Winter is both the busiest and the most fault-prone season for self-service stations. Most of our call-outs are for problems that a handful of simple measures would have prevented.
Guarding against freezing
Freezing shows up first in lances, hoses and exposed lines. On sites where overnight use drops off, draining the lines, running heater cable to the critical points and insulating the pump room removes most of the risk. On sub-zero days, leaving the circulation loop open helps too.
Limescale and water hardness
Where the supply is hard, scale first cuts the flow at the nozzles, then wears out pump seals and the boiler coil. A softener, or a regular descaling schedule, measurably extends pump life.
A short winter checklist
- Drain hoses and lances at the end of the day
- Measure nozzle flow rates monthly
- Review chemical dosing ratios for cold weather
- Renew pump oil and the seal kit at the start of the season
On stations with a scheduled maintenance agreement, we see winter fault call-outs drop noticeably.
