How to keep water from freezing

[knic27]

I have purchased some large tubs to store water. However, it occurs to me that if I keep them in my garage, the water will freeze, expand, and probably break the containers. Moreover, even if I were to keep them inside, in the event that the power was off for an extended period and I lost heating, they'd freeze too. So, what to do?

I'm surprised in all the prepper stuff I've been reading, this isn't touched on.

 

[jontte]

try to insulate them with styrofoam,should work pretty nice.

 

[Maverick]

It's been touch on here some time ago. I use wool to cover the water, hay to cover the wool and heavy tarp over it all for the most part, keeping the water off the ground (no direct contact) We have had 2 months below freezing I never had my water freeze. I'm experimenting with 2" Styrofoam (it's what I use in my well houses) keeping as little air between the water and the insulation, covering all sides then I cover it all with a heavy insulated tarp.

 

[Danil54grl]

We also wrap our 2 in pipes with foam covering. For the pump house its the foam insulation and then cover with a wool blanket, but we hardly ever have freezing temps for very long.

 

[Arcticdude]

Keeping water from freezing has always been a problem in the places where I've lived. In Alaska my water lines were buried 13 feet deep. Most of the time that was deep enough, but one particularly cold winter with little snow cover, my water lines still froze. Where I live now 5 feet is deep enough. For my pump house; it's very well insulated in the walls and ceiling, the pipes and pressure tank are wrapped in fiberglass insulation. I also have a 6,000 BTU propane wall heater installed. Until the outside temp drops to about 10 degs or lower, the pilot light is enough to keep the pump house above freezing. Next year I'm going to experiment with a windmill connected to an air pump that will circulate water in the bottom of our pond. My therory is that the circulating water will keep an area clear of ice for watering the livestock.

 

[TexasFreedom]

AD, Your windmill-water pump idea will do the opposite. The problem is that you will be pumping cold air down into the water. Let's say 0 deg F air. If the water is at 50F, it'll lose heat to the air.

Yes, it will stir the water. And that will result in the whole tank freezing faster. It's the same as putting a fan to blow air on the top of the water.

The best cold-weather water system I've seen is a pipe buried deep. As it comes up, put lots of larger rocks. At the top, livestock pushes to open the valve that is at the bottom. Water comes up & overflows into a small water container where they drink. When they stop pushing, the water line coming up has a drain at the very bottom. The container on top & the whole pipe drains down into the rocks. Below the frost line, so it just absorbs into the lower ground. Yes it wastes water but that's far cheaper than heating water. I can't remember what it is called, but the one I saw was for horses.

Good luck.

 

[Silent Earth]

I have purchased some large tubs to store water. However, it occurs to me that if I keep them in my garage, the water will freeze, expand, and probably break the containers. Moreover, even if I were to keep them inside, in the event that the power was off for an extended period and I lost heating, they'd freeze too. So, what to do?

I'm surprised in all the prepper stuff I've been reading, this isn't touched on.

Only fill them 3/4 full in winter ???????????????? that gives the ice room to expand.

 

[TexasFreedom]

Ah, I didn't read the full thread above.

OK, this can be easier. Now does your garage stay frozen throughout winter? You can do this a few ways.

1. House. Just store the water. If you lost power, it would take weeks for your house to get cold enough to freeze the water. You'll be using the water as quickly as it would freeze.
2. Garage. If it stays frozen, then put 2" of water in the container, let it freeze. Add 2" more, let it freeze. Keep doing until the container is full. That will prevent the container from cracking. Jsut don't let it melt and re-freeze. BTW, what size containers are you talking about? 20 gallon? 200 gallon? It matters.
3. Garage. If it will freeze/melt, the size matters. It can take so many days to freeze that you'll be ok. Break any surface ice once a day to relieve pressure.

 

[Brent S]

Only fill them 3/4 full in winter ???????????????? that gives the ice room to expand.

I was just about to say that! When freezing pre cooked foods like chili and stuff I use glass jars with an inch or room left for expansion. I haven’t broken a jar yet.

 

[DrPrepper]

Only fill them 3/4 full in winter ???????????????? that gives the ice room to expand.

I don't know about large quantity water, but I refill gallon jugs about 2/3 and put them in my deep freezer. They work out fine.

 

[Silent Earth]

I don't know about large quantity water, but I refill gallon jugs about 2/3 and put them in my deep freezer. They work out fine.

My largest concrete above ground pond at my last house held 4000 gallons, even in the coldest winter the ice only increased the size by about 1o %
Found this
Why does water expand when it freezes?
Why does liquid water have a density maximum?
Most liquids have a quite simple behavior when they are cooled (at a fixed pressure): they shrink. The liquid contracts as it is cooled; because the molecules are moving slower they are less able to overcome the attractive intermolecular forces drawing them closer to each other. Then the freezing temperature is reached, and the substance solidifies, which causes it to contract some more because crystalline solids are usually tightly packed.

Water is one of the few exceptions to this behavior. When liquid water is cooled, it contracts like one would expect until a temperature of approximately 4 degrees Celsius is reached. After that, it expands slightly until it reaches the freezing point, and then when it freezes it expands by approximately 9%.

This unusual behavior has its origin in the structure of the water molecule. There is a strong tendency to form a network of hydrogen bonds, where each hydrogen atom is in a line between two oxygen atoms. This hydrogen bonding tendency gets stronger as the temperature gets lower (because there is less thermal energy to shake the hydrogen bonds out of position). The ice structure is completely hydrogen bonded, and these bonds force the crystalline structure to be very "open", as shown in the following picture:

The pictures on this page are provided courtesy of the MathMol project at the NYU/ACF Scientific Visualization Laboratory.
Information about MathMol can be found here.

In the following two pictures, the first shows a typical structure of liquid water, while the second is an ice structure; note the extra open space in the ice.

It is this open solid structure that causes ice to be less dense than liquid water. That is why ice floats on water, for which we should all be thankful because if water behaved "normally" many bodies of water would freeze solid in the winter, killing all the life within them.

Water's "density maximum" is a product of the same phenomenon. Close to the freezing point, the water molecules start to arrange locally into ice-like structures. This creates some "openness" in the liquid water, which tends to decrease its density. This is opposed by the normal tendency for cooling to increase the density; it is at approximately 4 degrees Celsius that these opposing tendencies are balanced, producing the density maximum.

Updated December 3, 2013

 

[grayghost668]

if you are really concerned and you have a basement,put them in the basementif the house is heated the basement will be above freezing

 

[Gazrok]

Leave some space for expansion, is the easiest solution.