Hot Box Questions

S

Scott

New member
Hello Everybody,

I have another quandry. If you have a cold water machine with a hot box attached I would appreciate some feedback.

Question #1: Will it helpto have two 40 lb. lp tanks so that the propane does not freeze up? Or should one have one large tank?
200 lb. tank. Sales reps. from Alkota have said that propane will freeze if used on a trailer.

Question #2: Has anyone heard of running a 12 volt diesal burner from a car battery that is recharged from the wire that connects your trailer to your vehicle? My question is: How long would the battery run the hot box before it had to be recharged? Would this drop in ampage damage the coil?

I need some answers. I want hot water , but can not afford a hot water unit at this time.

Maybe, there is another avenue I have not explored.

Once again, thank you for any suggestions.

Scott
 
Scott,
Doing something similar but with a 110 volt unit. While it makes a tremendous differance in cleaning, it's kind of a pain in the --s.

From what I have read the 12 volt system is very reliable as long as the 12 volt input stays constant (need a constant 15-20 amps). If you are going to rely on the 12 volts coming from your tow vehicle it's questionable. It may work depending how yor wiring is setup. Does it feed 12v. from your altenator on the tow vehicle? This would mean it will only charge with the vehicle running. If it is wired to the to battery I think you would suck it down quickly if the tow vehicle is not running.

I beleive that in a 12v. system damage would be limited to the transformer , cad cell and fuel pump. This would only happen if the source was inadequate. Safety devices should limit damage depending on what they are and their configuration.

If your scenario dicates you go with the h.b. I would buy a generator and go 110v. Put the h.b. on wheels or buy a lot of hose! Save for or take a loan on a skid unit and avoid the head aches.

Having to run the tow vehicle to keep the battery charged while working presents other problems. Possible over heating, theft, wear and tear, one expensive genset.

Depending on where and what time you are working additional propane could be hard to find. It also presents some unique storage issues when compared to diesel or kerosene.

Good luck in your delema Scott.
 
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Scott,

I don't think I would go with propane.

Not sure what help I can be but charging the battery off of the tow vehicle is ok however that battery is not going to run the burner without a constant charge. A rectifier (charger) with at least 18-20 amps.

If you charge the battery and then run it down with the burner and don't supply a constant charge, you will damage the burner motor.

Here's an idea. Buy a 12volt burner and run it off a car battery that is charged with your pressure washer. Not sure what kind you have but if you have a belt driven pressure washer, run to autozone and pick up a 65 amp alternator and mount it and add a pully and have the machine run the alternator to recharge the battery to run the burner. This would work better than the rectifier at 18 amps.

The fact of the matter is, if you want hot water, you're gonna have to pay on way or another.

You could spend a lot of time getting advice about it here and try different things and before you know it you have created a bunch of headaches for yourself. You'll still end up paying for it in the end.

One thing that I have learned Scott is that you will get what you pay for. When you start cutting corners and trying to skimp on your equipment, it will end up costing you when you can't wash because you are broke down or it takes you a month to set the thing up to work right. Simply not having enough money is understandable but in the end, education costs. I have been in your position before and I would simply recomend you spend $3500 on a new machine with hot water. I have several of those.

Not sure what you situation really is but if I were in your shoes, and could come up with a few bucks, I would just, "do it right the first time" and start making money right away.... shit, you can pay for a pressure washer in less than a month. They are money trees with electric start engines.

Hope I was of some help. Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Justin
 
You can also lease your equipment, if coming up with the cash is just impossible. I agree with Justin, by the time you spend all the money getting a hotbox, setting it up, rigging up your charging system, etc etc, you could probably buy a hot water machine. What gpm/psi do you currently run on your cold water machine? That's the other thing to look at, if you go with a hot water machine, you'll get a machine with sufficient gpm to do what you need to do.
 
Scott,

For about a year, I used a hot box (an older Landa pw, with the pump bypassed) 110 volts and drew about 10 amps for just the burner. I was always able to find an outlet (GFI was ok) and never used more than 50' of extension cord (10 gauge, I think.)

The downside, for me, was the thing weighs about 500 lbs. Even on wheels, it is a bear. Ran all night on one tank. I paid about $750 form the Landa dealer, you might give them a call

Now that I have a new rig, I don't use it anymore, but a year ago, I couldn't afford hot water any other way. I hope I helped.
 
John,

Pardon my ignorance. What is GFI. Is that a regular wall outlet?
It sounds to me like this was a special situation. You foung an older unit. I will check with my local Landa dealer.

Thank you John, Oneness , Justin,and Beyoungsr for your advise. I hope to give back soon.

Scott
 
Hello Scott,

We have always operated with Lp and a stand-alone boiler (hot box). Our 1st boiler was rated at 750,000 Btu. Our current unit is rated at 980,000 Btu.

We have always had two large Lp tanks mounted to the chassis of our truck. Currently we have 140 gallons of usable Lp from 2 90-gallon (water capacity) tanks.

We have experienced frosting and icing on the outside of our tanks in the winter if we are running really hard. Have never frozen a line. I have been told that we loose efficiency when the tanks get that cold! When the tanks get iced up we just put hot water on them.

We also run a 45 Kw genset from these same Lp tanks and a 16,000 Btu infrared heater (keeps the back of our box warm.

You should be looking at a picture of our Red truck. The Lp tanks run under the crew cab on both sides of the truck. We have them plumbed together as one tank. Also have shutoffs on each tank.

Dave Olson
 

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GFI

ground fault interupter
it is the samr type of circut you would/should have near any water souce in your home.
has a little test button on the outlet.
It will trip in a milli-second so you wont fry yourself
Go with a 12 volt unit
You can make a cheap gen out of a lawn mower engine and a GM alt. with an internal voltage reg..
 
I am in the process of buying a hot box for my pw. I wanted to buy a 12 volt unit so I would'nt have to buy a generator. The 12 volt units that I look at ran about $1400. The 110 units ran about $1099 from Tuff. I figured I would go with the Tuff unit since its about $200 dollars cheaper and use the extra money to buy a gen. This way you will have an extra piece of equipment that may come in handy later on.


Tommy
 
dumb question

what size gen. do you need to run a 110 volt hot box ?
 
I think that most hot boxes will use around 14 or 15 amps. This means you need at least a 1800 watt gen. I would try to get at least 3000 or more.

Tommy
 
Dan,
I use a 5kw generator. But it is over kill. I already had it and decided to use in case I ever needed to run quartz lights. I beleive that an 1800 watt would be more than adequate if it is only used for the hot box.

Have to look up the electrical formula to be sure though!
 
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