Thawing the pipe

   / Thawing the pipe #32  
Gald to hear you got things thawed out. Now it's time for some of that bourbon.
Piloon, it sounds like you have this drill down to a science.
 
   / Thawing the pipe #33  
Redneck in training said:
Do you have an arc welder? Make a loop (use a cable and twist two wires together on one end) of gauge 6 or 8 cooper wire long enough to reach trough the ice plug. Adjust the amps so the wire gets warm enough but wouldn't melt the insulation and push it in the pipe. Use good rubber boots and rubber gloves to insulate yourself from the ground and don't do it alone. I don't think it is too dangerous but as we used to say: "Devil never sleeps." Drink bourbon only after the water is running.
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Yes. Good idea! Studor, 12ga Romex feeding a short tip of 14ga will be more effective than all 12ga or larger. [The 14ga will have higher resistance.] Watts = Isquared x R and your tip is where its trying to make progress thru the ice. The wire that is inundated in the water could take a lot of current w/o melting the insulation, but youll be limited by your lead in wire that is in air. 12ga would be 50 or 60 amps. Romex will give the advantage of making a nice consolidated snake that you can push and wiggle effectively for at least the 15 feet you need. It wont be fast. Be careful. If you use hi amps and dont wiggle it you may get the tip heating too much by laying stagnant against the inside of the plastic pipe and damage the pipe. 50-60 should be easily safe if you wiggle even a little.
larry
 
   / Thawing the pipe #34  
studor said:
Just a quick thanks to everyone who contributed -- finally got it all back together and thawed today. The internal heat wire will be ordered this week:eek:
The total distance in ice was about 5'. Ironically I have about 30 acres of water in front of the house now with the rains and thawing this past week -- water water eveywhere bit none in the pressure tank :(:( (until today)
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Just curious. How did you do it.
 
   / Thawing the pipe
  • Thread Starter
#35  
Egon -- naw thats next month:rolleyes::rolleyes:
Tig -- since I did not have water I mixed the bourbon with maple sap -- not bad:cool:
Larry -- I figured by the time I rewired the basement to take the Arc welder and figured out how to do it spring would be here:eek::eek:
Redneck -- took water to the farm in five gallon containers, heated on the stove, pushed a piece of 3/4 conduit into the 1 1/4" suction pipe until it hit ice then poured the hot water in to the conduit. If I had to do it over again I think I would use Piloons wallpaper steamer idea
 
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