Frozen Water Line

[chocophile]

We opened our camp on Saturday and discovered that the underground line to the lake is frozen. That's the first time it's happened in the 14 years we've owned the house.

Any suggestions about how to thaw it (aside from waiting)?

I tried running very hot water down the line (black plastic), waiting, repeating several times. I ran a cable down the line from both the lake side and the house side, and I know where it's blocked. There must be a dip in the line at that point and the water didn't drain in the fall. I thought about trying to dig, but if the ground is still frozen I won't get very far.

I see from the ice-out history that this isn't the latest ice-out in the past 14 years, but maybe it's the coldest winter, so the ground is still frozen.

Thanks for any ideas.

[SAB1]

Hard to see that could still be frozen. Are sure it didnt break?

[jmen24]

^^^^This^^^

Frost has been out for weeks! I would investigate a breakage, especially if you know exactly how far up the pipe you are.

If the area had good snow cover, the frost was likely never really that deep to begin with. I was able to dig a 5 foot deep hole in my yard the second weekend in January (I did not do this for fun, in case anyone is curious) frost was about 3" deep under 2 or so feet of snow.

[Slickcraft]

10 days ago we had the pleasure of replacing the effluent pump on the island septic system. The top of the pump chamber is at grade level and there was more than 10" of ice in the chamber. It took many pots of boiling water to get the ice to where we could break it up and get the old pump out.

This is the 1st time we ever had ice in the pump chamber. Given the amount of ice 10 days ago, I can conceive of an underground water line still being frozen 2 days ago; especially if little snow cover due to being open to the wind and also being shaded.

[Merrymeeting]

I raked some leaves on the north, shady side of our lot on Friday. The layers a few inches down, near the soil were still locked in ice and frozen.

I also have a drainage basin that is about 18" deep. As of Friday there was still a very large block of ice in it.

I can believe there are still areas of frozen soil, depending on sunlight, shade, and location.

[RLW]

Just hope that by the time you get out there to do whatever you decide on doing that it has thawed out. Once it starts to thaw it goes. :)

[mr1drfl]

Same thing happened to me a few years back...If it is indeed frozen as my perimeter drain was, I hooked up the garden hose to the hot water tank and snaked it into the drain. No more than 2 minutes later a chunk of ice approx. 2.5' long came flowing out...Cheap and easy fix for me..

[fatlazyless]

About ten years ago, a neighbor took two to three days of trouble-shooting in the first week of April, with no water going to the cottage, to determine what was blocking their waterline into the lake, a 1 1/4" diameter black poly flexible tube, and finally dug up the whole 125' of line out of the ground. He was expecting to find an ice damage crack in the line somewhere but there was no crack in the line.

What was the problem? Chipmunks had crawled into the open end that's close to the lake on the embankment and stored acorns inside the line causing a blocked water line. It took him like three days to find that out.


For a temporary hook-up, a garden hose attached to the outside garden hose faucet, with a $68-1/6hp utility pump at the end which gets submerged into the lake can be used to fill up one's 30-gal water storage tank attached to the shallow well pump that's under the cottage.

On the brite side, by fixing it yourself you are probably avoiding something like a $425 plumber service call and that's for on the mainland, not out on an island.

[ITD]

We opened our camp on Saturday and discovered that the underground line to the lake is frozen. That's the first time it's happened in the 14 years we've owned the house.

Any suggestions about how to thaw it (aside from waiting)?

I tried running very hot water down the line (black plastic), waiting, repeating several times. I ran a cable down the line from both the lake side and the house side, and I know where it's blocked. There must be a dip in the line at that point and the water didn't drain in the fall. I thought about trying to dig, but if the ground is still frozen I won't get very far.

I see from the ice-out history that this isn't the latest ice-out in the past 14 years, but maybe it's the coldest winter, so the ground is still frozen.

Thanks for any ideas.


I would continue with the hot water. It will take more than a few times. I would also get some tubing of a lesser diameter than the pipe, run it down to the block, then pump the hot water down to the ice, that would probably work much quicker. A bucket of hot water, tubing and a drill pump would probably do the job.

[Merrymeeting]

Lest there be any doubts there is still frost in the ground...

I have a 1" poly supply line that comes out of my foundation about 8' underground. It runs downhill to a shed we have near the shore, eventually coming out of the ground a bit before the shed.

In the Fall, I shut off the supply, drain it, and leave it open so it won't freeze. But clearly there are a few low spots that hold a bit of water. When I turned on the line today, 2-3 long hunks of ice came out of the line. The low spots had frozen in small slivers and were still frozen until I flushed them out today.

[Flyfisha]

In the fall when I shut my water line down I blow it out with compressed air and put in RV non toxic antifreeze. Then I blow out the antifreeze so that the line is virtually clear. Any low spots usually have some antifreeze left in them for protection.

[fatlazyless]

So, what's the latest on Chocophile's water line ....... is it all clogged up with acorns or what ........ ice still in the line on May 2 .....no-way!

[DickR]

In the fall when I shut my water line down I blow it out with compressed air and put in RV non toxic antifreeze. Then I blow out the antifreeze so that the line is virtually clear. Any low spots usually have some antifreeze left in them for protection.

Please tell us that you don't blow out the RV antifreeze into the lake. "Non-toxic" or not, a chemical should not be dumped into the lake.

[chocophile]

The underground line was indeed frozen.

I dug up a small section and discovered the frozen ground about 2 feet down. That area doesn't get any direct sun.

The advice about thawing the line from ITD was a winner! I did exactly as he advised: bought a drill pump and enough 1/2" tubing to insert down from the basement to the blockage. With very hot water in a bucket, I pumped it down the line. After 1 battery on my cordless drill and about 20 minutes, the line cleared!

Thanks, ITD!

I cap the lake-end of the line in the fall, so I knew it wasn't a critter-induced blockage.

I'm hoping the line doesn't re-freeze tonight! I might leave a faucet dripping enough to get the pump to kick on a few times.

[secondcurve]

The underground line was indeed frozen.

I dug up a small section and discovered the frozen ground about 2 feet down. That area doesn't get any direct sun.

The advice about thawing the line from ITD was a winner! I did exactly as he advised: bought a drill pump and enough 1/2" tubing to insert down from the basement to the blockage. With very hot water in a bucket, I pumped it down the line. After 1 battery on my cordless drill and about 20 minutes, the line cleared!

Thanks, ITD!

I cap the lake-end of the line in the fall, so I knew it wasn't a critter-induced blockage.

I'm hoping the line doesn't re-freeze tonight! I might leave a faucet dripping enough to get the pump to kick on a few times.

Thanks for the follow-up. It is always nice to hear how a story ends.