Frozen water line from spring.

My water goes like this.

From above ground sping into intake

Down 500 Meters into a holding tank and then 250 meters to House.

The water stoped coming to the holding tank and think it got frozen from very cold weather and extra wind then last year.

I can't think of any way other than what I tried already to dig down and use a propane torch to melt the ice if it is the problem.

Anybody think of a way to fix that ?

[agmantoo]

Is this a pumped system or gravity fed? If it is gravity and you permit the water to run continuously to the house and dump the unused water, I would not think the running water would freeze particularly with buried delivery lines. Even on a pumped system a dripping faucet will go a long ways toward preventing a freeze up. As for thawing the lines with the long runs you have I doubt if you are going to be successful particularly if the lines are non metallic. On metal lines you can connect a welder and heat them.

[wr]

If the lines can stand heat, you can always build a coal fire or somthing similar, just over top of the line. After you do have it thawed out, make sure you protect and insulate with straw bales. When it gets real cold up here, I try to leave a tap running to prevent freeze up but it's usually wind that causes problems more than extreme cold. We favor building insulated shacks over our water systems to protect them from the wind and cold, that way you can heat them if needed. Good luck, there's nothing worse than turning on the tap and finding nothing happens

Oh no!,no water! I went outside to turn the heater on under the house and while I was outside I tried to give the creatures some unfrozen water but nothing came out which would mean the pump is not working. It is a submersible pump so I would not think it would freeze. hey,Rock pile you are in my area,what do you think. Help this stupid Floridian!!

Well leaving the water dripping in the house can't help anything here.

The reason is the water is still running to the house because there is a bit of water in the bottom of the holding tank that is not yet frozen.


The problem is the water that runs down the mountain TO the holding tank by Gravity stoped bringing the water that usally just comes and overflows itself constantly. The water has never stoped here I guess for years at that part.

It has been extremely cold for the area (-19) and wondering if it is possible for a spring to freeze up in the winter sometimes.

The thing I am worried about is that the pipes all over the whole system will burst. What are the chances they will burst and how can I stop them when so much of the lines are stoped and full of water. And do
pipes freeze underground when the over part starts to freeze by conducting the cold down the pipe ? Or can the temp stay above freezing because of the heat down a few feet. ?

Thanks everyone for your help.

[tammy from wv]

Could be that this is totally not the problem, but we have had this problem in the past and I thought that I would share our experience (or lack of it) with you. We also have a gravity fed spring fed cistern and have had trouble, thinking that we had a leak in the line, when we went to dig it up we found that the fittings into the cistern were cracked and all of the water was leaking into the ground and not into the cistern. This has actually happened to us 2 times, the last time my husband got smart and put metal fittings into the cistern instead of the plastic and haven't had any trouble (knock on wood). The water should not freeze up since it is running all the time.

[mary,tx]

If your frozen pipes are exposed, you might be able to unfreeze them with a blow dryer. Anyway, dh has done it that way before.
mary