Temperatures change everything

[Guest rfitz]

I have had quite a few house washing jobs this week, and I must say when the temps outside stay at or below 50 the chemicals just dont work as good,

or take twice as long to work, as a matter of fact I used 3 of the best selling gutter cleaning products on Friday to clean gutters with, and I couldnt do them, I just put my brush and chems back in the truck, and as far as using heat, I didnt I want to get along without it, I am having a custom unit built that will not have heat, so I better get use to it, I bet I didnt use heat 5 times in 6 months..., and it isnt worth the added expense or the room it takes up, just my opinion

[ron p 500]

fitz, you seem like a nice guy but "no heat" your crazy.

hot water clean's better. period the end.

even read the amount of rec. chem when you use cold water compared to hot.

you use 50% more chem to get the same amount clean.

The cost of fuel more then make's up chem cost's,quality,and speed.

no hot water, now that's funny.

I have chem's on my truck that i cant even mix without hot water.

I mean you could butttt.

oxalic acid loves warm water

hd80 loves warm water

maybe for what you wash it's OK not to have hot water but not mine.

hot water disolves

cold water relies on pressure

pressure = wear

do you want to wear the dirt off or disolve the dirt off?

you mention house washing.

I dont know if you use a x-jet but i would'nt use my x-jet to apply cleaner without heat. That would be useless.

Degreaseing is useless without heat.

Well ive done my best to covince you to go with heat.

Good luck.

[Guest rfitz]

Ron,

Ive done it, and dont see much of a difference, If Im washing 3000 sq ft homes in less than 2-3 hours with cold water, and getting them all clean,

without heat, how much faster could I get ? 70% of time washing homes is in

rinsing not washing, so you wouldnt rinse with hot water, so maybe 25% to 30% of my time is washing that doesnt save much time, and you cant use heat on wood.. so where would I use heat..? restaruants..? I dont want to wash them, I can hardly keep up with my residential work, but yes heat does have its place in commercial work I will not doubt that one bit, just not in my line of work which is residential, also, I wont mention any names but there is a guy that has a good size company, has his own wood BBS and has not used heat on any of his rigs in 2 years, and they are mixing chems like oxilac and percarbs every day, but if it works for you in your biz than I say stay with it..

Good Luck..

just my opinion

[bulletproof 14]

This debate is puzzling to me because like Rob has said and since I joined this and every other board the phrase that has been repeated over and over is that chems clean and water just rinses. How much difference can hot water actually make. It has been said that you wash dishes and clothing with hot water but I know from experience that hot water helps to fade clothing faster and for the dishes thing to have relevance in this field you would have to mix your chems and apply with hot water

[ron p 500]

bullet, chem's loosen and susspend the dirt. Then the washer rinse's the dirt away.

Bleach kill's mold but wont susspend the dirt.

What susspend's the dirt can be a couple of thing's.

Sud's will susspend and some surfacent's will also do that.

One very popular housewash is "emulisifer plus" and bleach.

The emuilsifier will do just that, emulisifi the dirt. Then the bleach kill's the mold.

When you want to get the dirt to release, you want it to release fast and efficiently.

Hot water is the best way to acheive this.

Next time you have egg's over easy for breakfest and wash the dish after lunch. See if it's easyer to wash that plate in cold water or hot water.

Heat also cause's exspansion and cold contraction.

If your trying to get dirt off the surface do you want the surface to contract and tighten the dirt molucule's or exspand the surface and spread the molocule's apart allowing the chem to penatrate to the surface and not sit on top of the dirt?

if i only did wood then i would say their was no need for hot water.

For homeowner work im sure you could get by without it.

One problem's i see by not haveing a hot water rig is customer perception. Anyone can run down to the depot and pick-up a cold water washer and be in buissness[lol]. When i roll-up on the job people are wowed. They feel they are getting their money's worth. The neibor want's me to wash his house even though he has a washer in the garage. Why? hot water.

your giveing the customer something not meny have. It's a selling point.

Weather YOU believe that cold water can wash as well as hot water is IRRELLVENT. The customer KNOW'S hot water is better.

i would bet you a beer that me haveing hot water and you haveing cold water and we submitted an est for a job and i was 10 to 20% higher then your bid. I would get the job.

why? i look more professional and the cust know's hot water cost's more and dose a better job.

i like diffrence's of opinion. It would be a boreing place to live if we did'nt agree to dis-agree.

heck if i did just wood. I would buy a ford f-350 with the PTO option and run my pump right off the engine.

[Mike Williamson 198]

My understanding is that hot water is not good on unpainted wood. I don't see why it would be a problem on painted wood such as siding. Personally, I don't use hot water a whole lot, but that's not because I don't know it cleans faster, but because most of the time it's too damn hot and humid here already....I don't want to spend 10 hours a day in a sauna.

That being said, I sure am glad I have hot water when I run into some nasty concrete or gum!

As far as housewashing, I don't see a difference, but I have never tried applying chems with hot water, either. I'll have to try that.

[Guest rfitz]

Maybe it would clean homes better when the temps are in the 30's 40's and 50's I will have to try tomorrow and will let you know what I find... all I know is I put 10 gallons of Kerosene in my heater tank in may and I still have 5 gallons left, but Im not sure if I want a machine without it just in case...?

[beyoungsr 14]

Adding hot water has allowed me to clean year round.

I am in Texas so heat is usually not needed for house washing in the summer.

I have also found that when it gets cold the chems are not as effective unless hot water is used.

We have done the completly cold thing and I am glad we added hot water. Without it flat work would take much longer. It also really makes a surface cleaner much more effective.

I guess it depends on what you want to pursue as your specialty.

[Mike Cappa 14]

you can mix oxalic and hd-80 with cold water, the chem just won't disslove fully fast enough. I have tried it both ways. when I used cold water, my pump up, or shurflo kept getting clogged because of un diluted chem. Hot water works much better. It is also nice when you want a hot cup of coffee. Bet noone has done that yet, lol

Rob, the setup you are getting is SWEET, just add a hot box to it and you will be a cleaning mad man. It will be well worth the couple extra bucks.

[Mike Williamson 198]

Actually, I will be adding a coffee pot to the trailer soon...It is one that is designed for boats, so it sits on gimbles, with a steel percolator pot that is secured over a propane bottle/burner. Works great!

[Mike Smith 14]

I washed homes with cold water for years. This spring I got a hot water skid unit and ive never looked back. The heat works circles around cold water hands down heat is better and faster and the surfaces get cleaner.

[Guest rfitz]

I must confer, heat does work better, when temps outside are cooler, I am adding a verticle burner to my new skid unit, also, Ron P is absolutely right, it definitely is a marketing tool, when telling people you are washing their house etc.. with hot water, it just sounds more appealing, even if you dont, just saying it or marketing that way I think would bring in more biz... I am still up in the air about washing wood with warm water, I have heard it opens the grain more and cleans better, although I have never done it other than to strip nasty paints, Im not sure if it is better or worse to wash wood with heat

[Aplus 525]

I have two separate rigs, one for cold water, and one for hot water.

I have found no need to use hot water for housewashing. It burns the grass, and doesn't seem to make any difference for removing typical crud found on residential houses.

Now for most commerical work where grease or oily film is typical, and for concrete cleaning, hot water is superior.

Everybody has their own preference I guess.