How cold can you go with an automatic like washworld razor without heat/doors?

[cityview]

Just curious at what temp I should shut down my auto bay. I don't have working doors or heat, but do have weep. Seems ok getting into the high 20s at night, but now weather is calling for teens. I read that most weeps are good to about 5... Is that true or not the auto also?

When I shut down I will heat to prevent freezing, but it cannot be heated while running due to some unrelated concerns.

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[Jeff_L]

I don’t have wash world, but one of my autos doesn’t have doors either and I typically cone it off when it’ll be in the teens.

 

[cityview]

I don’t have wash world, but one of my autos doesn’t have doors either and I typically cone it off when it’ll be in the teens.

Wonderful. I'll do that. Thanks for the tip!

 

[copperglobe]

Anytime it's in the teens I'm closed at night.

 

[Ontario Car Wash]

If its sunny run till it starts blowing snow
otherwise around 14 degrees

 

[friesmaniac99]

If you can afford it then I would just go for some Bay Doors. Then you won't have any issues with coning it. I'm not sure how busy your wash gets but if it's high traffic Id just go ahead with the doors.

 

[DiamondWash]

I would not risk damaging my equipment or worse a customers vehicle, as fries said if you can afford buying doors it will be an necessary investment to make. I have my wash closed at 15 degrees can I run below that...sure but that comes with a lot of risk I don't need to endure.

 

[Jeff_L]

at another one of my locations, i have doors on both ends of the bays for the automatics. I still close them at 15 degrees or less. The bay stays warm, but I don't want to risk ice buildup on the door parts, losing all the heat when the door opens, etc.

 

[Roz]

We close our doors at 40 deg to lock in the warmer air. At 20 deg (outside temp) the machine will shut itself down. Usually happens when there is a wind chill factor and at 1AM. Razor comes back online by itself too when temp crosses 20.

While Razor will work at the lower temp you start to see other issues like ice on the front or back areas outside the bay doors. Just creates too much of a risk. Most customers are fine with this setup. Only a few monthly customers seem to come when very cold but they can come back at a later time without an issue.

 

[cityview]

If you can afford it then I would just go for some Bay Doors. Then you won't have any issues with coning it. I'm not sure how busy your wash gets but if it's high traffic Id just go ahead with the doors.

I actually do have bay doors, but the power company has an issue with the transformer which is killing my doors. They won't fix it while the temp is -10 out... urgh. Supposedly they'll fix it in the "next couple of weeks"

We close our doors at 40 deg to lock in the warmer air. At 20 deg (outside temp) the machine will shut itself down. Usually happens when there is a wind chill factor and at 1AM. Razor comes back online by itself too when temp crosses 20.

While Razor will work at the lower temp you start to see other issues like ice on the front or back areas outside the bay doors. Just creates too much of a risk. Most customers are fine with this setup. Only a few monthly customers seem to come when very cold but they can come back at a later time without an issue.

I'm interested in this. When they installed my Razr, they set it to shut down at -5.

Its freaking HECK to deal with though from -5 to 10 or so... so I changed it to 10.

I still have to watch it like a hawk from 10-20, but good to know someone set it that high (20). I like that, and might do that myself.

 

[Roz]

Razor Manual Section 4.5.2 contains screen shots for the WW Razor settings for the Winter Package. When we did our training at WW the tech said that most of the screen shots in the manual are very good starting points for your programs. We modified our wash package settings based on our chemical rep's testing but for the Cold Package we have used their temp settings and modified slightly (doors at 42 instead of 40) and Bay freeze at 22 instead of 25. The WW temp sensors are not the most accurate from our testing with a temp gun and thermometer so you need to check your temp offsets for both the bay and the outside temp indicators.

 

[wash4me]

Lag used to be on here and he sold a kit that would blow down the auto after each wash when it was below freezing. To make this work you had to run all functions through the arch and have no triple foam and no other low pressure products that don't go through the arch.