It's cool seeing how yall do it up north. I've been an operator way down south of yall for about 10 years down in south Texas, I no longer pump though, moved onto managing a yard down here, dispatching/mechanic. But seeing the different extremes in temps and how everyone does it is cool, we always talked about how yall gotta warm up your pipes before you prime cause your water freezes and I'm sure y'all's concrete is accelerated with calcium and other chemicals. Sometimes I wish I could trade the extreme heat with extreme cold, it ain't no fun pumping calcium in the summer and the pump takes a shit, talk about panic. Hot ass boom parties, guys falling out on jobsites, and burning your body with maintenance and site calls with the extreme heat from the sun and the pumps. As far as your water pump is concerned check your solenoid coils on your brain, if they're not magnetized when charged or rusted out they ain't no good, and sometimes it's worth swapping them all out if ones bad. Other than it being too cold, if the pump is a few years old and it's been ran dry too many times it's best just to chuck it and put a new one on there. Stay safe.
I think you could be into something with regards to the water pump (ain’t the first time it’s done this). I agree with you about working in the cold versus the heat. I got sunstroke once about 10 years ago, and haven’t been able to take the heat ever since. I actually don’t mind cold and dry, but cold-ish (4 degrees above freezing) and raining is the absolute worst!
There is an aluminum rod inside of the heater core that shuts it off when it gets to a certain temperature just above freezing that if removed will give you a little more temperature. Still not to the Alliance heater core temps but has sure helped on my 2022 Putz in Alberta🤷
I would carry a barrel with me, have the mixers fill it with hot water, and throw my water hose in, if it was frozen. Obviously this only works if you can dump the water somewhere safely so it won't freeze and be a slip hazard. I used it to water wash or suck a barrel afterwards. This was only useful for temps that were barely freezing, serious cold would warrant draining everything the night before. I made a system that would blow my lines and pump, and leave the hose from the metal line to the pump disconnected, as it would drip and collect in the low spot and end up still frozen the next day. Cycling the water from the hose back to the heated tank would help during the job to keep it unfroze too, if you can find time between mixers. I had metal heated tanks, so they got pretty hot, was nice to have.
up in Edmonton we not only preheat our booms we also wrap insulation over the boom pipes to try and keep the from freezing up and we suck sponges with coolant and water
here in finland i've pumped in -20c weather and never had the waterpump freeze up on me, always draining and purging the system after use so zero issues. Not even using warm water or tank heaters!
We are fortunate out west here to only really see 5-10 days of shutdown weather annually. I would almost say that we now see equally as many days of shut down due to heat as we do from cold.
What a wonderful video Scott!!! Extremely informative and real. And thanks for the B20HP call out (FYI 2113 PSI) :) - hope to see you at the next WOC or maybe even Bauma 2025?
Thanks guys 🙏🙏🙏 Bauma 2025 is definitely on the list. Also, I’ve got a great video from the Reed booth last week which I’ll be posting up in a few days. I think you’ll quite enjoy it. 😁
I have a few things to unpack in this video. I always take the water hose off and put it in the cab as well as the ball. At your temperature you should have got away with it. I think it helps gravity water out of the water pump. I have had to use my water to unthaw the mixers before. I remember one day it was a balancing act unthaw every load and vice versa Also is the concrete or aggregate heated by the plant. We have both around here for the winter and I have not froze up yet without preheating the pipes. Also it was really nice meeting you guys at WOC. Thursday afternoon bright orange sweater at the putz booth.
We typically throw the water hose in the cab as well. Problem with these attracting hose-reel setups is that it’s a total PIA to detach the hose from the reel. That’s solid intel with regards to the hot water mixes not freezing in the pipes. We don’t get much below zero here normally, so we’re a bit “skittish” when it does get cold. Was awesome meeting you at the show. It was really cool putting faces to RU-vid user names. Really appreciate you and everyone else whom participates in the channel 🙏🙏🙏
29:31 I’m no expert but just a theory. The gears inside the hydraulic pump manifold might be ground/stripped and so one of those small pieces and with the cold weather bound it and like you said with all the tapping you were doing it came lose and finally decided to work. Definitely at the yard during a maintenance day take it apart and see what’s going on inside.
We have unlimited supply of 60-80 degree celcius hot water so we fill the tank before leaving to pump and it stays warm for surprisingly long as it's a pretty big mass
I remember our old shop had a 60 gallon hot water tank and it was enough to get the tank on the pump to lukewarm temperature. As you mention, it was surprising how long it would keep warm for.
@@canadianconcretepumper1979 we don’t have hot water tanks we get hot water from bore holes almost every house in the country has hot water from geothermal boreholes so it’s basically unlimited and very cheap
Yes, most other parts of Canada they insulate pipes for the winter. We’re fortunate here in the coast that we only really see a few cold days throughout the course of our winter.
I have no clue to what caused your water pump problem, but I had a similar problem on a putz 36m pump. I put on some heat on the protruding part of the water pump. Heard a popping sound, and then all of sudden I had water again.
Also I noticed you were blowing you're hose out with the valve to the tank open, that can cause issues like blowing water in to the pump and not enough air thought the hose
We also keep the pumps inside if they are being used the day after. And then fill the water tank with 500-600l of 60-80 degree celcius hot water and it usually stays pretty warm for surprisingly long
You did get warm air really fast, in -22 °c it takes 10-15 minites before the air is warmed up so much that you dont get frostbites on your hand when checking it😂 Had a 22 below zero celcius pumping last week, everything needs to go smoothly when pumping that cold🥶
It took a good 5-10 minutes. I find it a little quicker when using a tip-hose which fits completely inside of, or outside of the exhaust tip. Definitely takes a few minutes either way though.
Instead of hitting the pump with a hammer you should have a hardware propane torch and warm it up. It will nor burn the hoses if you use common sense. It works way faster as you know its frozen everywhere
We just recently picked up a battery powered Milwaukee heat gun. It’s been the absolute cats ass for cold weather. Of course, we didn’t have it with us on this day. 🙃🙃🙃
We dropped down to -24 Celsius the week previous to this, which is a once every 5 year event for us. Typically the coldest we see is -5, and that’s maybe just a few days each winter. Few hours north of us they insulate their pipes, but it’s rare/unheard of down here in the lower mainland.
@@canadianconcretepumper1979 That is cold for the lower mainland, was out there many years ago for Christmas and it snowed was pure kaos couldn't imagine those temps.
