Cold one today

We had an ice storm yesterday followed by 1.5 inches of snow over-night. Not a big storm, but the snow sitting on the ice was not fun and the temps were in the mid-teens for today's job.

I actually decided to give the box truck a try in the sub-freezing temperatures rather than moving everything over to the van. I can honestly say that this truck is done cleaning in the cold this year.

What went wrong? Well, here is the short list:

1. Roll up doors were frozen shut from the ice storm...took a heat gun and rubber mallet to correct.
2. Vac hoses were stiff as a board....like rolling out pvc pipe until they warmed up in the home.
3. Carried all the cold-sensitive items in the cab, but diesels don't produce heat at idle...not a big help until down the road for a bit
4. Had to reach into the vac port to clear some ice that formed over night
5. Filter bag developed some slush and reduced vacuum until I could change the bag
6. Had to winterize the lines, tools, and machine before I left the job

The good news was that the job got done without any damage. I cranked the heat up since it was being fed directly by garden hose so efficiency wasn't great, but it still held 200 degrees at the wand. That was impressive to me, heater sitting outside in a tin can at 16 degrees being fed water that was on the verge of freezing yet 200 degrees at the wand 150 feet away.

I guess it could be used if necessary in the winter with the exception of those roll-up doors freezing shut. It is really embarrassing to not be able to open the cargo box up until you throw a few elbows at it. That wasn't the image I was going for on that job.

One time I got to a job and water lines were Almost froze. I grabbed some vac hose, stuck it in vans exhaust to unfreeze things.
I set up better protocols to not duplicate that.

Nothing wrong with that move.

When I ran the NYC marathon I got there on the first bus and had to wait for 3 hours until the start time. The information packet talked about breakfast and heated pavillion, but they forgot to mention that it was for the elite runners only.

I was wearing shorts and tank top in the low 30's temp. After awhile I ended up looking for any source of heat and found a portable light set. I stood in front of the exhaust for about an hour before the start. Surprised it didn't kill me.

I think I will just stick with the Butler and my gas card for winter. Everything inside stays at a warm temperature including the filter. It just gets cramped and expensive on fuel.

For number 5 & 6, I thought you would have the same issues with the Butler ?

Propane is definitely hotter than heat exchanger, that’s pretty impressive temperature atw.

That is benefit of a Butler is that I can leave it all closed up...filter and all when I work. Sometimes I will winterize otherwise just throw a ceramic heater in the van later.

The downside is that the van is running the whole time from load up to back home.

We haven't been above freezing since the first of the year. Weather man said that a cold front was going to snow 50 miles south of me all the way to the coast 150 miles away, but we were not in the warning area. Well we got hit with 6 inches of snow. The weather man missed it all together. Coldest first week in January in 20 years. Wind chills, at 0 or below for the last 4 days. Today it 6 deg at 8 am.

That has to miserable. I always thought that NC was one of the colder areas in the winter due to the dampness where I was outside of Jacksonville. That would make those temps feel even worse.

It is finally out of my area with a forecast of a mild 20 degrees tonight and near 40 tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how many pipes froze and flood around town.

The good news is that you will get a ton of repair work out of it! Like most cleaners, I lose money, but you should prosper from it.