How do you thaw out a sewer line ?

Too cold out !!Sewer line froze between house and tank(100 ft) . Anyone have a solution to thaw out ?

If it is completely blocked, you have a tough challenge. Choices are dig it up or thaw in place.

Put straw bales over it for insulation and wait for it to thaw from ground heat. Hope you aren't in a hurry.

I think they run a steam line down it, or a water jet and grind it away..

Eat potato chips with Louisiana hot sauce. That oughta do it.

We used a steamer/jetter. Actually was a Hotsy Power wash, and had a Jetting nozzle for it...
If a short area is froze I would do some with a hand snake, and a garden hose, with water heater, but if you are doing from basement will need a way to get rid of excess water,,

twice in my lifetime had that happen, can be steamed clear quite easily, but then the ground is still froze and will be for a long time, at least here in N Minnesota, so you will still be vulnerable for frozen pipes. I always cover with straw and a insulation blanket every November, can not count on getting snow for insulation. Its a mess to be in, good luck

I've had that problem and thankfully, my line is only about twenty feet from my septic tank to my house. We hooked a hose up to the hot water heater and back flushed the line from the septic tank. If you choose to do this, make some room, cuz when it breaks loose, the s^^t's gonna fly. My line is only down about two or three feet. I put a snow fence across the yard in the fall to keep everyone and everything off the area. Just walking over the area will push the frost down enough to push the frost down enough to freeze. Only took me three years of digging up and flushing to figure that out, but haven't had a problem since. Good luck. One more think, my problem was at my summer home in Northern Michigan. I have one of those fancy furnaces that sucks water out of the air and puts it in the drain line a few drops at a time. When we weren't here, those few drops would freeze on there way to the tank, and by the time they got to the tank they were froze, and my line actually froze from the tank back towards the house. We solved that problem by putting a tank with a one gallon reservoir to collect the water in a heated area, and pump a full gallon of water when it filled up solving the problem. Good luck. If your line is going to a sewer and not a septic tank, you may be sol (poor choice of words), but perhaps your whoever maintains the sewers may have some ideas for you.

I have used a garden hose with a small 'jet' nozzle and hot water straight out of my water heater once and a wallpaper steamer without the 'head' a few times. When you here the gurgle coming from the pipe time to move as you can partially fill your vent and it can get some pressure built up just from elevation.(think robin Williams in RV) Both worked , yes, bales of straw can help prevention as well as concrete blankets. Is it in a house you live in full time?

As the other guys have said - steaming it out is probably the best temporary solution. I would guess the problem is caused by not having sufficient "fall" (grade/slope) on your pipe going to your septic tank. Do you know what size and material your existing line is - plastic or clay?

http://www.septicheater.com/

while we are talking sewers, can anyone explain why in march when it finally starts warming up and melting the frost takes a nose dive and goes deeper?

Maybe the added moisture from the melt allows for deeper frost penetration on the cold nites?

It has been my belief the ground only freezes so deep no matter what...the moisture content dictates that.
It just takes longer to thaw, and gives the perception that it was drove deeper in spring..takes awhile for sun to warm the deeper frost line.

Wondering ,will the SEPTIC HEATER thaw out a frozen line? Interesting heater ! I never knew they existed.Anybody else have good luck with them ?

You really want very little fall on the line into your tank, about 1" in ten feet.
The gas from the tank bacteria is usually warm and flows up through the vent and helps keep the pipe from freezing, if your vent freezes the gas will stop and the line can freeze.

we use the garden hose thru a cut in the line.

also we scrap what snow we can find over the line. usually 1' is more than enuf.

You really want very little fall on the line into your tank, about 1" in ten feet.


Things may be different in Montana ? --- You want at least enough slope to maintain a velocity of 2 feet per second in your pipes (that keeps the suspended solids "moving along"). On a 4" service line - that's equal to 1/4" per foot or 2 1/2" in 10 feet. (And, yes - I have designed a few sewer systems).


