Re: Use of ice to plug a pipe

>Has anybody used a similar method for temporarily plugging a pipe?
Lots of people have in Minnesota. Regrettably the side effects involve broken pipes or fittings, because water expands when it freezes. The pipe usually unplugs itself at some point when it splits. I once inspected a small house which was temporarily unoccupied when the furnace failed. The water and hot water heating pipes had frozen the pipes and fittings had split at many points in the system. Even the toilet tank had cracked, as did cast radiators and pipe runs, without any pattern that was immediately obvious.

I heard a story in grade school that some early American inventor once had a supply of surplus cannon balls that he wanted to sell, but couldn't because there was no way to guarantee that all the powder inside was gone. The guy simply filled them with water one winter night and spiked the fuse hole. Mother nature did the rest--the next morning every one had split neatly.

The upshot is that freezing the pipe generates tremendous internal pressure. If the plug is truly solid, you'll probably rupture the pipe.

Christopher Wright P.E.    |"They couldn't hit an elephant at
chrisw@skypoint.com        | this distance"   (last words of Gen.
___________________________| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania 1864)