I’ve wondered…can I just hook a hot box to my cold water machine and go or do I need a machine specifically designed for hot water?
Check out that video of @Racer 's most recent trailer build. He’s got a hotbox on there with his 2 cold water machines.
Plug hot box in and go. If 12v make sure charging system on washer can keep battery charged. If 110 system it’s cheaper to put a 3 sheave pulley on machine and put a generator on skid if you can fabricate for it.
Is there an advantage to going 12v over 110 or vice versa?
Actually that video was part of what spawned the question. They appeared to be standard cold water machines but I wanted to be sure before o plugged in a hot box and destroyed a machine, lol.
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12v can be an issue if charging system is an issue but generally cheaper upfront cost. I’ve had about 25 machines over the years and only one hot. It was 110. I cut the skid down the center and gave the burner to someone else after about a year of owning it. Couldn’t see a need for hot water.
Don’t you do a lot of commercial? I’ve read on other threads to not even consider going commercial without hot water. So confused, lol.
Most of my work is apartments and townhomes. You only need hot water for parking garages and fast food concrete. No money in fast food and vendors and orgs have sold out the industry pitching bmp’s and reclaim so not much luck with parking decks. Just my thoughts.
I just bought a hotlink and generator for my 5.5 @ 2500. Got both for $1250 with about 3 hours on them. At the price I feel like it was a solid buy. It’s been converted to 115 and I plan to use the generator to also charge my 12V system (when I get it) I want to be able to bid on some commercial work (banks, restaurants, etc) and I figure this will let me do it without making me broke. I’ve read that a lot of people use hot water to clean boat docks which is my plan for the winter. We’ll see. I was all set to buy a 12V system and then the burner presented itself.
Maybe I’ve been mislead. I’ve read these stories about guys doing parking garages in a week for $30k, with reclaim of course. I’m not experienced in that end of the biz at all. Are those types of figures uncommon?
Nice! Where’d you find that deal?
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If you read a Jim Gamble post it’s mainly made up. John T and others do them but theirs is not a hot box add on sysyem. It’s lots of money invested into good equipment and reclaim and lots of contacts.
One of the powerwash sale sites on fb. I drove 3 hours one way to get it.
Innocent right. You can make those numbers per week running couple of crews with huge equipment working 10 hr days. going rate for most is in $.05 ft. So $30k equals about 600,000 sq ft. Running 17gpm and 48-60" thru 1/2" hose they can do about 10,000’ per hour on the cleaning, but they have separate people rinsing, removing sludge, prepping, etc.
I don’t see much of a need for hot water in residential or most commercial. I did a JC Penny store last year and since it had to completed in 4 hours, I sub-contracted part of the job to another local guy who has a hot water machine. He was having trouble with a particular area on the side of the building. He was using only hot water, which he assured me would put my work to shame. I came over to his trouble area, sprayed some Red Raider on the problem, let it dwell, rinsed it, and boom! It was clean. He was shocked that a cold water machine could out perform his hydro flame thrower, even though it wasn’t the machine, it was the process that was used.
Having said that, I have been asked by a local company to clean their heavy equipment, earth movers and such. I have turned them down because I don’t want weekend work and I wouldn’t even try it without some heat.
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