Pipe Freezing Kits

[Slugbabydotcom]

My advice:
Buy a stop key and turn off the water outside the house

My advice
Get the water board to do it. Costs nothing, eliminates risk and passes responsibility, if the ferrule outside blows off when you re-open it too much.
Recently I got water board to do same and the stoptap had de-zincified and snapped off when the guy tried to turn the water off.
He told me that if I had done the same I would have got charged for it!!!

PS
This post has spawned my new signature till I think of a better one so thanks 4 the idea

Always try to learn from others mistakes

 

[loublou]

Hi
I would say they are great..... only follow the instructions and check it has frozen proper and in any doubt bung in more, not less. Have loads of spare cans in case.

I have used these in quite extreme circumstances and say they can provide the solution if you are unable to isolate the line.

One comment to help peeps though.....For heating purposes don't ever fit the silly little control valves, we all know the ones I mean. They are not made to a high enough standard and a proper stop cock or gate valve should be fitted.

Don't economise as you will regret it in the future.
Lou

Good advice regarding the above...........

Pipe freezing kits are great, if you know the job in hand is going to be quick one and with no problems. (Yep right).

My advice:

Buy a stop key and turn off the water outside the house.
Leave the freezing kit on the shelf in B&Q

 

[Priorplanningrules]

Rothengerger do a Pipe freezing kit for £900..... But you can hire these out from HSS for £60. These can freeze up to 2" steel Pipes. As they are mains run, they are able to be used for hours at a time.
I used one for 4 hours solid as the mains in the road broke and the stop cock in the house decided to die a death. The client rang me, I left the pipe freezing kit on and went back to another job. She rang me when the Water Board had repaired the mains stop cock so I could then repair hers.... Great bit of kit..


I am biased and would probably not trust the can variety from DIY stores etc..

 

[Johnmelad502]

personally for peace of mind i'd hire an electric freezer

comet sell them for £60 these days.. difficult to wrap around the pipe tho....

 

[Boilerman2]

B&Q Freezer =Micky mouse we use a BOC Freezer bags upto 54mm, fed by a large cylinder of CO2 if the job is taking time, just give the bag another shot of gas, pipe will stay frozen all day if needed you get what you pay for!!

 

[Rico99]

Alternatively, you could have donned a wetsuit or stripped down to your skivvies, got in the tank and bunged it, done that before now.

Rico

 

[letiss]

Up here in Scotland, you simply wrap a frozen bag of peas around the already, almost freezing water pipe.

 

[LittleTrev]

i have to say in B * Q's defence their freezing kits are ok. i have used them on numerous occasions with no disasterous consequences. all that is needed is a little forward planning, an patience.if its a big job, ie moving a rad or jus inserting isolation valves on different things where turning off the supply is a problem, jus think ahead to the end product an have it all ready. when i froze pipes the kits gave me estimated 45 minutes work and, on one occassion i was soldering less than a foot away from the frozen pipe ( fast i might add but still all was fine ) you must follow directions and always use the full tin - hehehe no skimping now diy'ers cos this could be fatal hehehe refer back to lots of towels an minions to help mop up lolol all in all they are a good solution to what could be a difficult problem....

ps... once the kit is bought keep the sleeve an buy some zip ties then all that remains the next time is to buy a replacement tin of freezing agent.. 7-8 quid i think

 

[Freezer118]

I work for the most experienced Pipefreezing company in the UK and personnally have 8 years site experience freezing pipes from 1/2" (15mm) up to 20" (500mm). I will gladly answer any questions you may have. Our company works within all industries and can provide evidence and case studies of work carried out.

Obviously we are interested in any freezing enquiry however we understand that there are kits available to enable brave individuals to have a go themselves.

If anyone would like advice I would be only too pleased to answer your questions and hopefully I can convince you the only safe way of freezing any pipe system is to use a professional freezing company that way it reduces the chances of an embarassing fire brigade call out!!!!

 

[joinerjohn]

Years ago I was working on an office refurbishment. The plumbers had to re-route a heating pipe around 3" diameter. They had a rather large electric freezing kit on for around 2 hrs and deemed it safe to work on.......


Wrong........ When they cut the pipe to re-route it, the ice plug must have held for all of about a minute.
Flooded 2 offices below the floor we were working on and cost the plumbing firm a small fortune to dry out and re-decorate the flooded offices.

 

[Freezer118]

I cant believe someone would attempt a 3" pipefreeze using an electric kit. All this does is damage our skills and knowledge. We use professional equipment e.g insulated jackets, cryogenic transfer hoses etc. We use liquid nitrogen to achieve a freeze isolation the boiling temperature of LN2 is -196C so quite cold.

I have never lost a freeze in 8 years (touch wood) I have been on site when a cast pipe split however we were able to prove that the pipe was flawed before we started to freeze and the temperature created the pipe to split so not really our fault as we recommended the client to NDT the pipe prior to us freezing advice they regretted to decline.