frozen tubes

5alive

help, i am taking over this project which the original heating contractor left. For some reason all the tubing in the floors were filled with water(perhaps to check for leaks?) and know this is my project and all the tubing is blocked with ice, the house is only about 50% complete needless the house is freezing.
this house is slab on grade with 2" sm according to the general
i tried forcing hot water through from the boiler
i tried forcing air from an air compressor

i don't know what to do except wait for spring

any advice would be much appriciated
thanks 5alive

hot_rod

You could do one of two things...

Pray for warm weather like we're having here in Colorado. (Got up to 70 degF in someplace here today), or contact Ground Heaters at http://www.groundheaters.com/e3000.htm
and see if they have a unti in your area. We used these up in the mountains, and they work fantastically.

Maybe you could do like Dennis Bellanti did and make a few of your own. These units are oil fired, Bellantis were LP fired.

Check it out!


PS, It was warmer in Denver than it was in Cocoa Beach this last Saturday. They had FREEZE warnings out in 3/4 of Florida for crying out loud!!

And you don't think the environment is changing...

ME

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Dale

That ground heater system

looks slick and would be the ticket. You can ask your local cemetary if they have a grave heater you can use one circuit at a time, would need to be watched though. We try pushing alcohol ahead of air for frost closed pipes, might be worth a try.

Scott Lind

Same problem just solved

Same problem this weekend. Air temps in the teens. Used a large (180,000 btu)salamander heater along with a smaller propane unit and directed the discharge at the concrete with an aluminum scaffhold plank. It took 7 hours but eventually thawed and started circulating.

The ground heater is probably the option most likely to succeed. We use them for pouring concrete but if you lay the tubes on top and blanket it should do the job.

Good luck!

hot_rod

Good application for

some Watts Radiant Onix tube. As ME said, roll it out, cover it with concrete blankets and pour some heat to it.

I remember a homeowner thawing a frozen snowmelt system in his driveway. He went to K Mart bought all their garden hose, put it down on the drive, covered it with concrete blankets, and had my former company hook it to the exisiting manifold box in the driveway.

Took a few days as I recall.

hot rod