It’s winter time again, and that means it’s time to either let those hot water pressure washers inside or winterize! They’re cold!
Pressure washer winterizing takes minutes and can save you thousands of dollars in repairs.
If you can’t complete the winterizing process, keep your machine in a heated space until you can. Water freezing in your pump and/or coil will cause expensive damage.
Steps To Winterize
There are a few quick steps that are easy to do and prevent the cold from damaging your pressure washer pump and coils.
Materials:
- 50/50 automotive blend antifreeze.
- 5-gallon bucket or container
Process:
- Drain the water out of your float tank. This can be done with a pump or by bailing.
- Then fill the float tank with antifreeze, turn on your machine, pull the trigger gun, and run the antifreeze through your pressure washer until you see green antifreeze coming out the nozzle. *we recommend you have your wand pointed into a bucket.
- The antifreeze will protect inside metal wetted surfaces, packings, and plungers in the pump to your coil.
- Once you see anti-free coming out of your wand, quickly open and shut your trigger several times, this will get antifreeze into your bypass line.
- As an optional step, you can blow out the antifreeze into a bucket or container or leave it in the machine until spring.
Bonus Tips:
- When spring comes, drain the antifreeze from your pressure washer into a bucket or sealable container. Then, you can reuse the antifreeze again next winter to save some money! Make sure you store your antifreeze container away from pets and kids.
- We recommend getting an antifreeze tester to ensure you have enough strength to keep things from freezing. Water will dilute the antifreeze.
- While winterizing, it is a great idea to complete some other maintenance on your machine, if gas powered, change your engine oil. Check and change pump oil, and check and replace fuel filters as needed, if you have a gas engine you will have two fuel filter, one for your engine and one for the burner.
- If you have fuel or diesel in the tank, it is also a good idea to drain or add a fuel stabilizer while storing the unit.
We hope you find this information helpful when the weather starts to turn. As always, if you have further questions, please consult your local Alkota dealer; we’re happy to help!
Want a Hot Washer Pressure Washer How-To video?
Check out Jeff’s winterizing guide right here:
Download the Winterize Your Pressure Washer Guide PDF Here
