frozen pipes

[arossi]

No water/chemicals

No water/chemicals

I've encountered this on several conduits in Walmarts in new construction. Set up one of those small kerosene turbo heaters on one end, and duct tape a shop vac to the other side and suck the hot air through, may take a couple of hours but works every time I've done it. (May have to find a way to trap the heat around the pipe on the heater side though)

 

[alfiesauce]

sucking in hot air or blowing through hot air is great if there is any air flow possible.
The small tube with water should work well, once you get up to the blockage you should find that it will suck itself through as it eats the ice. Water wouldn't have to be hot as any water is above freezing; but I'm sure hot water will speed up the process.
To bad it's 3/4- if it was 1" a garden hose might even work.

 

[Doug S.]

Frost 6 feet deep?
Where were you...Siberia?:smile:

No, Michigan. It's much warmer here.

Vehicle traffic drives frost down deep! I've heard of instances even deeper. I'm prettys sure that's why there spring load limits. (Right? road over mud over ice?)
I didn't believe it either until the tip of the 5/8 rod came back with ice on it. Pushing from either end of the raceway, then measuring it was easy to see that we were stopping within 2' of the drive on either side.

The only thing I guess I'd even bother to maybe try would be some sort of liquid ice melting solution you could circulate with a small tube and a pump. Only way I'd be doing that is if the customer was T&M and had a heads up as to what was going on.

Waiting is easier, and cheaper.

Doug S.