Frozen hose

It's not too long, the trouble is any dips along the way... It would work well if you had a slope all one direction, with no dips or hills along the way. Then the water would actually drain out itself.....

But any dip, the water will want to gather in that low spot on the hose, and blowing it out with air, the air will go around the water and leave a little bit of water to flow back into the low dips and freeze up. Only takes a 1/4 cup of water sitting in a dip to freeze it shut.

So, it just depends on the lay of the land, yous situation, if draining/ blowing out the hose works.

--->Paul

If it makes you feel any better we have these

and they do this


and the result is this

250 feet of water line took two days with this

We are lucky to have a back hoe. I might only use it once a year but it's nice to have.
the same job would have taken a few minutes with a box of this

but I'm afraid the days of going down to the grange for a box of DuPont lures are long gone.

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Where in NC are you? Around here, the black poly laying in the sun is enough to thaw it out most winter days. If it is in the shade, move it in the sun if possible, if you are under 1500-2000 feet elevation this should be all you need. If your hose doens't have any constrictions in it, the ice only needs to thaw slightly before the water pressure can push it out. Our stock tank is big enough to hold the animals for several weeks, so most days we are just busting ice off the top, and only turn on the hose once a week or so.

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You are in NC. 10' deep is WAY overkill. 4' deep would be plenty, I'd bet 3' deep works. Call the city utility department and ask how deep they bury their service lines.

Assuming your ground isn't all rock, you could rent a trencher and do it in under a day.

Kathie

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She's in the Western part of the state where the frost line is about 10"
Here in the East where I am. it's only 4"

NC has a widely varied climate, since it's the longest state East of the Mississippi, and has both mountains and beaches

North Carolina Facts

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Here's what worked for me when enduring the cold Michigan winters: (It will only work if you have elec @ the barn.) Our horses' trough had a tank de-icer in it to keep the water from freezing. After watering chores, I'd coil up the hose & drop it into the tank, after disconnecting it from the standpipe. I tied a long piece of poly baling twine around one end of the hose, and draped that over the side of the tank to aid in fishing the hose out of the water for the next use.

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I have about 150' of hose i use year round,i always drain the hoses by hand if its gonna drop below 30 & unhook from the faucet,yes-it is a pain in the rear-but better than frozen hoses,it takes an extra few minutes to just lift/drain the hose by hand.
Also if it is gonna snow/ice-i always bring/ coil the hose up & put it in the barn or bring it on the porch for the night instead of having to dig it out of the snow/ice.
I sympathize with ya as i have that same problem & cannot afford to have a new water line dug at this time to the barn.So-it is back to draining the hose by hand for another winter.
Wish i had a good answer for ya-but i don't!

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I think that you guys will see when you price it out, the parts and labor for running the water line will not be all that much.

A rotary trencher is cheap to rent...just bury it and be done with it.

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PrettyPaisley , moving your compost pile is not going to work to spread out that long of a distance---Unless you pile it high enough the hole length. A thin layer just will not work. Just Insulation around the pipe will not work either----as already stated, being there is no heat inside the insulation the pipe will still freeze. When it has froze then the insulation will hold the cold inside the pipe and it will take ALOT longer for it to thaw out(Bigger problem then). If you blow it out with air--if there is a low place as soon as you stop the air the water will settle back in that low place and freeze. The only way I see(other than heat tape) is to bury it, drain it or turn the water on just enough to to keep the water moving in the pipe so it does not freeze.

So if money is short then draining it is the simple thing to do right now. I would watch the weather and if it is suppose to drop below freezing I would unhook the hose from the spikot then starting at the "highest" end walk the hose line making sure to keep the hose higher than the highest spot the hose is laying on. Good Luck!

OH Yea,, OH Yea,, Smart Guy,, I'll add more drive way on top to make it thicker.
Yea!
jim

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Be a leader not a follower

YEA!!! Go BOOM BOOM.

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If an elected official is in charge of a budget and that budget is not balanced, the elected official is not eligible for re-election until the budget is balanced.
Be a leader not a follower

My friend here in Michigan has a horse boarding/training barn...she tosses the end of the hose over a barn rafter after use and runs the whole thing over.

Takes her a few minutes and works great.

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I saw something nasty in the woodshed

Personally I would hire a sexy European ditch digging boy...but that's just me...

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Is she using 350 feet of hose?

