Drip system.....in the winter?
- Thread starter keepinfish
- Start date
flamenco-t;4474891; said:
So you think just the waters residual heat is enough to keep it from freezing?
When it gets cold here in the winter the ground freezes pretty solid. Liquid cannot be absorbed so easy, which isn't much of a problem because it doesn't rain in winter. However if you're just dripping water outside your house it's going to puddle on top of the snow/ice/solid ground and eventually freeze as it is cooled. I can spit on something in the winter here and it's frozen very quickly, my spit is obviously warm and it makes no difference. I guess my point is, what happens when you've got hundreds of gallons of water dripping out of a pipe a week... It has to go somewhere. The ground is frozen and it can't be absorbed and the temperature is cold enough to freeze it, even if it is warmish water to start with. Once it exits the pipe it's no longer moving, it's gonna puddle up. That will then freeze. As it drips more and more a giant ice block will form where it lands, I don't see why it wouldn't. This is the problem, how do you avoid the giant ice block.
Here is an example, this roof is melting the snow on top of it. Which makes water, said water then drips down the roof. As it pours over the gutters it's no longer being heated by the roof - what happens? It freezes and forms these giant ice blocks hanging from the roof.
I don't see why the same wouldn't happen in the location the drip exits the pipe at.
Here is pics of what I did with my softener discharge & winter time water change discharge hookup.
Inside the house. The top line is the water gap for my tankless water heater, the left line is my softener discharge, and the green cap is my winter time water change hose hookup for a garden hose. The interior PVC fittings are not glued to allow for future changes. Only the 90* fitting thru the wall is solvent welded because it is permanently in place.
Outside the house. All the PVC outside is solvent welded. It ties into the footer tile drain about 20 feet away from the house.
You could do something similar but above ground for winter time use only. You would need to use a large diameter outside pipe than 1/2" PVC so it won't freeze shut.
Inside the house. The top line is the water gap for my tankless water heater, the left line is my softener discharge, and the green cap is my winter time water change hose hookup for a garden hose. The interior PVC fittings are not glued to allow for future changes. Only the 90* fitting thru the wall is solvent welded because it is permanently in place.
Outside the house. All the PVC outside is solvent welded. It ties into the footer tile drain about 20 feet away from the house.
You could do something similar but above ground for winter time use only. You would need to use a large diameter outside pipe than 1/2" PVC so it won't freeze shut.
you could try heating the water onces its outside, then immediatley having it drip out of the heated area into wherever u want it to drean. My idea: take an insulated box or container thats water proof, fill it with water and put a heater in it, keeping it about 75degrees. hook a length of hose the the output of your pvc pipe and coil it inside the box with the waterr in it. run the end of the hose out of the box but keep it close enough to the box where the water wont have time to freeze before exiting the hose. seal the box and make sure it well insulated. pretty much just keeping the water heated enough so it doesnt freeze from the time it leaves the tank to when it hits the ground outside. the heated water dripping from the box should also melt any ice that forms close to the output of the hose.
i don't think you will have a problem. But what do i know really? If you are moving 3-4gph of semi-warm water I don't think it's gonna freeze completely. Yeah you make get a big ice block. I will be doing the same thing soon draining my water from the drip system. I will be dripping much less than that.
