Is Heat cost effective?

On regular maintenance accounts what has been more effective for you. (shopping centers)

HEAT & more....HEAT. Heat is a must on all commercial work that we do.

Cold water = poor cleaning
Hot water alone= decent cleaning
hot water and chemicals= best overall product we can sell with flatwork in most settings.

Now in PM work on regular maintenance, we typically use just heat alone and only use detergents when necessary for restaurant entrances and other tough cleaning areas.

Heat and chems i dont know what i would do without eather.
You can have the chem but no heat then what and you can have heat and no chem and then what GOTTA have the combination of both to give the best service to your customer!!!
Marko

mobilewashpros said:

Cold water = poor cleaning
Hot water alone= decent cleaning
hot water and chemicals= best overall product we can sell with flatwork in most settings.

Now in PM work on regular maintenance, we typically use just heat alone and only use detergents when necessary for restaurant entrances and other tough cleaning areas.

Click to expand...

Well said.

WOW ... Such great info here ...

Heat + surface cleaner + well trained tech = great results

WOW!!!!!!!!!

Good to see ya Here Terry

Hey Ron its nice to be seen ... I started PW last spring did some driveways / sidewalks a gas station 2 taco bell and 40 roofs use the Roof Reviver system , but im finding out that even low pressure is not good for roofs ... From what I have been reading its all about the chemicals ... So my goal is to find out as much as I can about the right Chemicals & methods ... I have 2 friends with lots of concrete jobs for me in the spring ... Terry Fish

With flat work heat is more important than chemicals. With the use of heat chemicals are not needed in very strong concentrations or at all to do the same job, making it much safer and easier.

My sentiments exactly! We do mostly flat work , retail sidewalk etc and hardly ever have to use chems. Cant imagine doing flatwork without heat. 8 GPMs also goes a long way to speed up final rinsing!

I've seen a center done by a fellow contractor on the boards that looks immaculate. He only turns the burner on to pop gum and has never used heat with the SC.

He uses the same chem everytime. It's mild enough that it feels warm, but doesn't burn your skin.

I think he is doing them monthly.

We tried to do a side by side comparison with hot water and cold with the surface cleaner and can't tell any difference. I still theorize that the contact time of the water with the concrete using a surface cleaner is too short of a time span to make a difference. It's like plunging your hand under a 200 degree faucet and jerking it back real quick. Some surface dirt will, of course, come off, but your hands won't be clean. It takes a little soap and some time to come clean. I don't see how the hot water has enough time to do anything different from the same volume and pressure of cold water in that short of a time.

Maybe it's so subtle of a difference that it appears to be a bigger difference in the overall picture with a little faster cleaning times.

Interesting

Heat is the most important! Cold water is for rinsing.

I would say the combination of all three and obviously someone who knows what they are doing. I've seen cold water work I just like using hot water.

Yep cold water will work. Here's my experience for what it worh. We have several accounts we clean regirlary and we experimented with using hot only for gum removal and cold for sc and rinsing. After 6 months we went back to hot cleaning. You could tell the difference. I have to stick with my otiginal post. PS if you are using only cold water I will take your work cause hot+chems deliver superior results.