• Wrap a blanket, sleeping bag or insulation around your coffee machine and also any pumps and filters. (If any pipes are exposed outside of the vehicle or trailer, consider wrapping these too)
• I use thermostatic tubular heaters (from Toolstation) and place one on/near the coffee machine (careful not to cover them) and one near the pump and filter; I’ll set these to about 5 degrees so as soon as it falls below the heaters will come on and keep the ambient temperature above freezing.
• Make sure steam wand valves are fully open to allow airflow and stop pipes from freezing and expanding
• I also put both my leisure batteries and the van battery onto a smart charger with a maintenance mode to make sure the batteries don’t get too cold so they can be used the next day.

If you follow these steps this should be enough to keep the cold from ruining any equipment or stop you from trading.

Absolute worst case scenario, you may need to get a hairdryer or fan heater on those pipes to get the water flowing in the the machine (I can neither confirm nor deny whether I have done this 😅). Would be worth switching the machine on at home before an event so you know everything is working as it should but also everything is warm and won’t freeze before you get there!

Hope this is of use. If you have any other tips that you use please let us know in the comments below 👇