pipe freezer

[malc]

hello,anyone any experience or advice on pipe freezing equipment please.

 

[Bernie2]

Hmm!

Had a few goes with this stuff. Don't rely on small bottles of CO2 make sure you have got a good sized full cylinder. Make sure the pipe cuff's are the right size and fit properly. Make sure there is no movement in the water inside the pipe. Make sure the water is cool as convection currents within warm water can stop it freezing.
Oh! Aye! Here are some more. Don't rely on the time it tells you it should take to freeze a pipe, its often wrong. Plastic pipe takes longer to freeze than iron or copper. Make sure you leave room for the ice plug and it doesn't expand to blow the pipe.

Don't take it for granted that when the frost forms on the outside of the pipe its frozen. Try and arrange it so that you can test the down stream flow has stopped.

And don't touch the frost, watch out for frost burns. Read all instructions thoroughly, it may seem none dangerous to freeze pipes but it can be. And by the way I've had pipes defrost in a few minutes not he half hour they tell you. And what a mess it makes. But then I have also had them go as sweet as a nut!
It depends, just take your time.


There are loads of tricks with freezing, I've forgotten a lot of them, I'll try and post a few later.

 

[stevetheplumber]

electric freezers are great never had any problems with themeven up to two inch barrel
ive found the disposable ones oknon small stuff where you can open something to prove its worked fine just to get a valve on or fit a cap its the larger co2 bottles weve had troubles with so id go electric if the job warrants it or disposable for quick small works
ive changed a six inch valve on a working heating system with the pipe frozen with liquid nitrogen but this was applied by a specialist company

 

[migoplumber]

follow steves advice, hire from your local shop an electric one, i did 1 1/2 steel, biggest problem was waiting for the thing to defrost!!
best 60 quid ive spent

shaun

 

[Mike Jackson]

I used to have the distillers Co2 setup. Worked fine but you had to sit over the job topping up the freeze jackets. Switched to an arctic electric kit and that's a lot better. Stick the freeze heads on and shoot off, have a cuppa, pick up materials and get back to a frozen pipe. The freeze took longer than the Co2 but the job was quicker because you could leave it to it.

Mike

 

[HTB]

I've got an electric one but I think it needs re-gassing, on a hot day it just doesn't work.

(And to be fair on 15 and 22 copper the small disposable cans and jacket are much quicker).

Anyone know where I can get it re-gassed??

 

[Alanka]

There is a new type of pipe freezer now available which I've just ordered and expect to have in a few days -- the 'Plumbfreeze FZ400'. It is totally electronic -- no gas, no refrigerant, no compressor. It uses a thermoelectric effect (the Peltier effect) where an electric current causes cooling (indefinitely) at special junctions situated in the clip-on freezer heads. When you want to thaw the pipework you flick a switch to reverse the current, which rapidly heats up the heads and melts the iceplug!

The principle is not new and has been used for years in small mobile refrigerators and cool boxes, and to control the temperature of electronic equipment, but it's the first time I've seen it applied to a plumbing pipe freezer.

I've had the traditional electric freezers, but have found them exceedingly ***bersome and prone to need regassing quite often, and at great expense (£50 a throw, plus transportation). I currently use the gas canister and foam jacket method, which is pretty good but sometimes thaws out rather quickly and catches you out!

I'm hoping this new type will solve all the problems. In any case I'll report to this forum when I've given it a good try.

 

[flat pack]

Hi ive shut down the plantroom on a block of flats
when heating was on
did the biz
20 min new valve connect on steel pipework


[DLMURL="http://www.ukplumbersforums.co.uk/redirector.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DauEdi9e4UVo"]
[/DLMURL]

 

[emergencyman]

There is a new type of pipe freezer now available which I've just ordered and expect to have in a few days -- the 'Plumbfreeze FZ400'. It is totally electronic -- no gas, no refrigerant, no compressor. It uses a thermoelectric effect (the Peltier effect) where an electric current causes cooling (indefinitely) at special junctions situated in the clip-on freezer heads. When you want to thaw the pipework you flick a switch to reverse the current, which rapidly heats up the heads and melts the iceplug!

