First, thankfully, this is not my own well line-
But I've been asked to help with a situation where there is a frozen-up buried black polyethylene well line from a drilled well, with an in-well deep well submersible pump. The pipe runs underground to and then through a building with an old stone foundation.
Long story short, the water was not being used much, and during the January cold, an outdoor draft was creeping down the inside of the foundation.
Once the pipe froze there, it was impossible to run water, and then, with the water sitting motionless in the pipe, I think it froze back underground as well. A portion of the line runs under a town road, and although there was foamboard laid over the pipe before the trench was backfilled, the non-moving water was probably a sitting duck for freezing there after no water had been run for days on end.
I helped thaw the inside of the pipe within the cellar, and also air-sealed and insulated so that the indoor part of the freezing should not recur. But, unfortunately, there's still no water coming out.
The pump (indeed the whole well) are rather new, and had no sign of trouble until the freeze up.
I'm familiar with the concept that metal underground lines can sometimes be thawed using electric current from a welder, etc., to get the pipe to heat up. But, of course, black polyethylene won't conduct electricity.
What equipment/ methods, if any, can be used to try to get some heat back into the buried portions of the pipe in hopes of thawing it out?
Thanks for any suggestions!
But I've been asked to help with a situation where there is a frozen-up buried black polyethylene well line from a drilled well, with an in-well deep well submersible pump. The pipe runs underground to and then through a building with an old stone foundation.
Long story short, the water was not being used much, and during the January cold, an outdoor draft was creeping down the inside of the foundation.
Once the pipe froze there, it was impossible to run water, and then, with the water sitting motionless in the pipe, I think it froze back underground as well. A portion of the line runs under a town road, and although there was foamboard laid over the pipe before the trench was backfilled, the non-moving water was probably a sitting duck for freezing there after no water had been run for days on end.
I helped thaw the inside of the pipe within the cellar, and also air-sealed and insulated so that the indoor part of the freezing should not recur. But, unfortunately, there's still no water coming out.
The pump (indeed the whole well) are rather new, and had no sign of trouble until the freeze up.
I'm familiar with the concept that metal underground lines can sometimes be thawed using electric current from a welder, etc., to get the pipe to heat up. But, of course, black polyethylene won't conduct electricity.
What equipment/ methods, if any, can be used to try to get some heat back into the buried portions of the pipe in hopes of thawing it out?
Thanks for any suggestions!