Standard engineering practice is that the minimum slope for a gravity sewer must maintain 2 ft/sec velocity when flowing half-full. 1/4" per foot (2.08% is a good rule of thumb

We do that at work. Find someone in the water restoration business with a truckmounted carpet cleaning machine and they will be able to thaw it out in a few hours. We run hot water through a solution hose with a "forward facing mouse" on it that rotates. You don't need a lot of psi, usually around 300-500. But the hotter the better. We have done at least 20 lines just this week. Figure a charge of around 125.00 per hour.

From what I understand, the reason pipes underground are freezing this year is because of the fact the ground was so dry this year. So when dryer ground freezes it gets colder and the freeze goes deeper. Insulating the top of the ground is just for your peace of mind and of no help to the pipes that are underground.
It makes sense to me. We usually have the same people calling us every year. This year is much worse. We usually get around 12-24 calls a year. This year it is in the 100"s.

Things may be different in Montana ? --- You want at least enough slope to maintain a velocity of 2 feet per second in your pipes (that keeps the suspended solids "moving along"). On a 4" service line - that's equal to 1/4" per foot or 2 1/2" in 10 feet. (And, yes - I have designed a few sewer systems).

I've only done two but that is what the specs called for. It runs downhill out here too, just not as fast I guess!!! I do know some people that think
theirs doesn't stink and will run uphill. LOL

Our ground up here in North central Minnesota had good amount of moisture in it, we always have cold winters,snow is the best insulator and we got one 15 inch dumping early thank goodness, twice since 1999 the frost has gone 10 feet deep where there was little snow for cover, had to lower a ice chisel to break the ice up which was at bottom of my tank up so the float on the pump would work. Also one of the times I froze up I had been in Florida for 2 weeks, no sewer use= possible trouble also. Think Spring

Yeah snow is a great insulator,..I remember that I had a thermometer with a 3 foot probe. It was about zero outside all night, and there was a snow drift just under 3 feet in my yard,.I pushed the probe until it hit the frozen ground and it read 30 degrees! The ground stores heat if able to be insulated,.( a few feet below ground would have been above freezing. )

Old grave diggers knew this and indeed used things like straw over the ground if it looked like a lingering death was inevitable for someone.

What I did to a line the was on the surface( a hose that I needed to be a drain line) but I had to keep from freezing is put a layer of the aluminium 2 faced bubble wrap insulation over the line ,you can get it at home depot, etc.... then a layer of straw about a foot thick over that,..and even in the below zero weather w/o snow that line never froze.

Will it help you now with the frozen line? Maybe,..I have no idea if it will thaw fast but most plumbers have a steam jenny that open frozen lines all the time,and this should keep it from refreezing. In the warmer weather its easy to take up,..(might work even better if you can drape a tarp or plastic over it,..dry insulation has more than 2x the value as wet,...

We do that at work. Find someone in the water restoration business with a truckmounted carpet cleaning machine and they will be able to thaw it out in a few hours. We run hot water through a solution hose with a "forward facing mouse" on it that rotates. You don't need a lot of psi, usually around 300-500. But the hotter the better. We have done at least 20 lines just this week. Figure a charge of around 125.00 per hour.
Hope he's not coming to clean my carpets after your sewer !!!

The insulation on top of the ground certainly does help, but it has to be on top before the ground freezes very deep. I used to install ground pole mount satellite dishes all year round. Snow was always a good thing. years with not much snow were a big pain. If you had a good foot or more of snow early, the frost never went very deep no matter how cold it got.

Hope he's not coming to clean my carpets after your sewer !!!

I would make sure to put a deodorizer in the water first so you would not smell the poo poo.

2 completely different solutions lines would be used.

If most peeps knew what use these units did before we went into homes they'd be shocked.

Anybody ever tried a product called " LIQUI-FIRE" ? Not liquid -fire, that's different--Did it work ?