wash4me
Member
Has anyone installed washer fluid or antifreeze and air blowdown system to the self serve wands yet? If so how's it working?
blowdown wands
- Thread starter wash4me
- Start date
Well here's your answer from a 20 year old kid who grew up in the biz.
http://www.polarfreezeguard.com/Freeze_Guard_System.html
We've had this system for about 6 years and use it for 9 SS bays. You simply set it at a desired temperature and anytime the outside temperature is below your set number the system will turn on. (Ours is set at 37 degrees just to be safe) Compressed air and a shot of antifreeze blow out the lines about 10 seconds after the bay is either set to "off" or simply runs out of time. Has worked great for us for years. When it gets below about 15 degrees we close the bays anyway and only offer an automatic wash. I was actually out there thawing out all the lines in the bays this morning because of an overnight power failure at the car wash. I spent about 2 hours in the 10 degree weather this morning in Boston with a kerosene heater in one hand and a frozen hose in the other... and THAT right there is exactly why we spent the money to have this Polar Freeze system installed. Works great
http://www.polarfreezeguard.com/Freeze_Guard_System.html
We've had this system for about 6 years and use it for 9 SS bays. You simply set it at a desired temperature and anytime the outside temperature is below your set number the system will turn on. (Ours is set at 37 degrees just to be safe) Compressed air and a shot of antifreeze blow out the lines about 10 seconds after the bay is either set to "off" or simply runs out of time. Has worked great for us for years. When it gets below about 15 degrees we close the bays anyway and only offer an automatic wash. I was actually out there thawing out all the lines in the bays this morning because of an overnight power failure at the car wash. I spent about 2 hours in the 10 degree weather this morning in Boston with a kerosene heater in one hand and a frozen hose in the other... and THAT right there is exactly why we spent the money to have this Polar Freeze system installed. Works great
So...then the polar freeze DIDN'T prevent you from spending 2 hours thawing things out? I'm confused. I assume there is no fail safe for a power failure. That's where it's tough to beat the tried and true weep. If the polar could also function as a weep mizer as well and have the weep be the fail safe for a power failure, then somebody would really be on to something
wash4me
Member
I have already installed most of it and built a Plc control system. Counting my time I should have bought one but at this point I'll finish it.
That's an easy one to fix. A normally open solenoid on the weep plugged directly into the grid will kick the weep on during a power failure.So...then the polar freeze DIDN'T prevent you from spending 2 hours thawing things out? I'm confused. I assume there is no fail safe for a power failure. That's where it's tough to beat the tried and true weep. If the polar could also function as a weep mizer as well and have the weep be the fail safe for a power failure, then somebody would really be on to something
Ha! Good point, but look what you learned!
Sorry about that - let me clarify a bit. It works 99% of the time. When it gets really cold, sometimes these systems just aren't worth the hassle. The reason it didn't work the other day wasn't because of a typical power failure, but because the power company was doing work in the street and they damaged our temporary connections. Voltages soared and fell and these surges affected a lot of our equipment, including the polar freeze guard system.So...then the polar freeze DIDN'T prevent you from spending 2 hours thawing things out? I'm confused. I assume there is no fail safe for a power failure. That's where it's tough to beat the tried and true weep. If the polar could also function as a weep mizer as well and have the weep be the fail safe for a power failure, then somebody would really be on to something
To be clear I'm a big fan of polar freeze and strongly believe in it.
Have you had it long enough and been able to get any sort of ball park figure on what it saves you on your water bill during the winter?
I couldn't tell you off the top of my head. That'd be a better question for my father haha. But the polar freeze website has a weep calculator that might be of some use to you.
http://www.polarfreezeguard.com/Weep_Calculator.html
Considering the goal of the company is to sell more of their systems I would imagine that their calculator might be a bit exaggerated just to entice more people to buy. (just something to be wary of, I have no evidence of this)
Robert2181
Member
The calculator on the website is pretty much dead on. Just make sure you know your all of your tip sizes.
