Happy Holidays from Wickens Dry Ice Blasting

Happy Holidays from Wickens Dry Ice Blasting

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Happy Holidays from Wickens Dry Ice Blasting

The entire team at Wickens Dry Ice Blasting, wish you a festive holiday season filled with happiness and laughter. Enjoy the downtime and create moments of joy as we wrap up the year.

As the new year approaches, we promise to help you in achieving your business goals and offer you customized cleaning solutions in the days to come!

Happy Holidays and a successful 2022! 

Holiday Hours

  • December 27-28th: Closed
  • January 3rd: Closed

We will be available during holiday hours to provide emergency services.


Wickens Dry Ice Blasting tackles the toughest jobs across Ontario, offering fire restoration, mould remediation, asbestos abatement, lead paint abatement, and more. Contact us today for a consultation or emergency service!

Roger White

Dry Ice Blasting: An Eco-Friendly Fin Fan Cleaning Method

Dry Ice Blasting: An Eco-Friendly Fin Fan Cleaning Method

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Dry Ice Blasting: An Eco-Friendly Fin Fan Cleaning Method

Fin fans are commonly used in the natural gas processing, refining, petrochemical, oil and gas, HVAC, and LNG industries. They are essential in the functioning of turbines, engines, and other systems. They work by forcing the air over a set of coils, which cools the air before elimination. 

Fin fans require regular cleaning to ensure optimal cooling and lower production costs. The cleaning method needs to be non-abrasive and not cause any corrosion or force dirt, dust, and unwanted particles further into the system.

Dry ice blasting, a non-abrasive and eco-friendly cleaning method, is ideal for fin fans. Compared to other industrial cleaning methods, dry ice blasting eliminates years of dust and debris without damaging the delicate fins. Along with no damage caused to the system, there is also no residue, moisture, or waste left over. This prevents mould, mildew, and corrosion and eliminates the cost to vacuum residual water from the ground. Dry ice blasting can also be used year-round because, unlike cleaning methods that use water and chemicals, it will not freeze during the colder months.  

Dry Ice Blasting Improves Fin Fan Efficiency

With dry ice blasting, you can improve the efficiency of fin fan coolers by up to 35% by cleaning out the built-up dust and debris and allowing air to pass through the fins.

Dry ice blasting cleans out debris and dust with no secondary waste, compared to water and foam applications that must be cleaned from the area once the job is completed.

As soon as dry ice pellets come into contact with the surface of the fin fan, the impact causes them to sublimate back into gas. This gas expands, which causes the outer coating – i.e., the dirt, dust, or grime – to loosen and break free.

How Does Dry Ice Blasting Work?

This cleaning method uses dry ice pellets, a by-product of other industrial processes made from reclaimed Liquid Carbon Dioxide (C02). Once the pellets are blasted to the contaminated surface, the resulting micro-thermal shock severs the bond between the coating of grime and the substrate. As the dry ice pellets vaporize, the force of the rapidly expanding vapour helps lift dirt from the area, leaving a clean surface. All that remains is to dispose of the substance/debris that was removed – since the dry ice pellets vaporize, there is no residual waste from the cleaning process itself.

Dry ice blasting is safe for equipment, people, and the environment. This makes it the ideal solution to be used in busy areas and workspaces.

Contact Wickens today to learn about the use of dry ice blasting for fin fan cleaning.

Wickens Dry Ice Blasting tackles the toughest jobs across Ontario, offering fire restoration, mould remediation, asbestos abatement, lead paint abatement, and more. Contact us today for a consultation or emergency service!

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Eco-Friendly Cleaning: How Dry Ice Blasting Fits into CSR Strategy 

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Eco-Friendly Cleaning: How Dry Ice Blasting Fits into CSR Strategy

Eco-Friendly Cleaning: How Dry Ice Blasting Fits into CSR Strategy

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Eco-Friendly Cleaning: How Dry Ice Blasting Fits into CSR Strategy

Organizations are increasingly being evaluated based on their work around corporate social responsibility (CSR). Having a CSR strategy allows an organization to demonstrate how it views its responsibility to wider stakeholders and not just shareholders and investors. Through CSR activities, companies work towards improving the impact their business operations have on the wellbeing of employees, community, society and the environment in general.

Despite recognizing the importance of CSR, organizations may find it difficult to put it into practice. The task is not easy or quick and can prove to be overwhelming. Therefore, when developing policy, management may not automatically think about their cleaning processes or realize that this may be a good place to start. It can be!

Cleaning Without Waste

Traditional cleaning methods such as soda blasting, sand blasting, and chemical and solvent cleaning methods are more popular but their carbon footprint is not as impressive as dry ice blasting. Cleaning with dry ice leaves no carbon footprint at all because the process does not result in any additional secondary waste.

Dry ice blasting is an industrial cleaning system that is non-abrasive, non-toxic and as its name suggests completely dry. Its uses are many and can be applied across a multitude of industries including aerospace, food and beverage, foundry and historical restoration. The process uses dry ice pellets that are a by-product of other industrial processes made from reclaimed Liquid Carbon Dioxide (C02). Once the pellets are blasted to the contaminated surface, the resulting micro-thermal shock severs the bond between the coating of grime and the substrate. As the dry ice pellets vaporize, the force of the rapidly expanding vapour helps lift dirt from the area, leaving a clean surface. All that remains is to dispose of the substance/debris that was removed – since the dry ice pellets vaporize, there is no residual waste from the cleaning process itself!

Avoiding contamination with dry ice blasting

As well as the benefits of not having any secondary waste, dry ice cleaning is also recommended to prevent downstream contamination which can be the case with sand, soda or any cleaning that involves water. Furthermore, there are increased risks to the natural environment in cleaning where dry ice pellets are not used, especially if the process of choice contains chemicals.

CSR is not just about leaving the environment in good shape, but as explained previously it also concerns the health and safety of an organization’s workforce. Adopting dry ice blasting methods for cleaning workflows can reduce the levels of danger that employees are exposed to such as airborne substances and harmful chemical waste produced via processes that use chemicals and solvents.

For a CSR strategy that doesn’t just look good on paper and is deliverable on a practical level, it’s certainly wise to consider dry ice blasting.


Wickens Dry Ice Blasting tackles the toughest jobs across Ontario, offering fire restoration, mould remediation, asbestos abatement, lead paint abatement, and more. Contact us today for a consultation or emergency service!

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5 Reasons Why Dry Ice Blasting is Worth the Investment
Dry Ice Blasting: Effective Cleaning Method for Fire Restoration and Cleaning of Commercial and Industrial Ceilings
Why Dry Ice Blasting is the Number 1 Solution for Mould Remediation

Roger White