The four locations only leak when the pump is running. With everything shutdown for the summer, there is no leak. The fact that for the next couple of months the pipe can be cleaned and dried is one of reason we wanted to eplore alternatives to fixing the problem.
All four leak locations...
The headers span across six 15' sheets of ice, making each of them some 90'. On both the supply and return side there is a hose barb approximately every 6", or 180 hose barbs on each header (360 in total).
Based on the suppliers I talked to a 4" x 1-1/2" saddle complete with a reducer and...
It's easy to say "...you'd be better off fixing all...", but the reality is its not going to happen. And you are correct that the liklihood is that if a couple are leaking now, more are going to follow.
That being said, as a club we don't have the money (~$35k, I've made some enquiries) to...
So, I wasn't able to get some photos, but I did throw together a simple sketch of the system.
The ends of the headers were finished with welded caps. We installed 1" ball valves at the end of both runs for draining the system. There are 4" isolation valves between the pump/chiller and the ice...
I should probably have snapped off a couple of pictures when I at the Curling Rink last night. Maybe I'll do that tonight.
The problem with the brine has little to do with the brine in the header. It's the miles of distribution tubes in the ice surface. Each one of the hose barbs on the...
Thanks for the input guys. The idea of using a saddle has been kicked around (in fact, it was my first suggestion to the group).
The hesitation lies in tha you still have to do something with the brine. Removing the 1" distribution line from the leaking hose barb would still need to be...
Quick bit of background. I volunteer at the local curling club, helping out with the ice and ice equipment. We run an Ammonia-Brine system and four years ago built new supply and return headers for the brine distribution. The original equipment, circa 1960 was all steel, but we replaced it...
