Outside frozen drain, advice appreciated.

[cephas53]

Lots of experience here so I'll bounce this one off of you. Drain in a detached garage with no heat is backing up. First snafu with it in a couple decades. Only thing that drains into it is snow, slush and water from two vehicles that park in it. Manually ran a drain snake down it and think it's frozen up a few feet from where it empties underground into a rock pit. Only open access is on the floor of the garage. NWPA everything frozen over pretty darn good. Would be quite a chore to dig down into the pit. Any ideas how to attack it from above? Thanks in advance.

[Artful]

First I would remove what water I could from the drain - (pump it out)
then I would use a heat gun (metal pipes only) or hair dryer to put
some heat down there and periodically pump out any water it makes
- making sure when using electrical items to be dry conditions and plugged into a GFI.

[Omega]

If its just a drain, remove any ice on the surface and put some salt/deicer down it.

[ascast]

my 2 cents - wait it out- if it is in fact frozen, all your going to do it is a temporary fix as it will re-freeze as soon as you take off the heat. You might try a gallon or two of hot water with all the salt it will hold dumped in. It will be above freezing next week, most of the week; they say lol good luck

[Garyshome]

"remove any ice on the surface and put some salt/deicer down it."
this is what I would try first.

[RogerDat]

There are assorted electric heat tapes or wires you might install in the drain pipe if the drain was clear, but these will probably be useless IF the rock filled dry well is not deep enough to keep the water coming out of the drain from freezing as it comes into the pit. You would just end up clogged at the point the heat source ends.

Since it has worked ok in the past one has to assume this year it has either been colder (frost line is deeper) or the volume of water from snow melt is greater. Or both. I suppose it is also possible that there was an accumulation of debris in the pipe that kept melt from flowing out promptly into the pit and that allowed it to back up where it could freeze.

[dakotashooter2]

Froze is froze.... FWIW last year in my neck of the woods we had several water service lines (8' deep,main to home) freeze. It took some of them until late June to thaw out.

[wlc]

When sewer lines freeze up here we get them steam thawed. I had to do that a couple of years ago. fixed in about 10 minutes. Cost wasn't too bad. The "gizmo" is kinda like a cross between a sewer snake and a steam cleaner.

If your pipes are all metal and you can get access to both ends you can use a welder to thaw them out. Put the positive clamp (the one the rod goes in) on one end and the ground clamp on the other. Set the welder on a lower setting and turn it on. Thaws them out in a few minutes. I had to call a guy out with one of the tow behind welders that had a lot of cable on it one time to thaw the water pipe out to my house. It had been 15-20 below zero for two weeks and then we had a cold snap and temps dropped to 35 below. Water pipe froze up somewhere close to where it comes up under the house. He had it thawed out in about 15 minutes. Hooked one cable to the pipe under the house and the other to the well casing. Luckily we have copper plumbing.

[William Yanda]

How about those thermal blankets used when pouring concrete at freezing or below, laid over where the line runs would thaw the ground and the frozen drain.

[markinalpine]

Is the garage floor sloped toward the doors? If so, you might consider one or two of those garage floor covers that have raised ridges on both edges, and use a floor squeegee to push the water out.
Or just cover the drain with a flat mat, and use the squeegee to clear the floor when needed.
Good luck,
Mark

[Plate plinker]

How about those thermal blankets used when pouring concrete at freezing or below, laid over where the line runs would thaw the ground and the frozen drain.

no good tried that before to thaw ground for concrete work. once frozen your toast.

Ive used a garden hose with hot water on my drain Of coarse I have hot water in the garage ready to go. Blast out the ice and dirt.

I like the deicer idea or salt water but you need to get it to the ice blockage.

[jcwit]

I've freed frozen drain lines already by pouring in windshield fluid, the kind used in winter of course.

[Multigunner]

I can't remember the details but I do remember seeing a plug in heating element shaped like a short cylinder that could be lowered into a frozen drain to thaw it and left plugged in to prevent refreezing.
That was many years ago.

I think something similar has been used to heat engine crankcase oil in sub zero climes.

[bangerjim]

Two suggestions:

1. bail it out. Add salt to melt ice. bail again. wait for spring. The bitter cold weather you guys are seeing has proably created permafrost! Saw it a lot in IA and MI. You cannot thaw out the EARTH. just wait for spring. (it IS coming!)

2. move to AZ like I did to avoid carp like this. (had similar problmes in IA & MI!)

good luck!

banger0j

[GaryN]

If you don't want to use salt/deicer pour some rv antifreeze down it.

[dragon813gt]

If you don't want to use salt/deicer pour some rv antifreeze down it.

This, have to pour it down the trap after using the shower at our cabin. It will take a long time to thaw it out. But as long as it doesn't become to diluted it will thaw it all out.

[Plate plinker]

For those who don't know RV antifreeze is typically safe for consumption. Its a sugar based antifreeze that will turn to slush at cold temps down around 0*.

[waynem34]

When its thawed wrap it up good.Done know much about the resistance heaters. Repair, insulate, and cover.

[freebullet]

Add heat

[MaryB]

When I needed to dig a satellite dish mount mid winter we would park a car near the spot, take a hose from the tailpipe and run it under a whole bunch of thermal blankets. Would thaw a couple feet in about 8 hours...