Welcome to the UK Window Cleaning Forums

Starting or own a window cleaning business? We're a network of window cleaners sharing advice, tips & experience. Rounds for sale & more. Join us today!

New gas heater arrived this morning

Spruce would they ignite with the normal rate used when cleaning windows?? I use a brodex machine so the flow rate is from 1 to 9 and I would use it at 3 or4.
Yes. No problem working at those two settings. A fellow windie has one and it works fine. His doesn't kick on at 1 or 2.

Working with warm water is an interesting experience. The viscosity of water changes with the rising water temperature, so you will get a higher flow at 4 than you do using cold as the pump has less work to do.

You can use this to your advantage as you will be able to wash and rinse windows quicker. Again it becomes another learning curve which will take a while to adjust to.

 
Yes. No problem working at those two settings. A fellow windie has one and it works fine. His doesn't kick on at 1 or 2.
Working with warm water is an interesting experience. The viscosity of water changes with the rising water temperature, so you will get a higher flow at 4 than you do using cold as the pump has less work to do.

You can use this to your advantage as you will be able to wash and rinse windows quicker. Again it becomes another learning curve which will take a while to adjust to.
Cheers Spruce

I have one in the van atm but I only use it for pvc cleans as it doesn't kick in until full power (no8or9)

I know the water runs more freely off the glass plus will cut through road traffic grim quicker .

I think I will have to invest in one and some hot water hoses (both reel and pole hose ) any ideas on hoses?

I love this site :)

 
Yes as has a drain screw underneth.

What I do as is hung on a purefreedom trolley is take off the inlet and outlet hoses off first to drain most of it down then unscrew the drain plug to get any remaning out of the system.

Smurf was it easy to drain down ??
 
Yes as has a drain screw underneth.
What I do as is hung on a purefreedom trolley is take off the inlet and outlet hoses off first to drain most of it down then unscrew the drain plug to get any remaning out of the system.
Thanks Smurf :)

Your up early today ;-)

 
Cheers SpruceI have one in the van atm but I only use it for pvc cleans as it doesn't kick in until full power (no8or9)

I know the water runs more freely off the glass plus will cut through road traffic grim quicker .

I think I will have to invest in one and some hot water hoses (both reel and pole hose ) any ideas on hoses?

I love this site /emoticons/smile.png
Nat Jones who ran the ACS forum experimented with flow and pressure a fair amount as the two are interlinked with a gas heater. He found that fitting a restrictor washer on the heater outlet helped him to get the heater he had to kick in at a lower flow rate.

There was also a flow switch on the inside of his system that he bypassed or removed (memory isn't what it was) and fitted another more sensitive one. It is a section of the website dedicated to HOT. There are a mountain of posts on there when Nat and others were experimenting with gas heaters in the early days.

It could be also that the heater you have is too big for the application. A 12 liter per minute heater won't work in our application. The Fogwash was a 6 liter per minute heater and that was spot on.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Funny enough that 8l one I have now is more controllable than my old 6l L5.

On the quick testing I did it seems on the digi controller in summer settings it worked without constantly cutting out on 35 where as the old L5 unmodified had to be set at 55ish. I don't tend to use a really low flow rate so can't see it being any issue for me. I also find the lcd water temp gauge and burner light indicator on the new one handy to have.

 
I've got the ahmany heater and it's one of the best things I added to my system for working, for hose I use normal yellow gardiner or streamline reel hose and the main issue I had was the pole hose, yellow all season hose turns into silly string but had some of that stiff horrible red thermobore laying about so tried that and it's been spot on, the hot softens it up so its like a normal pole hose!

One thing I would say is just be carefull how hot you run it when i first started with it 6 months ago I was running it quite hot and not sure but in one week I cracked two glass windows, I can't be certain as the cleans were one off's and I've never cracked a window in my life, after that though I turned the heat down so the water was just above warmish when coming out about 45 degrees on display but you loose a fair bit coming through lines, anyway I've not had any probs since and it works a treat!

As regards flow issues i can run mine to about 25ish if needed and still work ok, not sure if using kitchen tap flexi's help as they are slightly smaller bore but I can't see it!

Anyone thinking of buying one just do it, well worth it and it's not a lot of money really, I paid £85 for mine too, £25 for a 19kg bottle that lasts me about 5-6 weeks and the fitting you can buy from calor dealer, they even gave me some free hose and jubilee clips.

And then it's just plumbing it into your system and sorting any leaks you get as the pipes expand or loosen when hot!

 
I've got the ahmany heater and it's one of the best things I added to my system for working, for hose I use normal yellow gardiner or streamline reel hose and the main issue I had was the pole hose, yellow all season hose turns into silly string but had some of that stiff horrible red thermobore laying about so tried that and it's been spot on, the hot softens it up so its like a normal pole hose!One thing I would say is just be carefull how hot you run it when i first started with it 6 months ago I was running it quite hot and not sure but in one week I cracked two glass windows, I can't be certain as the cleans were one off's and I've never cracked a window in my life, after that though I turned the heat down so the water was just above warmish when coming out about 45 degrees on display but you loose a fair bit coming through lines, anyway I've not had any probs since and it works a treat!

