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Weep Water

B

Bubbles Galore

Active member
I want to know if it is necessary to have weep water heated. To better control costs, I want to turn my production boiler off from 9p-8a. My weep system is set up with two solenoids that switch between hot and cold water depending on the outside temp. Is this going to create a problem?
 
No problem glad I can help. I?ve found that a lot of the time the person who is asking for advice or help does not have the common courtesy to say ?Thank You? that worked or no that didn?t work or say anything for that matter.
 
I used to run a wash that had hot water weep, and all the lines were insulated. It had the advantage of keeping everything thawed, so in sub-freezing weather only the foam brush wouldn't work. I would adjust each bay's flow so the water at the gun was still lukewarm when it got down below 30. Currently we're running cold weep with quite a bit more volume.

I've always wondered which is cheaper, the wasted water or the gas to heat it. I'd have to guess the water.
 
Last winter I had 2 commercial hot water heaters heating my weep water and SS resevoir. During the day they could not keep up and the water was always cold. So in an effort to save on wasting gas I replumbed the weep feed to cold water. What a mistake! I didn't consider that during the night very few people were washing so the heaters were able to keep the weep water warm. This year, with no heat on weep lines I was able to keep from freezing up during the day, when it is warmer and busier, but at night I froze solid. My wand holders were building up with ice all day long. I was ok when the temps were in the 20's. But as soon as I got into the teens I froze up solid. After having to thaw the SS lines multiple times a light lit in my head. I hooked one heater back into the line that feeds my weep and have not had a problem since. I turn the heater off during the day, and back on when I leave. I set the temp very low. We were at -5? the other morning and everything was fine. And the wand holders are not choking up with ice since the heater at least weeps tepid water during the day. And when we have a slow period the heater warms the water enough to melt the ice out of the wand holder. I learned this lesson the hard way - with several broken wands, guns, and swivels. Not to mention how hard it is to thaw a wash when it is near 0?. Very frustrating. We have had a bitter winter. Temps as low as -15? with highs during the day in the single digits. So I am weeping warm water, and trying to control it by turning it off during the day, and if we have a warm spell of weather around 30? I will keep the heater off.
 
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When I first opened my wash 3 years ago I was weeping warm water and I still had the occasional freeze up. After two winters I got my plumber to put a shut off valve for the warm water and also add an extra cold water copper line to the weep so I could have more weep pressure. I do not use the warm water anymore at all. It's been a cold winter and I have had no freeze ups on my guns, I have had 2 brushes freeze up but that was from the coily hose having a kink.

I have noticed a huge savings in my gas bill already.
 
I you are weeping 16oz a minute at the gun you will never have a freeze up down to -10. The FB needs much less, probably 6-8 oz, because there is no restriction(IE:gun tip) I stopped heating the weep water years ago. Water is cheaper than gas, turn up the water and sleep better at night.
 
I just got back from my wash. 11? temp with wind blowing. Weep water was at 75?, wand holders had no ice in them. I also turned up my weep pressure to about 40 lbs a few weeks ago. tomorrow I will measure how much water I am weeping.
 
My weep has always been cold. It works fine. Always has. My foam brush weeks foam. It has methanol in it. Nothing ever freezes except when the city breaks a main and turns my water off for 8 hours when it is 0F outside.
 
Indiana Wash said:
My weep has always been cold. It works fine. Always has. My foam brush weeks foam. It has methanol in it. Nothing ever freezes except when the city breaks a main and turns my water off for 8 hours when it is 0F outside.
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My wash froze up pretty fast too at 10 deg F without weep water after water main broke and it was shut off for 6 hrs. A phone call would have been nice, but I guess that was too much to ask.

As long as I keep weep set to 16 oz per minute it works fine with cold water. I was worried when temps were down to minus 15 deg a few weeks ago, but nothing froze and everything was fine.
 
I wired in a flow "detector" so that my alarm would call me if the city shut off the water which they did and didn't call either.
 
Thanks for all the responses. I just wired up an intermatic timer to my production boiler today. I have it set to shut down between 9p-8a every day regardless of the temps. I am going to monitor the weep system very close to see what kind of results I am getting. I visited a few other local washes the other morning and there water was cold too. I need this to work so I can cut down my cfm. It's killing me!
 
I use cold water and have never had a problem. I am not in a Michigan type climate though. The worst I have had to deal with was 3 days straight of mid teens faranheit weather. I did not have a problem other than ice forming below the holder.
 
It has been negative fahrenheit temp here. I use cold water weep. The only time I have had a problem was when the city shut the water off.
 
Lately, with the cold water weep, I am getting a lot of ice buildup on my nozzle protectors. Any advice?

My rain-x idea didn't work real well.
 
FWIW I have an 8 bay outside Chgo. I have hot and cold water lines plumbed to my weepmiser. I can adjust the valves on each to adjust weep temp. below 20 it's all hot. Sometimes it works perfectly at -15, all stay thawed and sometimes I will get a freeze up at 20 degrees . Not sure why. Could be a function of running out of hot water in the warmer temps because we have more customers.
 
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