Skating Rink

[Draagyn]

Does anyone have a skating rink on a man made pond?

Year after year our pond freezes and then the ice breaks and water comes on top the ice and wrecks the rink.

Why does this happen?
How can I stop it?

Thanks

 

[Ed of all trades]

The some people near here just push the snow off of a flat space behind the house and add water from a hose. They will have 30 or so people there skating at a time. They just add more water when ever it is cold so they keep ahead of the warm days we have down here. Ed

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Skated on our pond a lot in the 70s. If the ice was breaking wouldn't be on it, not nearly thick enough.

 

[Ed of all trades]

The ice is freezing and expanding down and putting pressure on the water below. If you kept an "ice fishing" hole open the water could come up a little at a time and freeze, not ruining your rink. That is my idea anyway.
The some people near here just push the snow off of a flat space behind the house and add water from a hose. They will have 30 or so people there skating at a time. They just add more water when ever it is cold so they keep ahead of the warm days we have down here. Ed

 

[oosik]

Exactly as Ed indicated. When the ice depth increases it pushes down and the water has to go somewhere. The water will either come up thru a crack in the ice or escape thru a natural or man-made outlet. Since you probably don't want to drain the pond thru a natural or man-made outlet - cutting a hole in the ice might help. I've had a near-death experience with an ice rink on my big lake --- so I definitely favor spraying water on a flat spot and letting it freeze.

 

[Looking4new]

Way back when I was a young'un we kids used to skate on a bay right off Lake Ontario. The bay would get at least 10-12 inches of ice on it nearer to the shore and the only thing we did was scrape the snow off where we wanted to skate/play hockey. Of course with the lake being open water we didn't have any problems and it took about two weeks of above freezing temps to honey comb the ice. We were off it way before that. We would stay off the ice once we realised that it was getting a little 'slow'/soft on top.

 

[Draagyn]

I was leaning towards freezing water creating too much pressure but thought that seemed crazy. Thanks for opinions, I am trying out the ice fishing hole to relief pressure.

 

[MossRoad]

If you drill a hole in the ice, I'd be really surprised if water came out of it. I've been ice fishing for about 45 years and have never had that happen. Ice floats on top of water. But, what the heck. Give it a try.

 

[MossRoad]

Does anyone have a skating rink on a man made pond?

Year after year our pond freezes and then the ice breaks and water comes on top the ice and wrecks the rink.

Why does this happen?
How can I stop it?

Thanks

I have to ask, does your pond have an inlet and an outlet? My guess is there is an inlet and an outlet. The inlet can be an underground spring, ground water, runoff, a creek, etc... The outlet can be a spillway, a culvert, or just porous soil. Your pond freezes. It stops up the outlet. The inlet water has no place to go under the ice, so it finds a way on top of the ice.

 

[oosik]

As the ice thickens on a pond - think of an iceberg. 7/10 or so below water That's the same as ice on a lake. It was not uncommon to have 4, 5 or 6 layers of frozen overflow on lakes when I was in AK. Nothing more exciting than to break thru several layers of overflow with your snow machine and hope there was a sound layer that would support you down there somewhere.

I've drilled ice fishing holes and had the water shoot up four feet and continue for hours & hours. Completely ruin an otherwise good ice fishing day.