Water in Navan

bladespin

There was a leaking mains on Flower hill last night, not sure if it was a break but the pressure seems low today, still there though.

franer1970

I could kiss you vibe666!
About an hour ago I tried pouring a kettle of hot water into the valve chamber (correct name?) at bottom of my drive and the flow came back on a few minutes later.

Used a pair of vice grips to open the lid as I don't have the correct triangular key. The water drained out the bottom so I don't think there will be any issue with it freezing later.

There is a piece of polystyrene in there which is supposed to insulate the exposed pipe from frost, but I think it works just as well to insulate it from warmth as well, hence it was still frozen after 48hrs of thawing above.

I'm on the Boyne Road and have been without water since 25th.

vibe666

i remember reading a while ago that normal below ground temps are around 5 degrees celcius but don't actually change much annually unless the weather gets really severe and in those cases the freezing cold temps we've had can get deep into the ground and can stay there and take months to totally dissipate.

i think what might have happened (and this is totally conjecture, i'm no expert) is that the relatively dry ground that the snow was sitting on was frozen pretty deeply but because it was still relatively dry the pipes themselves didn't freeze up too much as we were fine right through the cold spell.

then i think what happened is that the surface snow all melted and soaked into the still frozen ground and re-froze deeper down and conducted the cold into the pipes and caused the pipes to freeze up as water is a much better conductor of heat & cold than most other substances (which is why its so often used in various cooling systems).

hopefully the hot water does enough to bring the surrounding ambient temperature up to stop it freezing again directly around the pipes & stopcock so fingers crossed it should be grand from now on.

i'd like to think me and my kettle are responsible for restoring the water supply to my street, but i think it was just a coincidence in my case, but it doesn't mean it won't work for anyone else.

i suspect that as my neighbours that still had water said theirs had been cut off that evening that my pipes were frozen when the supply was cut off as it had been off for 4-5 days at that point, but that the kettle did do the job of thawing it out and then when they turned the supply back on it was all good again for everyone.

either way it looks like the water supply is coming back now for a lot of people who have been without, but if your own is still frozen, then the kettle trick has got to be worth a shot.

pkieran

Thanks Vibe666,

Tried the hot water in the valve chamber, of a neighbours house, they haven't had water since Christmas Eve. Back to normal now! only took ten minutes.
Writing up an invoice for work done, how much shall we charge?Lol

Rafa1977

All of my neighbours appear to have also got their water back also which good. I think I may need get plumber out as I have noticted water dripping from underneath the sink, at the moment it is only dripping which is a good i guess.

Mzo1978

It's this water fit for consumption .... no water now till Thursday apparently

Stephen Gawking

That has to be some sort of records on boards. A 7 year old thread? Why not just start a new one FFS.