What is the temperature that bleach stops working? I washed a hardiplank house today, it was around 60 degrees. My solution didn’t remove mold of the walls. I mixed 2 gallon bleach 2 gallon water and simple cherry. That always worked for me before. What may cause that? it was coming off when i used a brush. I just don’t want to brush 3200 sf house. I’m going back there tomorrow, it should be around 80 degrees
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One of the beauties of Simple Cherry. If your house wash mix does not suck the pink color out of itself in short order, it may not clean the house either.
We cleaned two roofs in the cold last week. They both turned out fine. Mixed house wash from the same barrel of hypo. No go. A fresh bucket of hypo got the house clean in the same low temperatures, so was it the hypo or temp?
Sixty degrees is not cold enough to affect cleaning power. Actually, it’s just about perfect house washing weather to me.
I bet your bleach was junk, too.
I would have to agree 60 is perfect for cleaning for me also.
I’ve never used simple cherry, I use Fresh Wash. works so well with the 12%
I got a new bucket of bleach, will try again today. Should be 80 degrees later in the day. It sux when customer is asking me do I know what I’m doing, and it looks like i don’t. Hope today will go better
I’ll say 60 is around optimal as well…when it’s hotter you have less time before it dries on windows…You should be good with the new bleach. Dip your finger in it and see how long it takes to turn white.
I’ve had the same thing happen at a job with bad bleach, I soaped 3 times and didn’t get any of the mold off.
I have a tough time below 55 deg. Most of the time I have to go over some spots twice.
I don’t allow that to happen. If your customer knew so much, he would have done the job himself. You are still in control until you give it up. The customer feeds off of your energy so find a way to turn your situation into a positive.
A few years ago, when we were running 4 machines on our trailer - 2@3.2 gpm each tied to a 4gpm, we had problems with unloaders on a job. The retired shop teacher homeowner came out and began looking over our shoulder, “Having trouble with your machines?”. “No Sir, just taking this opportunity to better understand how they function”. He smiled and mumbled something about salesmen always being full of **** and went back in the house.
Resist the temptation to overdue the bleach strength, especially on Hardi Plank.
That’s a great response, Tim.
So my bleach was a junk. Got a new bucket, worked like a charm. Homeowner was really happy, I redeem myself in his eyes. Feels good. And that was a neighbor of my best referring realtor, and a neighborhood association president. So double pressure. Thanks guys
Whats the deal with sticking finger in it? I tried and it turn white fast
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tells you how strong it is. stick your finger in some old stuff and id takes longer than some hot stuff
[SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial]Looks like you found that your bleach had degraded down to apoint where it had become ineffective. Bleach has a pretty short shelf life and can be shortened even more by leaving it stored in hot temperatures or in clear/opaque containers that will let the sun’s UV rays get through.
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[SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial]But for your question about what temperature does bleach become effective there are a couple of things to consider. Some on here have said bleach works fine at 60 degrees and I would agree if the bleach you are using is fresh. If the bleach is three weeks old, it might not work as well at sixty degrees as fresh bleach would even down to 55 degrees. However, your three week old bleach may still work at 80 degrees. [/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial]Another thing to consider, and is just as important in the fall and winter months, is the water and surface temperatures. Once the ground cools off, the water you are using may be coming out at 50 degrees or less even though the air temperature has warmed up to 70 degrees during the day. In that case, the water temperature is going to be a detriment to the strength of your bleach more than air temperature. [/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial]Yet another factor in the fall and winter is going to be the surface temperature. You might notice that your cleaning solutions are working fine on the house where the sun has warmed it up, but when you move around to the back side of the house where the sun is not able to warm the surfaces; your solutions suddenly stop working as effectively. That would be because the surface temperatures could still be well below 50 degrees. Unfortunately, the back side of the home that doesn’t get any sunshine is typically going to bethe dirtiest side of the house. [/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial]We have overcome all of these variables by being able toheat our water with our hot water skid units. In the fall, winter and early spring we warm our water up to around 70~90 degrees depending on how cold the water is that we are using and the surface temperatures are that we are cleaning. Since we switched from a cold water unit to hot water units we now clean year round even if the temperatures are barely above freezing. [/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]
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Great info, Len, and spot on.
Excellent advice Tim!!!
Good thread
Good stuff here. Another great benefit of the PWRA.
So, I landed on this thread by searching “temperature”. This is exactly what I’m looking for. And my question seems to be getting answered, but here goes:
This coming Friday I have 2 house washes, gutter whitenings, etc. scheduled, but the forecasted high at that location is 45 and below freezing early. I don’t use hot water and the only place I could find SH around here this time of year is Leslie’s Pools (10%).
Am I pretty much right in postponing it? (Man, I need the money!)
Gutter whitening might be a pain but if you check out the thread I started about sh and temp you’ll see I did just fine at 35 deg
Exactly as Tim said, for gutter whitening you need at least 60 degrees. We did 8 vinyl condo bldgs Wed, with a high of 35. We had to hit some really bad spots 2xs but otherwise came out great.
Thanks for the responses.
