Frozen Water Lines

[xseler]

Back in the 'old days', Dad would 'hollow out' a little of an old style hay bale and place that in front of the faucet coming out of the house. I don't remember there ever being a problem doing it this way. House was built in 1906.

Also remember him using bubble wrap on the windows instead of plastic sheeting. The air bubbles created a better insulation than just the sheeting.


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[Mr.Glock]

Average water temps in Oklahoma coming from at least 70 ft down in a well is 58 degrees. If the water lines are kept up close to the floors and insulated good, they will never freeze. I took temperature measurements last night. Water at every spigot in the house was around 40 to 42 degrees. Again this well house at this home has zilch insulation, wood framed with hardback siding, wood door that don’t seal all that tight, but there is a heat tape on everything. The water well is less than 5ft from the house. Long runs from well house’s, the water lines need to be deep. We always put them in at least 30 to 36 inches.

 

[Frederick]

It's a good time to be a plumber. Established customers first.

 

[chuter]

Same situation over here.
I marked my heads with a stake before the snow came down.
Yesterday, I hit both of them with some hot water to melt the ice and then ran them manually long enough to substantially lower the level in the septic tank.
I figure that I don't have to worry about the heads freezing up if the tank doesn't get full.
As long as we watch our usage, we shouldn't have an issue.

You're way ahead of me, we didn't think about sprinkler heads till this morning.
I won't forget next time.

 

[chuter]

I have battled this myself. I’ll explain how I keep them working.

I covered each before the snow with empty cattle mineral tubs.

I then made little charcoal powered furnaces for each one out of small coffee cans by cutting 3 slots around the circumference of the bottom of the can and bent them in for airflow vents.

I start charcoal in one of those chimney starters and fill each coffee can half way with white hot charcoal, placing the can a couple inches from the sprinkler head, then put the mineral tub back over everything while the charcoal is burning. This thaws the ice and dries everything out.

Just before bed, I remove the tubs so the sprinklers will spray over night. They freeze up again when they finish spraying, but the charcoal process will thaw them out and get them ready for the next night.

I have no idea what to expect if the temps get to -15 tonight like they are calling for.

Good ideas, I may try something like that.

 

[GLGAR]

How do you manually run the aerobic septic tank sprinklers ?

 

[undeg01]

How do you manually run the aerobic septic tank sprinklers ?

Adjust the timer while you are standing there and want the sprinklers to run.

or...

Flip the breaker, set the timer to be on, then flip the breaker back on when you are ready to run the sprinklers, then off when you are done.

 

[GLGAR]

Thanks, I thought they were controlled by a float switch not a timer. Not going to try that procedure today.

 

[undeg01]

Thanks, I thought they were controlled by a float switch not a timer. Not going to try that procedure today.

There is a float switch as a safety in case the tank becomes too full, but EPA standards, and/or city covenants require them to spray in the overnight hours, so the timers are usually set to spray like from 2:00-4:00am.

 

[jmike314]

How do you manually run the aerobic septic tank sprinklers ?

Mine are set to run sometime between midnight and 6AM.
However, there's also a switch on the side of the control box that lets me run them whenever is necessary...or in emergency cases.