How long does it take for underground frozen water lines to thaw?
I live in Northern Minnesota and have had a frozen water line 7 feet under the ground since early March to one of my buildings. How long will I have to wait until this line thaws? The line is 3/4 inch black plastic, if that helps. I tried hiring someone with a jetter to thaw it out but the line is frozen over 100 feet from the building and we could not reach the frost without risk of the jetter hose getting stuck in the line, as has happened with many other people in the area who have had the same problem. I'm thinking we'll probably just wait it out, but don't want to find ourselves waiting until July to have water again. Any help, thoughts, intuitive information would be much appreciated; thanks!
FROZEN WATER PIPE AT HOME! HELP!?
Hello, my water pipe has frozen, i have used a hair dryer to defrost but it didn't helped at all. i think its frozen under the ground. What should i do ? its christmas now and nobody is working at this time. so i cant call any one. Please help.
How to thaw a frozen underground pipe that leads to a well?
If its metal pipe you can use an arc welder on the lowest setting to heat the metal pipe....if its plastic you know about where the ice is, so the bonfire idea isn't half bad...in the future leaving a tap open slightly when you expect freezing temperatures will help prevent the freezing. Noah
How can I fix underground frozen water pipes?
Fixing them and making it so they don't freeze should be your priority. But since you asked how to fix them , you will have to expose them to do any kind of repairs anyway. So dig them up , if there freezing there not buried deep enough. 4 ft minimum deep , deeper in colder climates 6 to 8 ft, I have seen the frost line go past 4 ft in the north of Canada. If you can't bury them deep enough then don't, heat tape wrapped around the pipe with insulation will work ok , and since there not buried you can maintain them easily. Copper is probably your best bet . Just to unfreeze frozen pipes , some municipality's have pipe thawing equipment. You can also run a bleed line that keeps the water flowing all the time so it can't freeze, but these are wasteful.
Mains water pipes frozen... how to thaw?
I'm in southern Michigan in the US, so we're not as far north as you are - but then again, we don't have the Golf Stream to warm us, so our 'normal' winter temperatures may hover around -10 Celsius (+10 Fahrenheit) in January and February. Our minimum depth of bury is 2 meters (6 feet) to the top of the watermain. While it may seem deep, frost can be driven deeper into the ground by wind and in areas where the ground is bare (no vegetation). In addition, wherever there is traffic (even foot traffic on a path), the frost will be driven deeper into the ground. Unfortunately, your problems may just be beginning if the watermain is frozen, Moe. The frozen water will burst the pipes in areas, and will require repairs to the main. After the mains have been repaired, affected households should run cold water through one spigot to eliminate any mud or sediment that got into the system when it was repaired, then boil water for a day or so before drinking the water or using it for cooking. Meanwhile, borrow water from a friend or neighbor if you can. If not, turn off your hot water tank (let it go cold) and drain water from to use in the house. It goes without saying that you should use it sparingly - flush the toilet only when necessary (if it's yellow, let it mellow ;-) Use melted snow if it's available and if you want to save potable water. Sponge bath in water heated on the stove. If necessary, buy water at the store till Old Man Winter eases his grip. Hope this helps!
Does water freeze in a pipe under ground?
The ground will freeze to a certain depth depending on how cold it is. The colder it is the deeper it will freeze.
Well water pipe is frozen, can't fix till ground thaws what are my options?
I used to be in the water well business. When this would occur I would disconnect the supply line in the house, Then useing another pump with a 1/4" poly tubing attached jet warm water into the plastic pipe. I used a 5gal. container and heated the water with a salimander. This works really good.
How can you thaw frozen water from the main pipe line?
Assuming you have it open and accessible, you can use a pipe-warming kit.The last one I used, I had to lay it along the pipe and metal-foil wrap it right to the pipe. Then wrap insulation foam around it. There was a temperature probe I had to lay in there too.It all came to an electrical outlet and temperature controller, that when it got close to freezing, The wire warmed up and kept the pipe from freezing.Worked perfectly.
Is it really true that tree roots "break in" to underground water pipes and clog them?
Oh yes.They can penetrate the smallest gaps, looking for water, and then enlarge them by brute force. I have had my pipes clogged exactly like thisRoot clogs mostly occur in foul water drains, because those are mostly full of air except when you flush or when the garden is flooded, and because they tend to be laid with large diameter pipes and have joints and inspection chambers all over the place.Incoming potable water supplies are entirely water filled, but also tend to be long uninterrupted lengths of polythene pipe with nowhere for intial penetration to occur. But even there, root hairs can negotiate their way into couplings.Trees don’t usually care to have their entire root network immersed (Mangroves and Willows don’t mind) but it is the job of hair roots to find water, and they are well set up for it. It is not at all unusual to have silver birch, for example, growing in conditions where the water table is only a few inches below the surfaceNorthern Europe (C) Bob Harvey
How come public water do not freeze even though it is underground?
Four things: First, it's underground, where the temperature is generally rather stable and almost always above freezing. Second, it's probably pumped up from a well, where the temperature was even higher; its presence in the pipe warms and thaws the ground outside the pipe if that ground is frozen. Third, it's usually flowing at a pretty high rate as people consume it. Fourth, that pipe was very probably installed below the frost line in the first place, so it wouldn't freeze even if the water was still.So... you have fast-moving warmish water flowing through an deep underground pipe. It's really difficult to freeze something like that, no matter what the weather or climate are like.