The CO2 extinguishers work great for this as well, although you have to be close to your target. I can tell you from experience it is extremely surprising to be woken up by a blast from one of those. Mighty cold too.
Justin
One summer after school and before my job started, I was a guard - err - Plant Protection at a GM plant. Ok job, great pay and bene, took tons of guff. The paint house contained 7' tanks of paint being stirred (open top) - fumes all over the place - A dozen or more open in a small room. Naturally it was a brass tool and special phone site - It had a CARDOX tank outside - 50,000 gallons. They would dump 10,000 gallons on the first horn. On the third you best be out the door or darn near it - as the rest comes in the room. This freezes almost everything. Glad it is being designed out myself.
Mart> >
On 25 Sep 2004 10:09:57 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Mustmaker) vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:
remove ns from my header address to reply via email
Not bad thinking. But aren't you supposed to _roll_ in a fire to put it out?
snip
***************************************************** I know I am wrong about just about everything. So I am not going to listen when I am told I am wrong about the things I know I am right about.
When I 'winterproof' my yard faucet I attach an air tank and push the water back a couple of feet underground. The faucet is full of air so won't freeze, but water will come out shortly after you open it.
I have had similiar problems with grass fires, especially with imbedded dry leaves. A small 1 gal fruit tree sprayer with water is excellent for controlling the small fire. Also you can put the fire out by just walking on it, but that might be my size 12 shoes.
I was visiting a friend in an area where it freezes regularly and noticed his odd outdoor faucets. Apparently, the valve is underground, and the part that sticks up from that is designed to drain when the valve is turned off. Thus there is no water above the frost line. I don't know the name of these valves or where to get them, but they do exist.
Alan
They make freeze proof fixtures specifically to solve this problem. One common type locates the valve well below ground an allows the fixture to drain back. Another solution is to house the faucet in a meter housing buried flush with the surface. That might not work in the far north, but it works great in Alabama.
Gadzooks, that's doing it the hard way. And then you have to repeat the process each time you use the faucet...
Google is your friend! ;-P
Heck, even in Los Angeles we've heard of these little buggers. Don't need them, but since we're close to some decent ski area mountains, and even the high desert freezes pretty good in the winter, I could probably get one in a day from a local warehouse...
There's also the 'Frostproof Wall Hydrant' or "Frostproof Sillcock' which is the same thing but designed to poke out of the wall of your house from the basement or other heated space. Same idea, drains when not in use, and the valve is way inside the wall where it stays above freezing.
Only if you're soaked in gas. (:
True. I bought a freezeproof faucet for it but need a round tuit to install it.
I've replaced two of those, they worked fine all summer and fall, but are rusted solid by the next spring. And this is with a solid brass valve. My water has enough iron in it to coat the metal parts for them to rust! And once rusted, which occurs way back inside the unit, the long thin handle spindle has no hope of applying enough torque to open it. Usually the handle breaks off. I ended up replacing it with one of these:
--Glenn Lyford
I like those Mueller Quarter-Master ball faucets, I've been replacing them here as our old ones go bad. Their only fault is they aren't very good for metering dribble flows or fine flow control for a sprinkler (possible, but touchy) they're better for full-on applications. And the orifice is a bit small for massive flow needs, like a fire hose.
It will if you also put a ball valve under the house a foot or two back, and drain the section of pipe in between. Otherwise you are looking for big trouble if the pipe behind the valve freezes. Ball faucet or regular seat and washer, when water freezes in the pipe it will easily split it...
If it was me, I'd put the ball valve under the house, and then rig a simple pull/push rod system through a hole in the end of the valve handle to turn it on and off from the outside. Put the valve at a
45-degree tilt up to the outside wall with a couple of elbows, so you don't need any crank arms in the linkage or custom-modified valve handles.Then again, if the water has that much dissolved iron it must have some nasty tastes, too... I'd also be running some sort of iron neutralizer on the incoming water to stop the problem - they have several different solutions that will partly or fully neutralize iron in the water. Some you have to add with a peristaltic pump to the main line from the wellhead
Here's one that you could find in the same place -
I'd be more worried about it freezing inside the ball and cracking the housing. I've seen that happen with the plastic valves used on spray wands.
I've got a shut-off with a drain, I guess I need to be more religious about winterizing properly.
Actually, it tastes really good, like a nice mineral water. :^)
Interesting. I'm not sure if my problem is bad enough that I want to get into the hassles of maintaining treatment equipment, though. Or the expense... :^/
--Glenn Lyford
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.