Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken
We are on cow during the summer. For the winter I just drain the pipe to the water line. I installed a valve there. Just leave it open to drain. Seems to work real well. Been doing it for years now. In the spring, I close the valve and fill the pipe with water, fill the pump to prime it and away we go.
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I did the same thing, updating with a lengthening to 100'+ of black pipe—using a brass hose-bib for a valve at the (winter) water's edge.
Last Fall, I left the closing to my BIL, who didn't open the valve as directed. Winter came and went, and we had no problem with the pipe—either below or above the waterline!
When opening-up, a utility pump is dropped into a five gallon bucket of a mix of water and anti-freeze which overwinters in the shower. The mix is then pumped from the highest hose bib, with only the
cold faucet open in the shower. The cold side is "officially" primed when water comes from the (higher) showerhead. With the pump thusly primed, the valve to the hot water tank is opened, and the house water pump fills the tank. (Now, only with the
hot faucet open). This was a much easier method than priming at the pump itself—something we'd done for many years.
My former neighbors had a similar, but shorter, water pipe arrangement in the lake, but it always floated year-round!
