As we continue to move deeper into the winter season, we know that extreme cold and brutal weather is sure to follow. In dealing with this weather, people have to make concessions to the climate and adapt to the conditions in order to survive. Fueling site operators are no exception. Vehicle breakdowns or the inability to access fuel can quickly turn into a disaster.
All components involved in a vehicle’s operation are put under extreme stress when operating in harsh conditions. This goes for the equipment that is used to put fuel into the vehicle’s gasoline or diesel tanks, as well. As long as it has been extremely cold during the winter, operators of fueling sites have been involved in a never-ending search for ways to combat malfunctioning fuel dispensers due to cold temperatures.
One common problem in all extreme-weather fueling sites is hose point freeze up, especially at unmanned cardlock facilities. Hose points that are not flowing constantly have a tendency to freeze up after three or four hours of downtime in temperatures of -40ºC or colder. A very common misconception is that if a product has safety certification for -40ºC one of the most frequent areas of cold weather failure is the nozzle. In conditions like these, many nozzles were just not designed to operate. They have elastomeric seals that have low limits of -20ºC, or sometimes less. Just because a safety agency certified them to -40ºC, that does not mean they will necessarily perform to that extreme temperature, it just means that they have been tested to fail in a safe manner at that temperature. Freeze up would be considered a safe failure.
The Cold Weather Nozzle Solution
Fortunately for those involved in fueling operations, OPW Fueling Components has specifically designed its - XC Extreme Cold Weather Nozzles to operate in extreme temperature conditions as low as -54ºC and for more than 1 million cycles without fail. OPW has made these nozzles compatible with the extreme cold by placing unique extreme cold temperature elastomers in them. These seals are resilient to the fueling conditions that exist in extreme weather conditions and the perfect choice to combat the challenge of hose point freeze up. The OPW –XC Extreme Cold Weather Nozzle family is an extension of its current 11A®, 11B®, 7H® and 7HB® series of ULC-listed automatic-shutoff nozzles for use in gasoline- and diesel-pumping applications.
How does your fueling operation adapt during times of extreme temperatures?
Do you utilize OPW –XC Extreme Cold Weather Nozzles?
We'd love to hear from you!