The principle is not new and has been used for years in small mobile refrigerators and cool boxes, and to control the temperature of electronic equipment, but it's the first time I've seen it applied to a plumbing pipe freezer.

I've had the traditional electric freezers, but have found them exceedingly ***bersome and prone to need regassing quite often, and at great expense (£50 a throw, plus transportation). I currently use the gas canister and foam jacket method, which is pretty good but sometimes thaws out rather quickly and catches you out!

I'm hoping this new type will solve all the problems. In any case I'll report to this forum when I've given it a good try.

Any news yet? Im thinking of buying one. I have just looked at the website and it looks a great piece of kit, think I want one. How much did you pay?

 

[bcp]

for Alanka. I also had a look at the Plumbfreeze website but couldn't find any info on price or how to order. I emailed a coule of days ago but had no reply.. Can you tell us how did you get one and what was the cost?

 

[Carl86]

My guess is its gonna be at least Grands worth of kit. Looks the biz thought!

 

[bcp]

I was also looking at Rothenberger-6.5030 6.35kg liquid withdrawal type gas. Seemed like a good compromise at around £280.00 then I read 'Stevetheplumber''s post and am back in a quandry.
Take a look at the following link Rothenberger Rofrost CO2 Pipe Freezing Kit

Anyone used it?

 

[Alanka]

Hi guys! I took delivery of a PlumbFreeze FZ400 a few days ago, from Plumbfreeze Ltd, Lancs. (plumbfreeze.com), and have been testing it out very thoroughly for the last couple of days, on 15mm and 22mm copper pipe. It cost me £358.86 total.

I'm very sorry to say that I am today returning it to the suppliers for a refund (which they have agreed to, but time will tell! I'll report on that too.)

With 15mm copper pipe (clean and new), following the instructions including a dab of heat conducting paste, the pipe was only partially frozen even after 20 minutes. I saw a ring of ice but not a complete waterproof plug. The temperature of the heads at this time was about -7 degC, which is not really cold enough to freeze a pipe in a reasonable time. The ambient temperature was a reasonable 19 degC.

The supplier told me on the phone that every machine is tested before despatch, but that there might be an airlock in the heat transfer fluid due to the machine being shaken up during delivery, and that letting it settle while connected to the mains should help. This did seem to make a slight difference, but what about the shaking up it would get in my van?!

After a few more similar tests with similar results, I gave up 15mm and moved on to 22mm clean copper pipe. It took over an hour to freeze a proper waterproof plug, and the head temperature reached about -7 degC (still not nearly cold enough). I then tried 22mm pipe again but wrapped a piece of wet newspaper around the pipe to aid thermal conduction (this always worked well with my old electric freezer). This time the pipe froze properly after about 50 minutes --still far too long to wait!! The head temperature kept at around -4 degC during the freeze -- which is why it took so long.

The little video on the supplier's website is rather misleading because it shows the temperature on the built-in digital thermometer falling rapidly to -16 degC. I never saw temperatures below -10 degC with 15mm pipe, and never below -5 with a 22mm pipe that successfully froze.

In my opinion this pipe freezer simply does not get cold enough when in good thermal contact with copper pipes and certainly would be little use to me in my plumbing activities. My tests were carried out using new clean pipe -- the results with old, painted pipes are likely to be worse.

Maybe they will manage to develop a more powerful Peltier freezer in the future, but this in my view is definitely not it.

 

[bcp]

Thanks for the feedback Alanka. I was just about to post that I had heard back from PlumbFreeze with a price and a way to order. You info is invaluable. In fairness (and hope?) I wonder if it might just be a faulty unit you got??

 

[stevetheplumber]

I was also looking at Rothenberger-6.5030 6.35kg liquid withdrawal type gas. Seemed like a good compromise at around £280.00 then I read 'Stevetheplumber''s post and am back in a quandry.
Take a look at the following link Rothenberger Rofrost CO2 Pipe Freezing Kit

Anyone used it?

theres on laying in my garage if you want to try it used twice failed both times and relegated to the pile of bits ill never use