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Thawing out a bay

OurTown

OurTown

Well-known member
How do you guys thaw out a bay? I'm assuming that the overhead is liquid but just frozen at the boom swivel down. How we do it is remove the gun and put it in the hot gravity tank to thaw. Then we hook the garden hose to the drain outlet of the hot water storage tank (the only place we have a hot spigot) and spray the swivel, boom and hose. It doesn't usually take all that long but it's pretty wasteful. Is there a way to do it without hot water? The reason I'm asking is because we still are having issues with our weeps and have no hot water right now. I have the weeps cranked up until we can figure it out. They are forecasting some chilly weather this week.
 
I use a heat gun in the past.

Where is your probe reading the temperature? I.E. in sun, shade, and how far from the the structure?
 
Usually only from the boom down is frozen. I take the hose off and put in the ER to thaw, then depending on the wash, might have to also remove the short hose from the boom to the trough and let it thaw. I then use a torch on the boom to thaw that out once the hoses are ready. In the past, I have also used hot water and just sprayed it until it thawed.
 
Take the Hp hose assembly off in & lay in equipment room put up a big tarp on each end of the bay temporarily then fire up a torpedo heater and let it run for 15-20mins we have dethawed automatics out like this but it all depends on what kind of conditions you have. If it’s 40mph winds in the teens you can hang it up.
 
I have a hose bib on the hot water storage tank. I use a garden hose and nozzle....and spray 120F water on anything that's frozen.

BTW....water conducts heat MUCH better than air. 6-8x I think.
 
Then when it drys when it’s 14 degrees outside you have a extra genuine frozen mess lol ice all over everything the floor,walls,ceiling & parking lot and your clothes. I guess it’s more than one way to skin a cat.
 
It all depends on the situation. If it’s froze hard we’ll take the hose down off of the boom and coil it up in a 5 gallon bucket of hot water in the equipment room. If it’s not froze hard then we’ll spray hot water on the hose and swivel to get it unthawed. You don’t want to try and force out the ice by turning the pump on and off, you can damage the seals in the pump by doing that. When it gets real cold and it’s not going to get about freezing we close down the car wash, pump windshield washer fluid into the system and call it good. We get so little business when it’s real cold that it’s not really worth the effort or the expense to stay open.
 
We take the HP hose and wand down and put on the equipment room floor that is heated like the bays. An hour or so it"s thawed. Small hand torch on the boom.
 
I do as most, take the hose off at the boom swivel and take it and the swivel inside to thaw. I usually drape it over the water heater and piping as close to the ceiling as possible and crank up the eq. room heat. Thawing my booms use to take a long time with a torch or whatever. One day I wised up and chucked my 12" long 1/4" drill bit in my cordless drill. I put the torch on the drill bit while drilling through the ice in the boom. I usually have water flowing in no time.
 
One day I wised up and chucked my 12" long 1/4" drill bit in my cordless drill. I put the torch on the drill bit while drilling through the ice in the boom. I usually have water flowing in no time.
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There's an interesting trick.
 
I just close the bay until it warms up in the sun... and turn the booms so the hoses bask in the sun.

Rarely in your area do you get "long term deep freezes"... and if it really is that cold for that long, I'll let a bay or two stay down until it warms up.
 
I've used a welder on the lowest setting to thaw things out. Learned that on this forum many years ago. Hook it up on either side of the frozen area and turn it on.
 
Unhook the hose put it in office with heat usually from the swivel
then grab the latter and stand under it with a torch heating the boom stay away from the swivil youll burn the rings.
Then wait for the water to over everything "becareful the ladder gets slick
once it starts dripping turn it to hp and it should blow out
then if you have a buddy have em cut the weep long enought to rehose before it freezes again
good luck just did it the other night had some debri in a tip

speaking of that look inside your gun holders mine have a hold the size of nickel at bottom to drain and someone come by and put a few quarters in all mine?????? That was a pain had to unbolt to turn over and empty, gum on a stick didnt work to cold
 
speaking of that look inside your gun holders mine have a hold the size of nickel at bottom to drain and someone come by and put a few quarters in all mine?????? That was a pain had to unbolt to turn over and empty, gum on a stick didnt work to cold
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Our's are plumbed into the pits and built into the meter box brick bump out. Could you have used a vac with a 1 1/2" hose to get the coins out?
 
Car_Wash_Guy said:
Well, I'll guarantee you it's picking up heat from the structure, throwing off the timing of the weep( you are running a weepmizer no?) Just a degree or two higher and it'll freeze.
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We are currently running a Super Wash programmed weep system and is integrated into the auto computer. We will most likely go to a Weepmizer when the computer comes out for our new auto. What is a practical way to install the sensor if it needs to be in shade and so far from the building?
 
OurTown said:
We are currently running a Super Wash programmed weep system and is integrated into the auto computer. We will most likely go to a Weepmizer when the computer comes out for our new auto. What is a practical way to install the sensor if it needs to be in shade and so far from the building?
Click to expand...

I can just speak from experience. My probe was originally siliconed on the stone facade on the north side of my wash ( in shade ). Constantly was freezing up and when I took an infrared thermo to the building it was reading 20+ degrees higher. The radiant heat was affecting the probe, thus in turn messing up the Weepmizer program.

I now have my probe 4' away from the building. I have it mounted on a plastic 1/2" rod.
 
Etowah
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