I was reading a thread on FB about winterizing your pw’er and figured I would throw in my input. I managed a carpet cleaning company and came up with this system to winterize our trucks. Carpet cleaning truckmounts are fairly similar to a pw’er so I’m sure it would work.
As the manager one of my responsibilities was cutting costs. And every day I would see the techs come back and dump a few gallons of propylen glycol in their machine and pump it out. Was a waste of money. So I came up with this method.
What you need is a restaurant style soda keg like this (soda keg). You also need the specific quick connects that go to it [URL=“http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MzUwWDUwMA==/z/yDcAAMXQWzNScnoi/$(KGrHqJHJEEFJcHm84R2BScnohMFk!~~60_3.JPG”](quick connect)wFIZ(YI)OoBSMN,OPR!Q~~60_3.JPG). You will notice that one is grey and one is black. The grey one you will hook up to an air compressor. The black one you will have to hook up to a hose, a whip line would be perfect. So one end of the line will have the black quick connect the other you will have to use a series of reducers and/or quick connects to attach to your pw’er.
So now that you have all of the gear you need. I recommend you do this step first but it isnt necessary. Hook the whip line with the black quick connect to the soda keg and directly to your pw’er. Hook your pressure lines up to your pump if they arent already. Now attach the grey quick connect (the one thats hooked to your air compressor). This will force almost all of the water out of your machine and lines. Most of the water is out of your equipment now, probably not enough to expand and bust your pump or fittings, but enough to freeze and leave little chunks of ice in your lines.
Now that most of the water has been blown out. Disconnect the air compressor from the tank and Open up the soda keg and put about a quart of propylene glycol and put the cap back on. Re connect the air compressor and wait till you see the coolant come out the end of your pressure line. You’re done!
You dont have to blow out the lines first. Usually you can just hook up the glycol and it will push out all of the water and you stop when you see it come out the pressure line. Its just more effective if you blow it out first.
My explanation sounds complicated but you will be done within 5 minutes of pulling up to your compressor.
This method with the quart will work fine with anything other than if you need to winterize your garden hose. You will need to use about a half gallon just to get the volume moving through it to push out all of the water
