Pipe freeze machine - new toy!

[bear]

Froze a pipe today with the throw away kit from rothenberger. Burst the 15mm copper pipe! Never seen or done that before!!

 

[WC1]

Did you somehow inadvertently get 2 plugs forming and blew it that way especially with the jacket thing on the offset
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Or were you too close to a valve - see the comp nut still on there...

 

[bear]

No idea. How do you know if you get 2 plugs? Where it blew was the bottom of the freeze. The nut was on a tee and the rest of the pipe went up to a tap.

 

[Stigster]

I've frozen countless pipes, lost count, and I've never had that happen!

All I can think is it must have frozen in two places leaving a water pocket between to do that. The offset bend in the pipe might (must?) have something to do with it.

One thing is known for sure, there is no common container that can withstand the expansion pressure of frozen water. It is a crazy powerful force. Normally there's enough give in the system you are freezing to allow the expansion but there must have been a pocket of liquid water between two expanding plugs of ice, the water being incompressible acted like a piston and had nowhere else to go but through the pipe wall.

 

[bear]

I just think it’s old pipe and the fact it’s on a bend (not by a pipe bender) the pipe wall was weak and the ice was just enough to blow a hole in the side.

 

[WC1]

It's got to have something to push against to blow the pipe.

 

[bear]

What do you mean? I don’t understand.

 

[WC1]

As I understand it, water expands when it freezes and water is essentially not compressible. When a plug of ice forms in a pipe the lengths of pipe either side of the ice plug are expanded slightly to take up the pressure increase. If there is not enough length of pipe then there isn't enough "stretch" to accommodate the expansion and the pipe bursts.
If 2 ice plugs form near each other then as they grow toward each other there's not enough length of pipe to accommodate the expansion and the pipe bursts. Or if an ice plug forms near a closed valve or stop end again the pipe bursts as the plug grows toward the obstruction.
I only realised fairly recently that for frost to blow a pipe I think the water has to freeze at 2 points near each other or at a single point near a valve.
That's my take on it anyway...

 

[bear]

Ah I see. Highly doubt it was the case here as the burst in the picture is near where the jacket ended. It would be impossible for me to have two ice plugs forming either side of the burst.

 

[WC1]

Oh well, probably just one of those things that we'll never know...