On Jan 23, 10:04*am, Fat Dumb & Happy "Fat Dumb &
wrote:
wrote:
I have a yard hydrant in my barn. *It had heat tape on it, and the top
part above the ground was not frozen (I took off the head and put a
wire down). *Its frozen under the ground. *I know it's not to the
bottom, because its down at least 5 feet into the ground. *Its frozen
below the surface. *I have concrete around it, but there's a 1 inck
gap around the pipe, and I did have the heat tape down a few inches,
but I found that right below that tape the ground is frozen because I
tried to drive a piece of steel rebar into the soil. *

I put a propane torch on the pipe right above the concrete level and
got water to boil out the top, but it's still not working and cant
lift the plunger. *Is there some sort of electrical rod that I could
drive melt into the ground or anything made for that? *I did dump some
boiling water around it too. *I capped the top so I can use the rest
of the water on the property. and have an electric heater next to the
pipe, (heat tape is off now, so I could use torch). *This hydrant is
in a small room, so that electric heater should heat the room but it's
not going to get what is underground. *Anyone have any ideas what to
do? *

Then, when I do get it unthawed, what can I do under the concrete
level to keep it thawed? *They say not to put that heat tape
underground. *I did have it down abiut 2 inches into the concrete, but
not more. *I sure cant think of any other way to do it. *

IDEAS NEEDED????

Thanks

Jake

* If if if, *the line isn't plastic, if ya can make a circuit with the
ice block in the circuit, if ya can get enough current to flow, *if you
don't electrocute some cows and chickens,
* *this ought to work,http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?t=8719
* *In this copy of The Procedure Handbook of Arc Welding (12th ed. 1973)
that I just bought there is a section on using an arc welder to thaw
frozen pipes. Now I can't imagine that this is a practice that Lincoln
would be wanting to promote today in these litigious times; in fact they
must be freaking out that there are still these old copies of the
handbook out there with a how-to on burning your house down with a
Lincoln HD Tombstone- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

There's just about zero risk of burning down the house, unless the
welder drops a lit cigarette. There isn't any arcing or welding going
on
.. What is going on is the welder is used to pass current through
metal piping
to gradually heat it enough to melt the ice inside. One cable gets
securely clamped to each end of the pipe, where accessible. I've
seen it done on 50 -75ft runs of pipe. Takes an hour or two.