Freezing a water line on purpose...

[jhelrey]

I saw this product, Qwik-Freezer Portable CO2 Pipe freeze kit, for sale on CL. I looked it up and researched it out for fun. Looks like it could work. Just for **** and grins, anyone actually use a product like this? Does it work?

 

[Milton Shaw]

Ridgid plumbing tools makes an electric unit to freeze pipes so that you can turn water off for a quick repair without having to turn the whole building off. They have different size adapters for pipe sizes and freeze copper pipes quickly. I would not want to use one that could not be left on in case you had problems with the repair and ran out of CO2 to keep the pipe frozen Ridgid also makes a pipe thawer, its a step down transformer from 120 to 6 volts or less with 15 amp input and 200 amp output. Its fan cooled and will thaw frozen metal pipe underground from meter to house etc. Only problem is that now all houses are plastic pipe so it's not very useful. A place I worked 30 years ago the main water line frozen under the parking lot and we had a welder come out and hook up and thawed it with his engine drive welder in about two minutes, took a lot longer to walk the leads to both ends than it did to thaw the pipe. The bathrooms sure smelled better than they had for two days after he got through.

 

[Jbullfrog]

They are often used in apartment buildings and dorms, where there aren't shut-off valves on every fixture.

 

[brianpgriset]

Trust me it works! One time I did the engineering for a 10" cooling water line freeze plug to replace a 10" soft-seated wafer valve in the plant I work in. We had to use liquid nitrogen to freeze the water, and it took several of the large 3000# cylinders.

Here is the contractor we used, there website discusses freeze plugs for a bit.
http://www.furmanite.com/Services/ServiceDisplayPage/tabid/54/obj/187/lang/1/Default.aspx

 

[Frank The Plumber]

I have used a Ridgid pipe freezer, these units work well.
I have used a CO2 gas discharge freezer, works well.
I have used a 1/4 car tire a burlap sack 20 pounds of rock salt and 30 pounds of crushed ice, works well.
The only thing that will ever defeat any of this is one physics law,
Running water does not freeze.

 

[domain]

Also sounds to me like a pretty good idea for those situations that you can not shut the water off..

 

[tonydanzah]

The only thing that will ever defeat any of this is one physics law,
Running water does not freeze.

I disagree the river and waterfall by my folks house freeze mid waterfall every year

 

[toolfreak]

I have used them in a hospital where you can only shut off a small section.

 

[ekuhn]

I've done it on pipe sizes 3" to 24" in various process plants. The only way it works is if the water is dead still. If there is the smallest amount of flow, it will not completely freeze.

 

[Honda 1]

the plumber who changed the main valve on my house water pipe used dry ice. It worked great!

 

[Danglerb]

Its not that moving water won't freeze, a whiz in Alaska during the winter is solid before it hits the ground, its the rate of cooling vs water temp and flow. Also as ice forms next to the pipe wall, the heat loss drops as the ice gets thicker. My guess is that what you would need is a longer cooling section so the water gets chilled close to freezing before it gets to the part of pipe where you want it to actually freeze and plug the pipe.

 

[jhelrey]

Interesting...

 

[Frank The Plumber]

I disagree the river and waterfall by my folks house freeze mid waterfall every year

The part that is freezing there is not running. It stops just long enough to freeze onto something and then additional water lands on it and stalls just long enough to freeze as well. Contact freezing. You can't freeze running water, and in a pipe it will not freeze if it is running.

 

[Danglerb]

Hail is water that freezes on the way to the ground, and doesn't stop to freeze.

There is no magic to running water. Water gets below 32F and it freezes no matter what is going on. The whole issue is how to get the water cold and depending on the pipe size, flow rate, and starting water temperature it may take either something very cold or a longer section of pipe being chilled.

 

[nate379]

Its not that moving water won't freeze, a whiz in Alaska during the winter is solid before it hits the ground, its the rate of cooling vs water temp and flow. Also as ice forms next to the pipe wall, the heat loss drops as the ice gets thicker. My guess is that what you would need is a longer cooling section so the water gets chilled close to freezing before it gets to the part of pipe where you want it to actually freeze and plug the pipe.

I have pissed outside when it was -40. Didn't freeze right away

 

[rockchucker]

If frozen pipes burst due to the water expanding as the water turns to ice would you not damage or stress the section of pipe that was frozen? I could see doing it with PEX due to it being able to withstand the swelling but doing this with Copper Pipe I would think it would cause that section of pipe to burst. Doesn't really make sense to me. What kind of Pipe is everyone freezing enough to get water to stop flowing and not having bursting issues?

 

[Yojinbo]

I have pissed outside when it was -40. Didn't freeze right away

Yep,

Without getting graphic I've "made water" in some COLD situations and never bounced ice off the tundra...

 

[dittle fart around]

Used to work at a naval shipyard, they would freeze a plug of whatever was in the pipe with freon. I went on a TDY (travel to a different yard) in San Deigo, the welders froze a plug on both sides of a valve that was leaking. Cut the valve out and installed another one. Don't remember what was in the pipe, but the submarine was decommissioned, used in a movie then moved to the waterfront in Portland Or. It's part of the OMSI science museum.