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Hey guys, Kodi Quinlisk here with Steel Green Manufacturing. I had a few of you guys reach out to me asking for a video on how to winterize your machine. So today, we’re going to kind of go through the process of what you do to winterize it.
Okay, the first thing you’re going to want to do is make sure your tanks are empty, both tanks. Once you verify that both of the tanks are completely empty, get you a jug. We use windshield washer fluid. You can use RV antifreeze, but this is good to -20. RV antifreeze normally goes down to -50, I believe. So then you’ll just dump it one tank.
Once you do that, we’re going to make sure that these valves here are both off—your suction and your return are both turned off. We’re going to make sure both of these valves are open, your suction and your return. We’re also going to make sure that our boom valves are shut, and our hose reel shut is off also. So now that we’ve done that, we’re going to make sure the pressure regulator is counterclockwise all the way—that would be zero pressure. So I’m going to turn the key on. I don’t need to start the machine, but I’m going to kick the pump on. Now that the pump’s on, you can see it flowing through there. So what it’s doing right now is it’s sucking that washer fluid into the machine. It’s going to run it up through the manifold, through the pumps, and then it’s putting it right back into this tank. So you’re going to want to let that run for about 30 seconds. That way, you can make sure if there was any water in there, you’re getting everything flushed out. And once you’ve done that side, with the pump running just like it is, we can come over here and we can go ahead and open this return. What this is going to do if you start to look in there, you start to see a little bit of product coming into this tank over here. Now that we got a little bit coming, we can go back over here and we can now turn this return valve off. So now notice we have pretty much nothing going back to this tank. And everything’s now transferring over to this side. So we’re going to let that transfer until this side over here is empty.
Now that it’s empty, you can hear how it’s sucking air. And then the pump just lost pressure. Now that the pump lost pressure, we’re going to open this suction over here. So now it’s going to start sucking the product that’s in there. We’re going to go back over here, and we’re just going to go ahead and shut this tank off entirely. So now we’re no longer pulling anything from here. It’s now trying to get it from here. And now we’re just circulating the left tank. So now that we have that side circulating, we’ll let that circulate for about 30 seconds again. And while that’s circulating there, you can now come up here. You can open your boom valves, and you can start to dial your pressure down. So if I dial my pressure down to 40 psi, I can see that it’s now spraying. And you’re just going to want to spray until you start to see the blue come out or you can kind of see how it’s leaving a little bit of a foam there on the ground. So that way we know that it has been completely run through the machine.
The next thing you’re going to want to do is turn on your hose reel and pull your hose off. And you’re going to want to spray that until you know that you have the washer fluid coming out of there also. There we can see we kind of have that. Now that you’re doing that and you still have some in your tank, still got enough there, if your machine has any accessories on it like a foam marker or a seven-gallon, you can take that off. And you would go ahead and drain any water out of the foam marker. This one already has a little bit of washer fluid in it. It’s already been winterized. But you can use your hose reel to go ahead and put more in there if you need to, and same as if you have a seven-gallon tank on the back. You can use that hose reel to move the product around where you need it.
Alright guys, so that’s pretty much it. Pretty quick and simple way to winterize your machine and make sure you’re good to go so you don’t have stuff freezing up. Take care.
