Cleaning is all about efficiency, so any downtime will effect your earnings as well as only cause your cleaning schedules to get behind. So being prepared for the cold weather is important in order to keep you fully operational, as well as preventing any damage to your system which could be costly to repair.

We have put some tips together to help prevent system freezing, and to help you operate full steam ahead through the colder months. If you have any other suggestions, we would love to hear them.

How to protect your HydroHeat hot water cleaning system and keep working through freezing temperatures:

Year on year, our HydroHeat customers are able to steam through the cold weather (pun intended!), even when there is snow on the ground.

  • Make sure your system controls have the frost prevention setting on – this will make sure the system kicks in at 2c and circulates hot water to stop the system and reels from freezing over night. You can check this by pressing arrow down and enter key at the same time on the controller, and checking the settings match FST setting is ON, FEP setting is 2c, and FFL is 10.
  • Keep your diesel tank topped up and your system batteries mains charged overnight – looking after your fuel supply and batteries will make sure the system is frost free and ready for work in the morning.
  • Make sure your reel hose and frost re-circulation connections are in good condition – if your couplings are not regularly updated, water may not re-circulated correctly when the frost prevention system kicks in.
  • Connect your reels into the re-circulation system between jobs and at the end of the day – keeping the water circulating through the day on re-circulation will increase the water temperature in the system, giving you even better scrubbing power on the glass.
  • Pre-heat the system before you go to work – switching the system on, before you leave for your first job, will circulate the water through your reels, preheating your kit ready for your first job of the day. This will give your system and hoses a head start before being run out onto the cold ground, and this will help keep the temperatures at the brush at a suitable temperature throughout the day.
  • Get your system serviced – keeping your investment in tip top condition will give you peace of mind that it will reliably keep you working through the winter. It also ensures that the heater runs efficiently, using the correct amount of fuel and battery power.

If you haven't yet purchased a HydroHeat system, how can you protect a cold system?

  • Monitor water temperature. Some of our systems come with a temperature monitor. With the controller on, press the 'enter' key repeatedly until it displays "EP" or "TEMP". Anything below 2°C should trigger your cold weather precaution procedures. 
  • Keeping your system from freezing is key to preventing damage. If you have just a delivery system, then draining the plumbing each night is one option to help prevent damage over night.
    • Steps to isolate and drain the plumbing in a delivery system:
      • Isolate the water in the tank at the tank isolater valve found on the bottom of the tank near the system cabinet. There is a tank outlet for each pump, so if you have a 2 person system, there will be two valves to isolate.
      • Disconnect hose on the side of the reel coming from the system, and plug a male fitting into the hose, to allow water to drain out from the system. You can use part code: GH-PR26-P-12HB or GH-PR26-P-12HB-DV for plugging in to the hose to release the water from the hose.
      • Switch the controller up to 99, and this will drain down the plumbing and pump system. This will help prevent any damage from freezing. 
      • Remember! If you drain the plumbing and pump system down to prevent the system from freezing or for some maintenance, you will then need to re-prime the system to clear any air and refill the pump and plumbing in the cabinet again before you reconnect your reel and re-start the day of work.
        • To re prime a system after it has been drained down:
          • 1/. Open the tank isolater valve (found at the bottom of the tank)
          • 2/. Open the trolley fillup/bleed hose John guest valve (found at end of the clear hose clipped up on the side of the van), and let water flow free. Once the air locks have cleared, turn the valve off, and place back into its holder.
          • 3/. Open the underport isolater valve John guest valve (found on the side of the cabinet)
          • 4/. Connect a male PRO 26 connector into the relevant female port on the bumper underport (found on the side of the cabinet). You can use part code: GH-PR26-P-12HB or GH-PR26-P-12HB-DV for this.
          • 5/. Turn the controller on, and increase the speed up to 99.
          • 6/. Water will splutter out, with the odd spit of air. Once the water flows through at full rate, you can turn down the controller to your normal flow rate.
          • 7/. Connect your pole to your reel, and normal water flow should resume. If water flow doesn't resume, repeat the above process, but on step 4, connect the male pro 26 connector to the system to reel hose link (found between the system and the side of the reel).
  • How to protect a cold water system with on board filtration
    • If a membrane freezes, it will cause substantial damage, and may need you have to replace both the membrane, housing, and the surrounding plumbing. So the key is to ensure some form of heat is added to the vehicle on a winters night. However, how you do this carries its own risks and dangers.
      • Some customers use a quilt to maintain the membranes ambient temperature – this can work to keep the "edge" of a cold night, however this will not suffice in freezing temperatures as it doesn't add any heat around the system.
      •  Other customers will run an extension lead to the van and plug in an electric, oil, or LPG heater overnight. We regularly hear of electric, oil, or LPG heaters catching fire in the back of a vehicle, so this is something that needs to be done with extreme caution, and not something we recommend.
      • Our recommended solution is to have automated frost prevention installed along side a HydroHeat Air Heater (blows hot air around your vehicle when required on a timer or on frost prevention) or a HydroHeat Water Heater (circulates hot water around the system in a frost, as well as giving you hot water to clean with).

​Contact us today if you would like to discuss how we can add automated frost protection to your system.

Options available for heat and frost prevention:

- No automated heat (relies on your operatives running an extension lead to the van, and putting a mains powered heater in the back of the van). This option is risky, if the auxiliary heater catches fire, it could burn out the vehicle.

- Diesel AIR Heater - this provides automated frost protection by automatically turning on when in cold weather, and blowing hot air into the back of the van to keep the van warm.

- Diesel WATER Heater - this provides automated frost protection by automatically turning on when in cold weather, and running hot water around the pumps and reels, and back into the tank. This option gives you hot water to work with, which then provides better cleaning power on the glass or surfaces you clean with.

CAUTION 

LPG, Oil Fired, and Electric Radiators could cause a fire! Please exercise caution if using these to heat your system. We would highly recommend getting a  Hydroheat Space Air Heater or a HydroHeat Water Heater.