Here is one for the books !

We were at a California Parking Facility just turning on our equipment to steam clean at 3 am. A cold front moved in very quickly and drop the temp down to 38-40 degrees. A Fog warning was in effect for the Bay Area.

We turned on our equipment and to our surprise, we could only get up to 220-230 degrees. The oil stains DID NOT COME UP as well as if we were at 275 or higher.

This is a perfect example of why one may need to upgrade their boilers when thinking about cleaning a Parking Garage.

Due to this experience, we are thinking about re-connecting the two boilers for winter use, as we once had in the past bringing our 6 GPM's pump to 2.2 million BTU's. Again, just for late Jan and Feb.

1.1 million BTU's at 6 GPM is not enough to hit the 240 degree mark when you are at 40 degrees or colder. We do not know what the water temp was.

My subcontractor has 590,000 BTU's at 6 GPM's and only got 155 to 170 degrees. His unit was assigned to clean stairs and columns.

NOTE: The steam was huge ! One could not see the surface cleaner or the operator, nor the sidekick holding the hose, at most of the time during the cleaning.

Almost 0 visibility within 30 feet of the operator. This made it very difficult not to overlap the area to be cleaned, and made me nervous for the operators safety.They simply could not see the front wheels of the surface cleaner.

1/8 or more of the garage was totally engulfed in a steam cloud, and still we could only hit the lows 200's. :eek:

If you saw this amount of steam, you would easily conclude that we must of been at 300 degrees PLUS. That's what I thought , however this was farther from the truth than I was lead to believe based on the steam cloud. Luckily we notified the fire dept BEFORE we started to clean.
That saved us a $1,000 service call !

This is the FIRST time this has happened to us, and if I did not see it... I would not of believed it.
 
Jim... no pictures ? Dan Cosgrove
 
You need to hire another guy to walk beside the other two guys holing a big fan. LOL

And another guy to tell him to watch out if any runoff gets on the street, because that's when the sh*t will hit the fan...:p
 
About five years ago I was cleaning a parking lot at a auto parts store. The temperature dropped to 30 at 3:00 am ( yes in north FL it can get cold)The parking spots next to the building had really bad oil stains and with the temp turned to the max, the oil stains were not cleaning like the nite before. I never thought the cold temp. would effect the out put temp.After reading your post and thinking about it, it only makes sense if the ambient temp. drops so will the boiler output temps.
 
Yeah Jim, your equipment just isn't cutting it. You need to upgrade!
 
That sure would make a great contrast picture Jim.

One consistent oil stain, part cleaned at 180-190F another at 220-230F and another at 275F.

Lets make sure that we have that demo setup for the Vegas Round Table.
 
That sure would make a great contrast picture Jim.

One consistent oil stain, part cleaned at 180-190F another at 220-230F and another at 275F.

Lets make sure that we have that demo setup for the Vegas Round Table.

Yeah Jim....What he said..... :)
 
Look at this table I came across. Below is the link to the article.

<TABLE border=1 cellSpacing=0 borderColor=#000000 cellPadding=0 align=center><TBODY><TR borderColor=#000000><TD class=style11 colSpan=2>
Table 1. Cleaning Impact vs. Water Temperature​
</TD></TR><TR borderColor=#000000><TD class=style11 width=289>
Pressurized Water Temperature
Before Exiting Nozzle As Steam
</TD><TD class=style11 width=448>
% Increase In Cleaning Impact Of
320°F Discharge Temperature vs. Lower Temperature
</TD></TR><TR borderColor=#000000><TD class=style11 width=289>
320°F vs. 300°F
</TD><TD class=style11 width=448>
+34%
</TD></TR><TR borderColor=#000000><TD class=style11 width=289>
320°F vs. 290°F
</TD><TD class=style11 width=448>
+58%
</TD></TR><TR borderColor=#000000><TD class=style11 width=289>
320°F vs. 280°F
</TD><TD class=style11 width=448>
+118%
</TD></TR><TR borderColor=#000000><TD class=style11 width=289>
320°F vs. 265°F
</TD><TD class=style11 width=448>
+167%
</TD></TR><TR borderColor=#000000><TD class=style11 width=289>
320°F vs. 250°F
</TD><TD class=style11 width=448>
+338%
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

http://www.sioux.com/pdfs/broc_pdfs/WHY STEAM.pdf
 
Look at this table I came across. Below is the link to the article.

<TABLE borderColor=#000000 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=center border=1><TBODY><TR borderColor=#000000><TD class=style11 colSpan=2>Table 1. Cleaning Impact vs. Water Temperature
</TD></TR><TR borderColor=#000000><TD class=style11 width=289>Pressurized Water Temperature
Before Exiting Nozzle As Steam
</TD><TD class=style11 width=448>% Increase In Cleaning Impact Of
320°F Discharge Temperature vs. Lower Temperature
</TD></TR><TR borderColor=#000000><TD class=style11 width=289>320°F vs. 300°F
</TD><TD class=style11 width=448>+34%
</TD></TR><TR borderColor=#000000><TD class=style11 width=289>320°F vs. 290°F
</TD><TD class=style11 width=448>+58%
</TD></TR><TR borderColor=#000000><TD class=style11 width=289>320°F vs. 280°F
</TD><TD class=style11 width=448>+118%
</TD></TR><TR borderColor=#000000><TD class=style11 width=289>320°F vs. 265°F
</TD><TD class=style11 width=448>+167%
</TD></TR><TR borderColor=#000000><TD class=style11 width=289>320°F vs. 250°F
</TD><TD class=style11 width=448>+338%

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>​

http://www.sioux.com/pdfs/broc_pdfs/WHY STEAM.pdf



Great chart !!! Though I refuse to hit 320 because.... well....if you must know..... I am Scared sh@@less if it was to blow for some reason. ( Hose, fittings, Boiler ) At 300, we can only maintain for a very short time.... the hose starts to melt at 290.

However, I love the chart.
 
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