Steam-capable hotboxes?

So, staring down old man winter, thinking about the possibility of doing some ice dam removal this year…

Does anyone know of a hotbox (other than the northern tool one) that is wet steam capable? I’m thinking I’d probably run it at 250°. For the purpose of melting blocks of ice in freezing temperatures, I probably wouldn’t need to run my machine at full throttle. 3-4 gpm would probably be sufficient.

Dultmeier has these wash down hoses, that might be a good fit for running up my waterfed pole. I could see myself being able to do a lot from the ground, that way.

(Crap, just noticed they say, “not for use with steam”. How the heck can 250° water not be steam?)

1 Like

LANDA makes one. I looked at it about 2 months ago, thought it be neat to degrease engines this way.

Three come to mind. Whitco, Easy Kleen and Powerjet

Edit: whoops you said you’re looking for standalone burners. My bad

1 Like

Yeah Easy-Kleen has hotboxes up to 1.8 mil btu they make a good coil

https://powerjetpressure.com/products/customized-specialized/modular-hot-water-heaters/

This is interesting to me so I’m going to read up on it. For instance I have always known ball valves carry a WSP rating. This is not the same as the standard temperature rating. Working Steam Pressure is a different animal. Will do some studying when I wake up IF I can remember.

1 Like

I’m interested as well. Landa had one. But it did low pressure steam only, thought it be great for sensitive areas, like motor bays ,electronics etc. But I did not realize that the machine produced steam only. I thought it be a big ole PW , with a steam option.

As far as the not for steam hose I would suspect they are referring to dry stream. 250 degree water would be wet steam. As to why it won’t carry 250 degree dry steam you got me stumped

1 Like

Got a ballpark price from powerjet for a steam hotbox: ~$4,200. Not very cost effective.

Think I’ll just keep my eyes peeled for something on Craigslist

The mitm machine will do it I have one its a great little machine for steam

NT makes one.
I got mine 8yrs ago and still works like a charm

1 Like

@Ikii, I’m aware of the NT one. Pretty sure it’s only rated for 4gpm. And I assumed that it was junk. Nice to hear that you’ve gotten some good life out of yours.

For my purpose of melting ice, the price is right, and I can always throttle my machine down to ~4 gpm.

Now just waiting on what is sure to be an insane insurance quote.

Should’ve gotten started planning this sooner…

@Infinity how are you going to power it. I’m sorry I dont know alot about the stand alone boxes. But I bet you could pick up a mitm steam unit for 3k

Good question. For the purpose of ice dam removal, it probably would not be too big a deal to just request access to an outlet to power a 120v burner. It’s the sort of service that customers will jump through any flaming hoops you have, just to get the work done. They’ve gotta turn on their outside water in the middle of winter, as it is :smirk:

Ok so I had to google ice dam removal that looks like fun. Where in the world do you live that this is a thing. I bet you could make good money doing it. How many of that type of jobs would it take to pay for that type of thing

I’ve heard $200+/hr is typical. So depending on the house, you’re looking at $400-800 or more per job.

I’m thinking I could adapt my wfp as an extension wand, instead of doing all that risky ladder and roof climbing. Should cut my work time, as well.

I’m in southern VT. We don’t get bad ice dams every year. It really depends on the timing of freeze/thaw cycles. It’s been a few years since we’ve had a really bad year for it; I’ve got a hunch we may be due for a bad one.

The last winter it was bad here, I made pretty good money just hacking away with an ice pick and laying on calcium chloride. But that’s really the bucket-bob way to go about it.

This is also the sort of service where if a particular area is getting it really bad, guys with the right equipment will come in from hundreds of miles away and make a killing. Boston a few years back was full of Michigonians removing all the ice dams.

1 Like

We have been doing roof snow removal for some years in the Ottawa area in Canada. This year we plan on getting equipped with steam for ice dams as well. Keep me updated on progress when you tried some equipment options! And did you find an insurer? For this service we had to find an insurer that specializes in high risk activities… costly! Some years the demand for the service won’t even cover the cost of insurance etc…
Some years it’s worth it. Anyway I am considering
a specialized steamer made for ice dam removals. I wonder how long the winterization process takes when between jobs. Keeping in mind you have winter, we have Winter. This is a typical roof here in February…

1 Like

Not sure if it’s going to happen this year. Should’ve gotten started on marketing and equipment about 3 months ago to make a go of it this winter.

Never heard back from my insurance agent about the additional coverage. Had to sign up for some added coverage for the two-stepped window washing job, and apparently the same high-risk carrier may be able to cover me for ice dam removal and other stuff.

Myself i’ve been thinking about it for 2 years but never took the time to make it happen, days are so short. This winter it’s a go! Will let you know what machine we go with.

1 Like

If do give it a go, it will probably be with the $1500 unit from NorthernTool. Or possibly a used unit off of Craigslist.

I’d have to idle my 5.5 gpm machine down a bit to get the required heat rise, but I don’t think you need a huge amount of flow for ice dams.

What’s the typical output of the specialized units? Around 3gpm?

2.4 gpm is what i found.