Winterizing your rig

Here is a PWRA video for those of you who need to winterize your rig on a daily basis.

PWRA-Preparing your rig for freezing tempuratures - YouTube

Thanks, Jeremy!

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Excellent video Jeremy!!
I don’t really do video’s(I’m a bit behind times and still don’t do Facebook–yet) but here’s a little tip for some fellow PWRA members. What I have on my unloaders is a quick connect on my bypass lines. The reason for that is so we can pop in another hose for the bypass line while winterizing so the antifreeze goes into a holding tank while running antifreeze thru the system.

When we run antifreeze It’s good to turn the ball valve off a few times so the antifreeze gets into every port of the pump. While turning the ball valve off the unloader goes into bypass and when it does we want to catch that antifreeze to use for another day. In 19 yrs we wrecked a few pumps but never from freezing.

Great tip on the QC bypass line. Will definitely be stealing that…

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Jeremy, what psi is your compressor set at? Or does it matter?
I normally use a blow gun but having the plug would make to a lot easier.

On my compressor I also have a female 3/8" quick connect piece that pops into it that pops onto all my hoses,burners,surface machine etc so we can blow out the lines. This makes it a snap to blow out lines where I don’t have to hold the compressor hose to them.

The other thing about using a 3/8" female quick connect that pops in my compressor hose is think sprinklers in the cold regions where you blow out the sprinkler lines. What I do for my burners is I’ll run the compressor hose for around 5-10 minutes thru my burners to make sure all the water build up is gone. I use to run antifreeze thru my burners but now with this setup it’s easier with just a pop on and come back and pop off.

The only thing I run antifreeze thru is my pumps.

Someone on the Facebook group said 20psi (so it won’t damage anything in the pump)… That’s what I did and it seem to do fine on all of my PW’s.

We just hook it up, I think our compressor is set at 100 psi…No problems in 7 years of blowing units out.

Mine is set at 90-100 PSI. Never ever had an issue and it takes literally 3 min to blow out everything. In the video, the extra ball valve is made to hook up a hose to so I can suck up antifreeze. Another 3-4 minutes.

Thanks Guy and Jeremy for clarifying the psi. I have a question about getting antifreeze in the pump. I have a fitting on the end of my manifold coming off my 300 gallon tank. I can blow out the water out of my pump and lines using this fitting. Can I pump antifreeze into this fitting using a 12 volt pump until it comes out my line also? I took off my equipment this year and put in my garage but next year I going to keep it on the trailer. If that’s not a good way to winterize my equipment I guess I will modify my manifold so I can the antifreeze in through the manifold.

In my video if you will look to the next ball valve next to the air whip line, that is where you can attach a hose to a 5 gallon bucket and suck up. If you have a belt drive machine it will suck it up. If you have a direct drive you probably will have to gravity feed it into the pump

Thanks for the video. Always nie to see other guys ways of doing things.

I don’t want to redirect this, but on the subject of using an air compressor- I’ve never owned one. I will be picking one up. I don’t foresee using it for too many things. Any suggestions?

Dan you will be surprised at what you will use them for. I went ahead and got a good one that will also run my air diaphragm pump. It is motorized and portable but it was also about $800. Think any of the shop type compressors that have at least 20-30 gallon tank will work. Don’t get a cheap pancake type one. If you went the cheap route and got an electric one from like harbor freight or northern tools you could probably get a decent one for under $200

Thank you Jeremy. As usual!

[h=2][/h]DEWALT 30-Gal. Portable Vertical Electric Air Compressor-DXCMLA1983054 at The Home Depot

Any thoughts on this model?

I wouldn’t spend that much on an 20-30 gallon. If I were going to spend that much, I would go ahead and get a portable air compressor. You can get those for about $800-900. I also have one of these that does the same thing. http://www.sears.com/craftsman-33-gallon-vertical-portable-air-compressor/p-00916472000P?prdNo=3&blockNo=3&blockType=G3

Way too much.

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A 2 gall will do it.

John Devine. allwashedupny.com

What size motor John? I bought one of these at harbor freight and it wasn’t powerful enough to do it. I’m sure the size motor plays into it a lot.
http://m.harborfreight.com/1-3-hp-3-gallon-100-psi-oilless-air-compressor-97080.html