Water lines and the winter

Tony W

Member
Will start this rant with I dislike winter! I have a water line that feeds the barn used to water the cows and chickens that almost froze today. Have a line leak in the barn at the door used to get the tractor out. A couple weeks ago we were up to 50 and got flooded out from the melt in the barn (3" of water/now ice). If I leave the water on to keep the line from freezing at 3 1/2" deep the barn will flood. If water is shut off it will freeze solid. Just went out to fill the water for the cows and hardly got water out for ten minutes running it to thaw it but did.
I know I am not along on this but I dislike winter. At work we are having water mains and services freeze at 4" deep. Just a lak of heat rant!!!!
 
4" or 4' bog difference LOL 4" is 4 inches but bet your meaning 4 foot. Yes I need to go out here in a bit and double check that the water line to the goats/horse is still flowing. I leave that line flowing 24/7 just enough to keep it from freezing up on me but at the 12 degree it is it maybe froze
 
Dont no what happened 2 days ago no water in both barns shucks and other words next day hauling water just thought i would try it and it ran !!!!! im still waiting its going to freeze again i cant have that good of luck. Have 2 car attached garage floor heaved up .
 
I water from a house frost free spigot, but It freezes up every time the temps fall below zero...gettin of draggin the hose outa my basement window!
 
What is 50 degrees? Been a long time since we saw a 40....

Was up to a high of 2 today.

Supposed to be minus 17 or so tonite, then might warm up to a 30-something by the end of next week.

I'm babying the water line to my barn, the pit where it junctions is freezing, but the line itself is holding up, if I can keep it going one more night. We are supposed to be 5 feet deep around here, most of mine is 6 feet. But the water in the cister feeding the barn must be chilling quite a bit, so there is not much warmth transferred with the cattle drinking any.

I also got a new well this fall, so a lot of fresh dug holes and water line, sometimes that freezes in deeper in fresh dirt, so been a winter up here too.

Paul
 
Well, it looks like bucket time. Went out this morning and the line did freeze with the leak going on. Also found the garden faucet that was replaced last month with a 12 frost free-froze again. Did make sure it sloped down ward to ensure this would not happen again, it did. Add one more foot of snow and the lake effect machine is to kick in. Who knows on that amount.
 
I assume that's a 12'" thru-wall frost-free sillcock - and yes, they can freeze up (even properly drained) if it's cold enough and the inside part is not warm enough - the metal conducts enough heat to freeze the pipe beyond the drained sillcock - I've seen it happen (to my neighbor.) You might want to toss one of those foam faucet covers over it, which will will slow down the heat loss at the cold end...
 
All 4 of my frost free hydrants are frozen now. So if they are all draining at the plug what would cause them to freeze?
 
maybe not shutting completely. mine I had to loosen set screw and pull hand;le up andreset set screw been good since
 
Mine froze underground i wondering also if your water drains from the pipe and collects by the elbow if the frost is going down would that also freeze
 
You might try (even now) insulation on the out of the ground part of the pipe - or a heater of some sort (and then insulate it). While draining the water out is good enough (assuming it's working) for a while, if you have an iron pipe sticking up out of the ground into truly frigid temperatures, it's going to freeze the ground around itself deeper than would otherwise be the case, as it provides a pathway for heat from the ground to bleed out to the air. Always seemed like a weak point in the design to me. Insulation would slow the heat loss to air, which might let the ground heat catch up. You might also set a 1-2" sheet of foam (XPS) 6" or so down and 4 feet square to "effectively" bury the valve another 2 feet (from the frost perspective.)

If you can find it and protect it (since it won't take the abuse a steel pipe will), schedule 80 PVC threaded pipe might be good to use on those up out of the ground frost-"proof" hydrants, due to the lower thermal conductivity.
 
We;; I think that even the devil gets cold. Northwest Indiana hell froze also, I have water to the barn and had not done any thing more that warn the hydrant and pit. Started with a small trickle so I knew it would go. The garden faucet thawed that morning with the sun. It was -18 I think that morning or so. I work for a large water company so know all the tricks. Sucked having to be one more job for the home. Thanks for the ears.
 

Keep in mind that a waterline under a driveway needs to deeper as the traffic will 'drive the frost down'. This only applies to gravel and such surfaces, NOT concrete. Likewise - removing snow cover from a foundation will cause frost-heaving. :)
 

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