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Now the sump hose froze at the end portion of the hose. Any ideas on unfreezing a plastic sump hose? Is there anything I can run through the hose. I heard that you can use R20 insulation if the hose is above ground. Is there R20 pipe insulation? God I love winter. [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img]
Attach a heat tape[ internal thermostat ] insulate, weatherproof and then box it in. Do it so the mice can't get in cause they also like warm places! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Thanks so much. Yes, don't want anymore mice than I had in the attic. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
What about if you put a big (tall) inverted "U" bend in the end that froze? Then the last section will always drain well as soon as the pump shuts down.
I also second the heater tape idea. Just tape the little "hockey puck looking" or whatever shaped thermostat to the hose where it freezes the worst. If you put the flexible foam insulation over the hose and the heat tape it will go along way to preventing freezing in quite severe conditions. You can put the hose, heater tape, and insulation all inside a larger diameter PVC pipe to armor it against rodents. You don't need the thick wall stuff as the thin wall is cheaper and will work fine. Oh, and you don't need the inverted U bend with heater tape.
Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
The u portion with a small hole just above the sump pump and the line will drain out. Just like the old outdoor water pumps with the handle. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Egon, Yet another good idea! A poor man's vacuum breaker, a small weep hole. Don't know the head of pressure at that point so you might want to tap in with a small flexible tube that can be shaped to direct the "squirt", if there is one, in a convenient direction.
A possible downside of the weep hole is the same problem that evidenced itself aboard watercraft that used weep holes to drain chain lockers and spaces between ribs and other obstructions to the bilge. They tend to get plugged with debris and have to be cleared. On sailing craft it was common to run small chains along in the bilge and string them through the weep holes along the way. Then when passing by an area with exposed chain you could just give a tug and rotate the continuous loop of chain just a little bit and it cleaned out all the weep holes along that chain.
...and now back to the present day... A small corrosion resistant chain, perhaps a beaded chain in brass or stainless could be run between two weep holes in a continuous loop. Then a small tug on the exposed part of the chain could rotate it and clean out any debris in the weep hole cum vacuum breaker/anti-siphon valve. A very small fraction of the water being pumped out would leak from the weep holes so the pump might have to pump a few percent extra but an advantage would be that all the hose downstream of the weep hole would drain and there would be no retained water to freeze.
One condition we did not address, Egon, was that the hose might get so cold as to freeze a layer of ice on the ID each time the pump runs until if freezes closed. Not necessarily the most likely situation, but possible. In this case the previous heater tape and insulation approach is a winner.
Pat