weeping water through foaming brush

Just as the subject implies I need to get this done ASAP! This is my first winter and I have been using the methanol soap and it is freezing in my lines. I have seen this done at some other car washes and am just looking for some direction.

What size tip are you using, and what brand methanol soap are you using,

Your methanol solution must not be at the right dilution. It will work down to well below zero. have you tried strengthening it? There should be instructions on the label as to what ratios are good to what temps.

It have the largest tip in it right now, the next step would be to completely remove it. I thoughed out all of the lines last night and we should have a couple of days above freezing before it gets cold again. So you guys don't recommend weepeing water through the brush?

Why put more water on the floor to freeze, what brand anti freeze soap are you useing, either it was a bad batch or the company skimped on the meth to keep the cost down. i have customers in VT that use my winter mix with a black tip, and have no problems, one customere is on the boarder of canada. One other thing to check is the screen in the hydrominder if it has a lot of crap in it you might not be getting a good mix , of if the hydrominder is old it might have to be rebuilt.

Ditto to above about problems with current mixture.

I weep through my brushes. It works fine. It will increase your sewer/water bill. But that could be offset because methanol FB is expensive. I'm in the south and my system is generally on only at night. Everybody down here is big sissies, not many people washing down here when the weep is running. If you have floor heat I guess freezing should not be an issue.

To make your brushes weep, you must tee off the existing weep line going to your high pressure. Each bay will need a check valve, and tee. A needle valve will also help reduce water usage. You can prolly build yourself for about $50-75 per bay.

Also, if you don't have one, you may want to install a weepmizer. This will pulse your weep system on and off when temps are between about 18-36.

Greg how much do they charge for winter mix where you are, I no the winter mix has gone up a little since last year.
Do you shut off the weep to the foam brush when it is in use. It wouls seem to me and i have done this on 3-foam systems you would want to use a bank of n/o sol that are tied into you air sol so when the brush is in use it would turn the water off and then have a n/o sol on the main line feeding the bay sol on a t-stat so when the temp is high enough it would turn the weeps off.
Just my thought

I weep my foam brushes, have for 15 plus years. This year I tried a 30 gallon drum of Methanol foam brush soap. I found that you have to use a lot of it to make it work and it doesn’t go very far. After I froze up tight I went back weeping my foam brushes. My weep system is controlled by a Dixmor Weepmizer so it cycles on and off. Shoot me a E-mail and I’ll send you some pictures of how I’ve got my weep set up for the foam brush system.

CWSI, my weep system has its' own regulator. It is currently set at about 20psi. The foam brush chemical side runs at about 45psi, so it just outguns the weep and prevents it from running while FB is in use.

I haven't priced methanol FB soap lately, but I heard a lot of other operators grumble about the price of methanol. That plus the ratio you have to use it at makes it a good deal more expensive than regular foam brush. whether it is truly more or less expensive than weeping I guess would depend on many factors including how busy you are in sub freezing weather, cost of water/sewer and whether you recycle your weep. My experience is that people down south know a warm day (~50s) is coming every few days, so they don't wash much below freezing in the SS. A casual observation I have made is that people in milder climates tend to weep, guys up north tend to use methanol soap. I don't know if that is true, though.

Eagle, don't be greedy, post the pictures here!

I have a methanol system and a windtrax system. I've had
both for over 20 years. I like the windtrax system. It has
worked down to 20 below zero. It does not weep water and
I don't use methanol or methanol soap. It is a self contained system. It is sophisticated and it difficult to explain here, but it also heats my trough.
Some methanol is weak. I can't comment about methanol soap
or weeping foaming brushes - I've never done either. The cheapest thing to do (I suppose) is to weep the brushes with a weep mizer, but I guess water from the weep is then mixed with the foam ? I can't comment on this system much.
Don't skimp on the methanol or purg too late. Do it at 34 degrees. Wind chill can surprise you at times. If you are
not wise about this then you will be thawing foam brush hoses. Believe me - I've had my share over the years.

Joe
www.crowncarwashinc.com

Well....I have kind of figured a way to keep my lines from freezing. I check the wash on my way to work in the morning and turn every bay on and let the soap run for about 60 seconds. Sadly, with eight bays, there are some bays that just don't get used much in the winter. I also do the same thing in the evening when I do my daily check and maintinence. I need to calculate which is easier to do, the twice daily purge or hooking up a new weep system?

Any Opinions?

If there's a thheat of freeze overnight, I pour 5 gallons of cheap Wal-Mart windshield washer fluid along with some blue foam brush soap in the tank and purge all the bays with it. I don't have to mess with checking it the next day since it just gets used up.

I've wanted for some time to build a better system that switches to a methanol-based soap and purges the lines if it gets too close to freezing - I may do that next year. I also plan on purging the high-pressure lines with antifreeze instead of having a continuous water weep.