Everyone knows that hot water is necessary to remove oil, grease, and other contaminants from trucks realisticpay. You can clean your truck without using hot water by using high pressure, high acidity, or large quantities of water. You could also say, as in military aviation, “it’s all energy management”. I agree with that statement, but I would add that time, labor cost, safety and compliance are also important. This is a multi-faceted decision that must be taken into account.
We now return to the heat part of the transaction in cleaning unit’s equation. We used truck washes in our mobile fleet business. We used to heat our high-pressure hotwater units at 160-170 degrees. The hot water could only be used to clean the undercarriage with the wands. The hot water can be used at 6.5 GPM with 2500 to 3000 PSI. One person might need 50 gallons for these areas. Just hit the front axles and wheel wells. Also, the rear of the cab, rear axles and some of the tractor frames. Only very dirty trucks can you spend more than 10 minutes in hot water.
Even in severe weather, you might need to spend as much as 20 minutes getting salt off. This would amount to 132 gallons. A pressure washer 8 GPM would require more water to wash the salt off, but it’s possible to go much faster with more power. A system that could be automated would use 200 gallons. But you’d be recycling a lot of that water. Also, water will be easier to heat since the ambient temp is already hot.