[mufcglen]

looking ahead to winter and it will be my first doing wfp, last year was trad and i couldnt feel my fingers!
worried about freezing tank and water etc and thinking about installing a hot water system.
anyone got any advice on installing a diy heater system?

[bobplum]

you could put an immersion heater element into the tank, keeps water warm / hot and can be used clean windows, how long it will last as warm water is a guess
electric oil filled heater in the back of the van , keeps everything warm and stops everything from freezing but water still cold
L5 hot water heater+ gas bottle for the water thru the hose and up to the brush head.

There are various combinations you can use.

I use a electric heater in the van then heat up the water thru a L5 GAS heater

[KS Cleaning]

The cheapest option is to drop a portable immersion heater into your tank overnight, depending on size of tank you may need two, I have a 650 tank and I put two in overnight and water is hot in the morning. I actually have the 9KW diesel heater from pure freedom which cost around 3 grand ?, the 2 portable immersion heaters cost me £20 and do the same job. Smudger put a link up for these heaters back in February

[Richard ham]

Get a frostat controller with recirculation back to tank. Simple yet effective.

[mufcglen]

cheers guys, i'll look into that immersion heater for the tank, i take it you just run the water out of the lines at night so it doesnt freeze on the reel.
isnt there something you can put in the water to stop it freezing and doesnt make the windows spot etc?

[PoleKing]

cheers guys, i'll look into that immersion heater for the tank, i take it you just run the water out of the lines at night so it doesnt freeze on the reel.
isnt there something you can put in the water to stop it freezing and doesnt make the windows spot etc?

I keep my reel pressurised all the time.
No need to drain them if you've got a heTer in there.
Your tank will effectively become a radiator.

[mufcglen]

wonder if it could be worth getting a mini plug in heater and a spare battery that i can throw in back of van at night and let the heater keep the inside of the van warm enough not to let anything freeze!
cant believe im worrying about it when we're in middle of summer but things are going so sweet at the moment in this weather that im panicking about when the frost starts to hit!

[DeLuce]

I've got an immersion fitted. I made a hole as low down as my arms would reach in the tank so as to fit the immersion. Put in the unit mounted on a mechanical flange (so once flange is bolted into tank hole the immersion element screws into it) . Wired the element up to a length of insulated cable which tolerates 3kw and then plug it into my shed plug unit on a timer.  A few hours is enough to give you warm water to keep your hoses supple and your hands more pleasantly warm during the colder months. We'll worth doing and reasonably cheap for the benefits it gives you.
If you tap into the search facility 'immersion heater' you should get some older posts that will help you get an idea of what you need. Plus some on YouTube too.
All in for just under £80 I think when I did mine. Good luck.

[mufcglen]

cheers fella the only prob i got is i live on the main rd so i couldnt have any wires running outside the house onto the footpath!

[John Guess]

I've got an immersion fitted. I made a hole as low down as my arms would reach in the tank so as to fit the immersion. Put in the unit mounted on a mechanical flange (so once flange is bolted into tank hole the immersion element screws into it) . Wired the element up to a length of insulated cable which tolerates 3kw and then plug it into my shed plug unit on a timer.  A few hours is enough to give you warm water to keep your hoses supple and your hands more pleasantly warm during the colder months. We'll worth doing and reasonably cheap for the benefits it gives you.
If you tap into the search facility 'immersion heater' you should get some older posts that will help you get an idea of what you need. Plus some on YouTube too.
All in for just under £80 I think when I did mine. Good luck.

Sorry, I know this is an old post but I'm thinking of doing the same myself, so just wondered if this method is working ok for you? Do you have a copper element on the immersion and if so, does it affect the tds reading?
Would be interested to hear of your experience with this.
Cheers

[Spruce]

I've got an immersion fitted. I made a hole as low down as my arms would reach in the tank so as to fit the immersion. Put in the unit mounted on a mechanical flange (so once flange is bolted into tank hole the immersion element screws into it) . Wired the element up to a length of insulated cable which tolerates 3kw and then plug it into my shed plug unit on a timer.  A few hours is enough to give you warm water to keep your hoses supple and your hands more pleasantly warm during the colder months. We'll worth doing and reasonably cheap for the benefits it gives you.
If you tap into the search facility 'immersion heater' you should get some older posts that will help you get an idea of what you need. Plus some on YouTube too.
All in for just under £80 I think when I did mine. Good luck.

Sorry, I know this is an old post but I'm thinking of doing the same myself, so just wondered if this method is working ok for you? Do you have a copper element on the immersion and if so, does it affect the tds reading?
Would be interested to hear of your experience with this.
Cheers

Cheshire window cleaning services bought a gas heater.

[mufcglen]

yep i couldnt be bothered with the element,that was just to stop water freezing over night but if its that cold to freeze a 400 litre tank then im not working, we had one freezing night last week and all the pipes were slightly frozen but put a heater in there for ten then once i got things flowing i switched the lpg gas heater on to heat the water up on the way out but suppose you could loop it back to tank to try and keep that warm too.
apart from having a possible broken glass on a one clean which i wasnt sure was me its been spot on,best thing i did was go hot.

[DeLuce]

I've got an immersion fitted. I made a hole as low down as my arms would reach in the tank so as to fit the immersion. Put in the unit mounted on a mechanical flange (so once flange is bolted into tank hole the immersion element screws into it) . Wired the element up to a length of insulated cable which tolerates 3kw and then plug it into my shed plug unit on a timer.  A few hours is enough to give you warm water to keep your hoses supple and your hands more pleasantly warm during the colder months. We'll worth doing and reasonably cheap for the benefits it gives you.
If you tap into the search facility 'immersion heater' you should get some older posts that will help you get an idea of what you need. Plus some on YouTube too.
All in for just under £80 I think when I did mine. Good luck.

Sorry, I know this is an old post but I'm thinking of doing the same myself, so just wondered if this method is working ok for you? Do you have a copper element on the immersion and if so, does it affect the tds reading?
Would be interested to hear of your experience with this.
Cheers

Hi John, yeah, the system works very well. My tds is unaffected by the copper element. I know coz I check it quite regularly.
All wired up, so plug in to timer switch, ready to go in the morning.

[Scrimble]

a hot water system is going to do nothing for your frozen fingers lol

[mufcglen]

I've got 2 pairs of magic gloves which worked for trad last year, a pair or rubber coated builders gloves and just bought some £3 b&m water proof insulated gloves that seem interesting so will see how they go but I've been holding the pole hose too to send a nice warm feeling through my hands

[Spruce]

a hot water system is going to do nothing for your frozen fingers lol

I found the warm water going up the pole hose actually warmed the pole a bit

[Smudger]

Warm water does help the pole as well, a copper immersion should not effect TDS, same for the copper pipes in the l5

One word of warning don't let the van freeze because it will crack the pipes in your boiler

Darran

[heath verrall]

Immersion heater is best , I fitted one years ago, still use it today