Two of my neighbors have a long-term problem with their water systems. They piped the inlets to their tanks to an upper fitting, which I believe is the way it’s supposed to work, and every winter night the water in those pipes freezes. Since the pipes are heavily insulated, they may or may not thaw again in time to add water to the tanks. D&L actually burned out a water pump one time on account of this.
They have tried various expedients but are always reduced to using hot water to dissolve the ice plugs. This year Neighbor J, who also objects to the hordes of mice nesting in the insulation, is trying something innovative.
First he re-wrapped the pipe with fiberglass insulation, then bound it with a tarp with the seams tightly bound to discourage mice. Then on the top of the whole rig he’s installing the dome of an old light tube on the theory that anything that will concentrate light will also concentrate heat. Finally he’s going to wall the whole thing with sandbags – which I suggested, because that worked great for me.
And we’ll see if that doesn’t fix the problem. 🙂
With winter coming I was worrying about the same thing. Seems like you should be able to plumb both the inlet and output to the bottom connection. Probably need a check valve or something, I don’t really know, I’m not a plumber.
On a side note your reading your blog and getting sent to The Adaptive Curmudgeon blog have helped me ignore two members of the house of representatives, two mayors of major cities, and several minor politicians while at work today.
Ian and I plumbed the inlet to the bottom fitting of his tank. Gravity is a problem: At first we only had the check valve built into the well pump and when that failed the tank emptied itself back down the well. I installed an in-line check valve two or three years ago and that hasn’t happened since. I do worry we’re putting wear on the pump doing it this way, but it has worked for more than five years and it doesn’t freeze every damn night.
Also, you’re welcome. 🙂
I use bubble wrap (small bubble version) to insulate the pipes in my crawl space. A 25 ft x 18in roll is about $12-$15 at Staples.
Sounds like it would work well in this application
This is how I have my water line set up, keeps the water from freezing (tested to -35F).
Water tanks are in a shed about 20 feet from house. I ran 3″ ABS pipe between shed and house.
Inside the 3″ ABS is a 3/4″ pex for water pump pickup and two 1/2″ pex for a heat loop. The 3″ ABS is wrapped with insulation and covered with 8″ galvanized steel stove pipe.
The pex heat loop: Inside the house I have a small radiator (auto transmission cooler) with a fan. A small 12v pump circulates glycol through the loop picking up heat with the radiator and warming the inside of the 3″ ABS pipe.
The 3″ ABS has a tee fitting inside the house providing a way to blow hot air down the pipe should the need arise.
I hope this will provide a couple of ideas for your system.