Water lines

[koziol41]

If a water line that is buried in the ground at 5' were to freeze and burst when the line thawed would you still get a flow of water out of the end of the line or would the flow run out at the area that burst and no flow out the end?

 

[EddieWalker]

There's all sorts of ways a line can burst. Most of the time it's just a crack as the surrounding dirt holds it all together. If this happens, you should still get water in the house, but your preasure will be less. The bigger the leak, the less the preasure. I had a house with over 100 pounds of preasure at the house and so many leaks in the line that I had to replace the entire line, but that was a disaster from the beginning and done on the cheap by the builder.

Is it city water? If you can test a neighbors water preasure to see what normal is, you can then test yours to see if there is a difference. If your on a well, then you should know what your preasure is at the well. Turn off the water at the house and see if the preasure drops.

Don't be suprissed if you can't see the water on the surface if the line has a break in it. Allot of the time the water will follow the pipe for a distance before surfacing. Soemtimes it never surfaces.

Finding the leak can be very, very dificult. Pushing a probe into the ground along the line might work. It allows the water an easy path to travel and will come out the hole. Or you will find a soft spot just under the surface. If that doesn't work, then you dig it up half way, cut it, cap both ends and figure out what side is leaking. Do that again and again until you find the leak.

Sometimes it's easier to just replace the entire line. In the case I mentioned earlier, thin wall was installed. I tried to find the leak for about a week without any results. I gave up and just put in a new line. 1,200 feet of it!!!

Eddie

 

[koziol41]

Thanks for the info.The lines are in our barn they are for automatic horse drinkers.
Had a proplem with them in early Feb.during that brutal cold spell we had (live in southeasternn wi).Turn them on this saturday and they worked fine water pressure the same.I was keeping my fingers crossed that the line did not burst will try turning off the well and check the pressure.

 

[turnkey4099]

Thanks for the info.The lines are in our barn they are for automatic horse drinkers.
Had a proplem with them in early Feb.during that brutal cold spell we had (live in southeasternn wi).Turn them on this saturday and they worked fine water pressure the same.I was keeping my fingers crossed that the line did not burst will try turning off the well and check the pressure.

It is unlikely that a line buried 5' would freeze. I know Wi has some brutal weather though.

Harry K

 

[Diesel-ME]

Even if they did freeze, usually one uses plastic pipe for stuff like this. It is way more forgiving than copper and should survive a freeze/thaw. So unless you know that it's copper pipe you should be fine.

~paul

 

[koziol41]

Yes it is plastic water line rated at 200psi thanks for all the help

 

[mjarrels]

Brings up an interesting question. When I built 8 years ago, hooked up to county water using copper pipe (county hookup also copper). My sister hooked up a few years later using 200 psi plastic. My concer was 200 psi was not strong enough. County water comes off the main line at 180 psi. I think my copper line is rated at 300 psi. Guy who hooked up my sister thought I was crazy for using copper. Did I just waste $ using copper?

mark

 

[Diesel-ME]

180 PSI? Holy crap... showering must be an adventure in exfoliation!

I guess you must have to use a pressure reducing valve.

~paul

 

[RonMar]

5' is pretty deep. Do you have perma frost where you are? I doubt the main line has had any freeze problems. How long is the line? At the coldest time did it stop flowing? If so, I might suspect a freeze at the ends where it goes down into or up out of the ground, but not along the main portion if it is all at 5' below the surface. If you run it for a few minutes and measure the temperature, you can get an idea of what the temp is, and the surrounding ground temp, in the pipe that is buried. You just have to run out enough volume to make sure you are sampling the water from the portion of the pipe that is buried.

 

[koziol41]

Never had a proplem with the main line.Tapped into the well ran a line into the barn about 200' that line line is connected to a brass mainfold with 4 valves each valve has a line going to a supply line up to each drinker.They did stop flowing during that cold spell we had temps 15-20 below zero.Looked like the supply line up to each drinker froze.turned off the main valve in the house saw no drop in pressure.

 

[EddieWalker]

County water comes off the main line at 180 psi. I think my copper line is rated at 300 psi.
mark

Mark,

Are you saying that the water preasure coming into your home is at 180 psi? Or just the line to your house?

The valve in the toilet is the most sensitive to extreme water preasure and most will start leaking at 80 pounds. Sometimes even less. If my memory is right, I think 60 pounds is what you want for water preasure in a home. When you go over this amount, you will have water constantly moving through your toilets. In time, you may very well have a break in one of your other fittings. They are not designed for that kind of preasure.

It's a simple fix to put a preasure reducer on your water line. The last one I bought was a 1 " Watts and I think it cost around $60 a few years ago.

Eddie

 

[mjarrels]

180 psi off the line... I have a pressure reducer set at 60 psi entering the house. Guy next door put a facuet in for his garden and can't use it due to the pressure.

mark