Frozen water main

tombig · January 2004

> Mike....To successfully thaw most freeze ups, you 
> have to be able to attach the leads on either 
> side of the freeze up, in which case you may have 
> to dig down to the curb stop. Even so, that is a 
> very long run. You would need a very powerful 
> machine to do it. If possible, try to thaw in 
> sections - start in the building, and work your 
> way out. oh yeah and be careful, guys have been 
> electrocuted . Mad Dog 
> 
> _A 
> HREF="http://www.heatinghelp.com/getListed.cfm?id= 
> 299&Step=30"_To Learn More About This 
> Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in 
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Mikes mad pipes · January 2004

Frozen water main

Need some sugestions I have a frozen water main coming in from the street 270' 1" copper. Curb stop is exposed, only down 39" but turns on and off very easy. Had thawing machine on for 3 hrs didn't budge. Any sugestions? Thanks Mike

Mark Hunt · January 2004

Call a welding company

had this happen to me when I was living in a duplex.

Welding company came out with the BIG generator.

Mark H

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Mad Dog · January 2004

That is a very long run to thaw

Mike....To successfully thaw most freeze ups, you have to be able to attach the leads on either side of the freeze up, in which case you may have to dig down to the curb stop. Even so, that is a very long run. You would need a very powerful machine to do it. If possible, try to thaw in sections - start in the building, and work your way out. oh yeah and be careful, guys have been electrocuted . Mad Dog

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tombig · January 2004

Welder/Generator

Winter of '76-77 I spent a week doing just that every night with a welding outfit while on winter break.
We had had a Hobart jobsite generator powered by a Chrysler flathead six. It even had 3 phase lugs. If we couldn't find the buffalo box we grounded to a fire hydrant as far as 500' away!
Of course I stayed outside cycling the generator on/off while the boss was inside drinking schnapps w/ the HO.

Toearly · January 2004

We have a frozen water service to deal with this AM
I am going to try something different on this one as many we deal with are plastic.

We are going to take a fish tape and fasten a 1/4 plastic tubing. Connect the tube to a pump we use to drain down water heaters. We are going to use the water that is in the water heater to fill a bucket ( This way we can add chlorine ) and then turn on the pump and let it run. If needed we can reuse the water.

If this works we are going to use a Hydrojetter ( New Hose Only ) on longer runs. I have a small jetter that will do 1600 PSI @ 2gpm.

Todays water service is 5 ' under ground.

Randy Tibbits · January 2004

That'll work, last winter we thawed out numerous lines that way.

neilc · January 2004

properly done, would the welder / current trick work to warm a seriously iced roof gutter?

have some bad ice damns flowing to sidewalks and doorways.

how doesn't this become a shock hazard?

hr · January 2004

Be extremely careful

with large generator welders. I saw a welder burn a house to the ground cranking up the old Lincoln welder. The house was 3 doors up from the one he was thawing!

It is very possible to start arcing from a copper line to an electrical wire in the wall, un beknownst to the welder. Risky business, make sure you liability insurance covers it!

hot rod

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Frozen water main

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