As regards flow issues i can run mine to about 25ish if needed and still work ok, not sure if using kitchen tap flexi's help as they are slightly smaller bore but I can't see it!

Anyone thinking of buying one just do it, well worth it and it's not a lot of money really, I paid £85 for mine too, £25 for a 19kg bottle that lasts me about 5-6 weeks and the fitting you can buy from calor dealer, they even gave me some free hose and jubilee clips.

And then it's just plumbing it into your system and sorting any leaks you get as the pipes expand or loosen when hot!

Good input here Cheshire. Thanks.

Most houses we clean are centrally heated so you can presume that the room behind the windows will be at anything from 15 to 22 degrees. So you should have no issue at 40 running on the gauge as heat will be lost through the hose. Where you would want to reduce that heat is if there is a conservatory as well. I have found that some conservatories aren't heated at all, so this is where you could have a large temperature differential and could cause a cracked pane.

Anyone who bides their time will find a reasonably priced Ameny or Forstar (same thing) at a good price on Ebay.

 
Like I mentioned before @spruce £85 inc delivery is a good price for what that heater is to me. I paid about 130 squid way back for an ecotemp L5 from the states.

If anyone wants to get one then send an email to Janet at [email protected] that is the person I delt with when I sent a question through the listing on fleebay.

 
Too heavy for plylining IMO. A few cleaners used steel straps. Secure to steel section around roof and middle support 'beam' or middle 'beam' and the floor.

http://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Galvanised-Restraint-Strap-1200mm/p/246009

They come in a couple of different lengths so measure and buy the length you want.

Most builders supply outlets will sell something similar.

Another windie screwed an 18mm piece of chipboard to an existing frame and screwed the heater to that. I would use some reflective material between the wood and the heater but he hasn't.

 
I have mine bolted to my purefredom trolley at the mo. I touched the casing whilst on and was only warm to the touch as the outside casing has air vents on both sides. It's only the vent at the top when you put your hand over it seems hot.

I can't tell you how much they weigh with water going through one as the ******* print in the manual is so small /emoticons/biggrin.png

 
Last edited by a moderator:
i scewed mine straight to ply lining, no issues at all there really not that heavy even with water going through them, two self tappers at top then two longer self tappers at bottom but using the tubular spacers that come with the kit to bring the base out so the heater points up level as the van wall curls inwards slightly!

 
Did you send an email to Janet at [email protected] as that was the person I delt with directly?

Ordered one of these too Smurf ,tried to get it for £ 85 including postage but they wouldn't shift so got it all in for £95 (I think still a good price )Smurf your pipe from bottle to heater is it a flexible pipe or copper one ?
 
I simply used the gas pipe which is flexible standard stuff that came with my old heater with the gas bottle regulator that I bought separate already on it.

Any good gas bottle supplier should be able to sort you out

 
Hi Guys...Im just away to purchase either the heater above in link or the haley 5l from the states. Can you tell me what happens when as i suspect im only going to be pulling 2 or 3 lpm what happens when the water pressure builds up....Do you need an additional pipe to run excess hot water back to the tank or does the heater automatically just switch to a lower lpm rate ??..Apologies if this has been asked before.

 
Tricky, sorry but I don't understand the question. I will try to answer the process in full so please ignore what you understand.

Most of us pump cold water to the brush head through a hose stored on a hose reel and pumped via a +- 5lpm pump - mines a Shurflo.

I also have an electronic controller (Varistream but there are others on the market) that enables me to reduce the flow of water I'm using and that also enables me to reduce the cutout pressure when I switch my tap (Aquadapter) off. I don't have a di vessel in this mix as I pump pure 000ppm water from my IBC storage tank into my van.

With this up and running, all I'm doing is 'cutting' the water line and inserting a gas water heater into it after the pump and before my hose reel. The gas heater we are talking about has a rating of 8 lpm of water. I don't know what the exact specs are of this heater as I don't have a manual, but at a flow of 8 lpm they say that the heater is capable of raising the incoming water temperature by 'X' number of degrees. If you only run 6 litres of water through your heater, you would be able to get the water hotter as you are lengthening the time the water your are heating is in the heater's heat exchanger. As you reduce the flow more the water gets hotter still.

But you have a temperature control that insures that the water temperature will remain at the temperature you set it to. There will be a flow rate that will be too low to cause the burner to ignite and will be a safety feature. The heater has a summer and winter switch, telling the heater that it needs a hotter flame as the water coming in to be heated will be a lot colder than in the summer. I know of a few who use this summer mode in winter as well as they don't need the extra heat.

If you haven't got a controller I would recommend Spring's analogue one as it is easy to adjust water flow and pressure.

When working with hot water you need to reduce the pumping pressure. Hot water flows easier and hot water also causes 'plastic' based hoses to expand if the pressure is too high.

 
Thank you for the concise reply. I was just not sure if the heater could run at a lower lpm than the stated 8lpm without any issues.. You have cleared that up for me nicely.

Are there hoses that will handle the heat better than others ?

 
Last edited by a moderator:

Latest Posts

Back
Top