With all this cold weather we have been having when I have been able to be open and wash cars I have noticed that my presoak is not as hot as it needs to be. I have a hydrominder system that has a small holding tank for the presoak and it has a heating element in it and the water supply to the hydrominder is fed thru an on demand aquastar heater. When I am busy the holding tank for the presoak really does not have time to heat up the presoak and the water being so called is barely warm as it comes thru the aquastar...could be I need a new aquastar but it occurred to me that I maybe could place my presoak supply drum on some sort of heating pad to give it a bit of a head start. Is anyone else doing anything like that? If so does it really help? Just wondering....
Heating Presoak
- Thread starter borumrm
- Start date
JGinther
Zip-tie engineer
Dont know the specs of the aquastar, but it may be a little small. Your presoak on a d/s5000 is about 6 gallons or so in about a minute and a half. When water comes in at 33 deg f, you would need almost 250kbtu just for that.
Assuming your presoak concentrate is around 64:1, you could knock of the heat load of the system by 1/64th by heating the presoak. Not very efficient, and not enough to help unless you were at 4:1. And after all that you would shoot through double the product because of the viscocity change.
Assuming your presoak concentrate is around 64:1, you could knock of the heat load of the system by 1/64th by heating the presoak. Not very efficient, and not enough to help unless you were at 4:1. And after all that you would shoot through double the product because of the viscocity change.
Earl Weiss
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Are you a tunnel, SS, or IBA? In the tunnels I have Hot and Cold T'd together for the supply to the Hydrominders. When it was -0- It was all hot. Still, by the time it hit the car it was just warm. As temps rise I use less hot and more cold. MY SS setup is similar. Using the smallest possible reservoir for the Hydrominder may help. Still, with most systems you will lose significant heat from the point heat is applied until it hits the surface of the car. Perhaps some chemical guys can chime in as to how much heat is really needed.
I note the soap foams better, it will help thaw some frozen dirt, Keep windows from freezing over, in the summer seem to help dissolve tree sap and Bird poop and the DA works better as well.
OOOPS - Just noticed DS 5000 - That's IBA right?
I note the soap foams better, it will help thaw some frozen dirt, Keep windows from freezing over, in the summer seem to help dissolve tree sap and Bird poop and the DA works better as well.
OOOPS - Just noticed DS 5000 - That's IBA right?
Heating presoak definitely improves performance. Make sure it does not go over 140 degrees because it will break down the chemicals. Ideally it should be about 120 coming out of the backroom. Depending on your setup the temperature of the solution when it reaches the vehicle could be reduced quite a bit depending on how exposed the feed lines are and the distance between the equipment and the delivery system.
