Breaking Point

[FlapjackMcCoy]

Just reflecting on the past week of deep freeze here in NC. I decided to keep it open, mainly because I have a water level return on the tanning ledge so I would have had to blow out the entire return system.

Everything was fine but things started to go south for me when the sustained low temp at night was 10-15 degrees. On the second night of this I checked on it around 4 AM and all was good. Then 4 hours later my wife looked out the window and saw the spa was completely drained and pool was almost overflowing. I hurried out there and the valves were hard to turn but I finally was able to force it to pull from only the pool and I thought I heard some ice chunks going through the pipes. My guess to what happened is that the intake pipes from the pool side froze enough to make it pull more from the spa then the pool.

So I guess now I know the breaking point. The three pipes on the left are skimmer, main drain, vacuum, and the pipe on the right is spa drain. I think the ones on the left froze enough to shift all the load to the spa drain. I wonder if putting blankets around the pipes would have made enough of a difference, but regardless I have since added some pipe heater cable - lets see them freeze now!

 

[W.J.Christy]

Ooh nice. Be careful doing that though. PVC gets weaker as it gets hotter and heat tracing tape can get very warm and cause local over heating and possible deformation of the pipe. A suggestion to ensure the integrity of the pipe is put a thin layer of pipe insulation between the pipe and the heat tape the insulate over top of the tape. That should help maintain temp and not over heat the pipe.

 

[Texas Splash]

In the future perhaps consider covering the entire pad or individually insulating all pipes and equipment to help retain heat and protect from the brutal cold. A little warmth goes a long way. Glad you caught the situation in time.

 

[FlapjackMcCoy]

Yes I did think about enclosing the area, it's already half way there. If this kind of weather becomes the norm I certainly will.

Regarding the pipe overheating I tested out the cable indoors when I first got it and it heated up to about 110 degrees. That against a pipe with 34 degree water flowing through it should be just fine. Also I only plan on using it when the temps are extreme like they were - in the teens or less for a day or more.