about a minute on and a minute off cycles until it thawed.
Click to expand...
I've been wondering if a cheap battery charger would work the same way.
 
Do you have hot water? If so you can spray the hose with it from where you think its frozen all the way to the gun. It will de thaw easily. Not too much fun if you get wet though and its cold out.

You can also tarp off a bay and start a propane heater.

Or my favorite take down the boom with hoses depending on what style boom you have if its possible. Throw that in equipment room and fire up the two torpedoes in the attic. Personal record is got 5 bays from freezing to working within a hour lol Worst days ever lol

Go through this every year. Micihgan.
 
Ghetto Wash said:
I've used a welder to thaw bays before. Hook the ground to the hose in the equipment room and the electrode to the end of the boom or somewhere near (you will need a heavy cable to use as an extension). Turn it on the lowest setting and let it cook for a while. I think I did about a minute on and a minute off cycles until it thawed.
Click to expand...

I would not recommend this for most wash owners/operators.


We usually drop the frozen high pressure hose at the boom and start spraying down anything frozen with 120 degree water until it starts weeping again. If you trough is heated it usually does not freeze past it.
 
MEP001 said:
I've been wondering if a cheap battery charger would work the same way.
Click to expand...
I've used jumper cables off of my truck battery. 40 feet of high pressure hose drew about 20 amps at 12 volt DC. When it worked, it worked well and thawed the hose completely in about 5 minutes. But when there was an open circuit because the wire braid hose didn't connect electrically with the fitting it was a waste of time. I gave up because I had about a 50% success rate.
 
The object is to not let your systems freeze up to begin with. When it gets real cold up here we pull the guns and foam brush handles, blow everything down with air then pump windshield washer antifreeze fluid into the system turn off the power and go home until it warms back up, it’s simple. We were closed 10 days last winter.
 
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