Get Your Pressure Washer Ready for Winter
Here at Rhinowash, we understand that business doesn’t just stop when the weather drops. We’ve specifically designed our equipment to take into account the different weather pattens that batter the British Isles on a regular basis and have built tough and robust machinery that can withstand even the harshest of environments.
From frozen water and machinery, to unprotected gun-hoses and wash-lances, a compromised pressure washer can mean expensive downtime for your business and result in costly repairs.
The ideal time for a refresher on how to get your pressure washer ready for winter. As although you can’t control the weather, you can winterize your pressure washer to ensure your equipment continues to work to its maximum capability through the cold winter months.
What are the most common winter weather issues?
Frozen Water
If your water supply isn’t insulated and isolated, it may become frozen which would stall any use of the pressure washer until the water pipe thaws. In especially cold winter days when temperatures don’t rise above freezing, this could mean your pressure washer could be out of action for days on end.
Frozen Accessories
In sub-zero temperatures, unprotected gun-hoses and wash-lances quickly freeze and are often unusable for hours until they thaw, which more often than not can result in costly repairs.
Frozen Machinery
Without proper protection, pressure washers are highly vulnerable to frost. This can cause water in the pipes and components to freeze and burst which can be very expensive to fix. As a result, any jobs that require a pressure washer can be brought to a standstill.
What steps can I take to ‘winterize’ my pressure washer?
Frost Protection
Make sure that any fitted frost protection is working correctly. Without frost protection, you may experience frozen pipes, which are expensive to fix and can put your pressure washer out of use for several days. This is why here at Rhinowash, all our machines have automatic frost protection to save you costly frost damage to your hoses and lances.
Preventative Maintenance
Service agreements and preventative maintenance plans ensure that your machine is regularly serviced and is well looked after to keep it performing as it should. Any issues or necessary repairs can be identified and rectified sooner rather than later. Here at Rhinowash, our Quick Swap Modular Design ensures guarantees a first time fix, even through the winter months.
Oil and Fuel Checks
Before the winter weather sets in, check the pump oil, water filter and fuel filter as this can help to avoid any costly bills. This is typically an easy visual check.
Check Your Water Connection
It’s vital that your water connection is both insulated and isolated, to protect the water from the cold. If the water freezes, as will the pipes, leaving the pressure washer unusable until it thaws.
Have Back Up Accessories
Time is money so by keeping a spare high pressure wash hose and gun lance on the shelf, this ensures you can get up and running again quickly should anything go wrong.
Store Your Pressure Washer Safely and Correctly
Keep panel lids and doors closed, ensuring your unit is tightly fastened to avoid costly repair bills from water ingress and keep frost protection operational, if fitted. Here at Rhinowash, all of our pressure washes can be sealed away in insulated and weatherproof enclosures, keeping them safe from even the coldest of temperatures, as well as any accidental damage from mishandling.
If you have a Rhinowash Pressure washer installed
Life got a little easier, all our models have a thermostat-controlled frost protection heater below every pump and dependant on your Model and environment these units can come fully insulated with additional thermostat-controlled heaters, When the cold temperatures come along and you’re a client who benefits from our preventative maintenance schemes we ensure pre winter to turn up your thermostats ready for the cold weather and return them back at spring time. We then just need to keep the equipment closed up and keep a continued power supply, ensure your incoming water supply is protected and Store away any exposed hoses and lances in a safe warm location. You will be ready to go when needed.
If you have a Rhinowash Hose management system Installed
Great you are well prepared, If you using our Hose management system you will be setup in one of 2 options. 1st option -Quick release high pressure connection and 2nd Option fully insulated and heat trace protected.
Like all our equipment our hose management system has a thermostat-controlled heater where you can store your hose and lance from frost and remove trip hazards at the same time.
The steps from you to protect the equipment are very simple once washing is completed and the equipment is stopped then we can remove the wash lance from the quick release coupling (no tools required) and store within the hose reel management system.
Those who currently have setup option 1 have one additional step where we remove the quick release couplings between the pressure washer and the hose management system(no tools required) and where appropriate can store this link hose in the hose management system or simply let it drain.
Option 2 is fully protected between pressure washer and hose management system as long as power is connected you will be ready to go.
