is the cold?

[victory1]

I am in north Ohio, it is cold.

I have been doing this for years, trust me.
I have a Prochem Everest a year old, I have an on board water tank. so I do not have to use a garden hose which would lay on the cold ground.
I keep my van in a heated garage at night.

When I start my unit, I block both vacuum inlets so that it heats up fast, with in 8 - 10 minutes it 230,
I set up, I prespray, I wait another 10 minutes then start cleaning. The gauge reads 230-235 when I start. I like it hot.
After a minute or so it drops to 190. I stop cleaning for a minute or a minute and 1/2, and it jumps right up there. 230.
Start cleaning then it drops, I have check everything. it is not bypassing.

Maybe its me, but, I noticed that this has happened right after an engine oil change, water pump oil change, and new check valve on the wand since it was dripping. I read they would help so I put them on.

Could the warm and hot switch be bad? I took the hose off the third heat exchange from the second heat exchanger when it was on warm and water was coming out of it, when I switch it to Hot it came flying out of there. Should water be coming out of there when it is on warm??
Maybe one of you fine folks or some one smart from Prochem might have an answer.

Thanks

 

[Becker]

I never know the temp I'm cleaning at while cleaning.

Of course every now and then again I go out to the van for something and look at the gauge.

Could it just be a victim on the cold? If it is really really cold then I'm sure the machine will have a hard time keeping the same temp while cleaning as it did when the temps are 20 degrees warmer.

And in the summer it of course by passes. Or what ever it does to keep from over heating.


Did you change the jets on the wand?

 

[Harry]

sell it and buy a hydromaster 421 or 427.Not to make you mad .just a thought.But you might not get great heat even with the hydromaster inthe winter.I do ,but im inthe deep south.

 

[Matt King]

It's the cold air outside. You have the same Nissan engine my Genesis had. I'd always close one of my side doors so the fan wasn't pulling so much ice cold air through the radiator. When you stop cleaning your exhaust heat exchangers have a chance to make up for the lack of engine coolant heat. When you start cleaning again the exhaust exchangers just can't keep up without that base temperature of pre-heated water from the engine coolant. In short, I wouldn't worry about something being wrong with the machine. It's just cold outside...

 

[Greenie]

Matt is the king, right on the money, Volume of water in the HX system is the issue.

This is the magic bullet of a clue "I stop cleaning for a minute or a minute and 1/2, and it jumps right up there. 230"

In 90 seconds, you basically drain the 1.5 - 2.0 gals of hot water in the system, and now it's struggling to warm that icy water.
You can't cheat mother BTU, you only have so many BTUs avail. and the colder it gets, the faster a HX system is going to show it's Achilles heel.

Van powered systems (although not known to heat as high in general) illustrate this volume example well.
They don't show this drop in solution temp as much, because you have 4X the cylinder displacement, and coolant capacity, so introducing 1.5 gal of cool water doesn't shock the larger system of it's heat potential.

Also worth noting, "coolant" is not nearly as effective at transferring heat, water and specifically pure water is much more effective at accomplishing the mission we seek from a HX. Changing the percentage of mix can add more heat to your system, ask the TM manufacturers, old trick for demos.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

An easy workaround involves pre-heating a larger quantity of water via the vehicle's coolant system or accumulating wasted TM heat back to either such a solution tank or at least a larger water box.

 

[Ron Werner]

had a couple of thoughts
What about putting a piece of cardboard in front of your rad just like trucks do on the road. It blocks the cold air, reduces your cooling efficiency, but you won't be drawing that ice cold air across the whole rad.

What about rigging up a pre heat for your solution tank. Greenie was just talking to me about an exhaust HX system to give me a boost in temp. I had just been thinking of running a thin line back to my solution tank so even while I'm cleaning, a small amount of hot water is warming the tank.

Third, what about putting a reservoir tank on either your coolant or your solution system to have a bigger heat reserve.

Oh, and an idea I had when I was thinking of moving back to Ontario, where I knew I would be dragging my solution hose over snow and ice, was to rig up a return flow line to the truck. Its like a small line or just double the solution line with a small jet on the end that goes back to the solution tank. Have the loop so it goes right to the front door then you will have your hot water right there for when you need it. It would be like moving your truck right to the front door wrt the heat getting to the wand. It'll also prevent your line from freezing.

 

[Farenheit251]

Preheat your fresh water. Not too hot maybe 100 degrees. Every degree will add a degree to your final heat. You could use an electric immersion heater or just circulate the water through your machine and back into the fresh tank. I would think 100 degrees would be ideal. Brian E