Advice on Frozen Water Supply...

[Deerslayer]

all it takes is a couple of hours. at 32 degrees
here is a trick for thawning frozen pipes put the welding machine leads on the pipe. it ill thaw inbetween the leads

worked for me in the mountains,,

Wait your contradicting yourself now it's 32 degrees?? I thought it was wind, surely the wind isn't blowing underground right?

 

[Deerslayer]

I lived and worked in Michigan for lots of years and it was rarely 0°. January and February didn't get out of the teens much and those were the two very cold months. I thawed a lot of pipes with a steamer from the basement of homes. One job in particular was a Bar with an asphalt parking lot. The pipes running out to the well were six foot deep and froze solid. Snow had been removed and lots of cars drove over those pipes. I spent several hours in the basement with a steamer thawing those pipes. So it doesn't have to be zero at all. 32 is the magic number.

Here our frostline is 36" but I'm 2-300 miles south of the Michigan border. I can imagine frostlines run much deeper there. But the Carolinas are several hundred miles south of here.

 

[speedbump]

all it takes is a couple of hours. at 32 degrees
here is a trick for thawning frozen pipes put the welding machine leads on the pipe. it ill thaw inbetween the leads

worked for me in the mountains,,

My Dad burned up a nice welder doing that back in the day. I was always told if I was going to do that be sure to use someone elses welder!
I don't know what we would do these days with all the plastic pipe.

 

[speedbump]

Frostline where I lived was 48". But I have seen it go deeper. When we had to dig wells up to repair them, frost was the enemy. Pick and shovel or an expensive job with a backhoe and a frost tooth.

 

[Deerslayer]

Frostline where I lived was 48". But I have seen it go deeper. When we had to dig wells up to repair them, frost was the enemy. Pick and shovel or an expensive job with a backhoe and a frost tooth.

Wow that's deep.
I've seen it freeze to about 28" here but that was a really bad winter. That's as deep as I've saw it.

 

[Deerslayer]

Frodo try this simple experiment. Cut two pieces of copper 2' long, Cap one end and solder a female on other end fill both with water and plug. Wrap yours with rubbatex and Fiberglass if you like. Throw it in the freezer then throw the unprotected one on top of freezer. Wait a week.

 

[frodo]

frost debth in colorado is 36'' and 48'' depends on elevation