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I would just move the critters to the water if it were me. a couple strands of hot wire twixt where they are now and where the water is should be cheap and easy enough to run. That way they can come up to get water at the source eliminating the need for 350 feet of water line.

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You speakum truth!! Doing battle with the weather in cold country is just pure pain unless you have it right.

Burying a line is the best long-term solution, but it sounds like you need something to get you by for this season. If it's not practical to move the animals closer to the water and eliminate or limit the hose issue then I'd be inclined to at least try blowing the line clear a few times and see how that works. Or maybe insulate and blowing the line clear would work.

Blowing the line clear is not a fool proof process, mostly for the reason that Paul mentioned in regards to having peaks and valleys over the 350' length. If there are only a couple of dips in the line over that length it may be possible to blow the line out then walk the water out of those valleys and blow it out again. If the valleys are not too deep, it's possible that blowing the line out would get enough of the water out to prevent freezing but you won't know that until you try it.

For a short term situation like this I would not use the wrap insulation, I'd use the semi-rigid pipe insulation. This stuff is not necessarily made to be used outside but I've used for a one or two seasons in a pinch and it's worked so far. However, it should be noted that our climate is not as cold as many areas of the country so your mileage may vary. I've used the wrap stuff before and it works ok but will take awhile to install it over 350', and my experience is it doesn't hold up well to our wet climate here.

This semi-rigid stuff is sold in 6' sticks at HD, Lowes, etc. The best quality is the Rubber self-sealing but it's expensive at $7.25 per stick. I would use the Poly (foam) self-sealing which is $1.64 per stick. There is a non self-sealing version for even less cost but that stuff requires zip ties or tape to hold it together on the hose in my experience. You would have to install about 59 of these and you would be $100 into it. The drawbacks to this besides the cost is once installed on the hose it will make the hose impossible to coil up unless the insulation is removed.

For blowing the line out I use a brass blow-out plug that has a schrader valve (tire valve) like at the link below. I find this type to be a little more user friendly than the type of blow-out plug that you connect the fitting on the end of the air hose to directly.
Amazon.com: Camco 36153 RV Brass Blow Out Plug: Automotive
If you are airing tires with your current air compressor then you should be able to use the above type of blow-out plug.

Of course now you have to be able to tell when the line is blown clear so you know when you are done with the process. Assuming you are going to be working alone for the most part when doing the chores, there are a couple options. If you have line-of-sight between the hose bib/hydrant and the end of the hose you 'might' be able to see the end of the hose with binoculars or a rifle scope. In this case you will need to use the type of tire chuck that clamps on the blow-out plug so your hands are free to keep an eye on the end of the hose.

However, my preferred method is the timing system. Have a buddy help you for 30 minutes or so and have them stay at the end of the hose while you blow it out. Use cellphones or radios for communication. Do the blow out process three times and have your buddy note the time it takes to complete the process. The three times should be similar, just add another 30 seconds and call it good. Now you can do the chore by yourself each day.

Compressor capability may be an issue with 350' of hose. I blew out a 50' hose that was laid over level ground the other morning and these hoses hold a surprising amount of water in them, especially 350' worth of hose.

I also put these cap thingys on my hose ends that get disconnected from the hydrant because no matter how hard I try and prop the hose end up so it stays clean, it inevitably ends up on the ground in the dirt/mud and needs cleaned out. I like the fact that these caps always stay with the hose. You may be able find this type of thing at the farm store as well.
Water Hose Storage Caps - Leisure Time Marketing 15999-BLUE - Hoses, Reels & Fittings - Camping World

You will have to run the numbers on the various short-term solutions and see if they make sense. Maybe the thing to do is go buy a blow-out plug, use your existing compressor and see if that will even work. That way you are only out a few bucks for the blow-out plug.

One final point, based on my experience anyway, no matter how much I say I'm going to implement the long-term solution 'when the weather gets better', sometimes that doesn't happen and in those cases a well executed short-term solution may be useable the next year as well if needed. Digging a 300-400' trench is no minor task for many folks. I'm fortunate that we have an excavator to do tasks like that but not everybody has that kind of luxury.

I use brass quick connects on every hose. I can unhook the short 25 foot barn hose at the hyrdrant and let it drain on a small slope. Smaller hoses are easier to manage and quick connects speeds things up. Buried is best I agree. Waterlines of course.

I don't know how much hose, but her barn is a HUGE 'T' shaped barn and she waters all the stall buckets from the front of the barn, so I know it's long.

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