If You Touch Asphalt You NEED a Hotobox
How often do you go to the plant and pay for 4 tons just to keep 2 tons “warm” in the back of your dump truck then, end up dumping the remaining 2 tons back at the same asphalt plant you just
bought it from earlier that day because it got too cold to use? If this sounds like a situation you’re routinely in, you are not alone. Every day tens of thousands of contractors buy asphalt from the plant and must dump it back because they have no way of keeping it hot through the day, or even longer. The worst part about this is some plants even charge you a dumping fee to return the asphalt you just bought from them earlier in the day. So not only are you paying for the asphalt you didn’t even get to use but you are paying to return it.
If you are sick of wasting money on the above-mentioned situation keep reading if not then fine, keep wasting your hard-earned money on a situation that is 100% avoidable. Believe it or not there is a machine out there that keeps asphalt at 350˚F for up to 2 days and allows you to BUY WHAT YOU NEED AND USE WHAT YOU BUY, it’s called a hotbox reclaimer. A hotbox reclaimer shouldn’t just be an equipment want but an equipment need. Think about it, with a hotbox reclaimer you can buy 4 tons and you can actually use all 4 tons at 350˚F. Look, you are paying enough for a ton of plant mix as it is so why shouldn’t you be able to use every ton you buy?
Using a thermostatically controlled burner system, a hotbox reclaimer maintains HMA at your desired set point (usually 325-350˚F) for up to 2 days. A hotbox reclaimer will even allow you to reheat bulk stored virgin asphalt overnight.
Think about the below scenarios to see the real value in owning a hotbox
Scenario 1: You go to the plant pick up 4 tons, you use 1-ton patching and get rained out.
Without a Hotbox Reclaimer: You have no way of keeping that remaining 3 tons hot so you must dump it back at the plant. At $55 a ton you just wasted $165.
With a Hotbox Reclaimer: Using the thermostat on your hotbox you will maintain the temperature overnight, the following morning you are ready to use the material you bought at the plant the day before. NO WASTE and you saved another trip back to the asphalt plant.
Scenario 2: It’s Mid December in the Midwest. You have a customer requesting an emergency repair of a trip hazard, but they want it done with hotmix.
Without a hotbox: You have to turn the job away because no plants are making hotmix at that time of the year.
With a hotbox: You had the forethought to bulk store plant mix before they closed. You can reheat that bulk stored hotmix overnight using your hotbox reclaimer and make the repair, not to mention charge a premium “off season” rate because you are the only contractor who has the ability to use hotmix at that time of year.
If you throw away only 1 ton @$55/ton a day for 150 working days a year, you are throwing away $8,250.00 a year.(We will let you calculate the cost of wasted labor time). A hotbox reclaimer is $9,950 you literally just threw away almost the entire costs of a hotbox in one year.
