How to defrost an underground pipe without unnecessary hassle

We will demonstrate the proposed defrosting process on a pipe with a total length of 4-5 meters, bent at 90 degrees, specially filled with water, and frozen. To implement this process we need washer fluid pump in the car. It has inlet and outlet pipes, positive and negative terminals, through which the pump receives voltage from the 12-volt battery.

Since the “native” tank for washer fluid is small in volume and is not suitable for defrosting the pipe, the pump will suck hot water through a silicone hose directly from an 8-10 liter bucket.

And boiling water will be pumped into a pipe with frozen ice through a hose that is used to supply brake fluid in cars, since in this process the hose needs, along with strength, flexibility so that it does not get stuck in the pipe, even when going through 90-degree turns .

How to quickly and cheaply defrost a pipe underground

The idea of this defrosting method is that, along with supplying boiling water to the pipe with frozen water to intensively melt the ice, it is necessary to simultaneously push the brake hose into the defrosted pipe.

We connect the insulated wires from pump to the car battery, observing the polarity, and lower the running water pump into a bucket of boiling water to the level of the terminals with the connected wires, otherwise a short circuit will occur. If you hermetically insulate the connections between the wires and the terminals, the pump can be completely immersed in hot water.

We insert the free end of the brake hose into the defrosted pipe and boiling water flowing under pressure begins to melt it. At the same time, we push the brake hose into the pipe with frozen water. Underground, the process of defrosting the pipe will be noticeably more intense, since the temperature there is higher than on the surface of the earth.

When the boiling water in the bucket runs out, pump we turn it off, since it is not designed to work in “dry” mode. To save hot water, the process can be made closed by feeding the thawed liquid through the return hose into the boiling water container, and from it directly into the defrosting pipe or again through a bucket.

A battery capacity of 70-75 Ampere × hours is enough to defrost a pipe up to 30 meters long. Instead of a car battery, you can use a 12-volt power supply or a charger with the same output voltage.