Storing pure in winter?

[paul1]

HI guys

how does things work when bad winter and freezing conditions hit will water freeze in the water butt I use 210ltr? anyway to stop this or any tips advice? read something about placing a tennis ball in ? whats that all about lol ?

how do you all carry on in winter and whats the process etc etc

thanks all

 

[Andy]

is that tank on your van. i have a 1000 lt tank in my garage its never frozen for the van a lot of people have a heater in back of the van at night. iv never botherd but i do have my di and pump on hose lock conections and take them out of van if the weather is due to freeze.

 

[paul1]

no I currently use pure freedom trolley, just have a water butt in outhouse at the moment, thanks

 

[spruce]

Most importantly you will need to protect your r/o from frost.

I have mine in a purpose made cabinet in the garage with a tube heater and thermostat. The thermostat is set to switch the tube heater on at 10 degrees C.

We have never had an issue with the water freezing in our IBC tank, but we have had the water in our transfer hose freeze solid. It was too cold to work anyway and the transfer eventually thawed out without intervention.

We do not use a sub pump but use an inline water pump which was stored in another cabinet with a 40 watt light bulb left on for heat. I later drained the pump down and should have emptied the transfer hose at the same time but didn't.

I have a heater in the van controlled with a frost thermostat. The other van isn't heated. In the winter we drain the tank down to below the baffles and then unscrew and remove the pump filter so the pump sucks air. We have found that the few drops of water in the pump won't damage the pump if they freeze.

We have had the water in the bottom of the tank in the van freeze solid, but it didn't matter as we were using mine that was heated. We only experienced that once in 10 years, but then we live on the NE coast so don't get the degrees of cold experienced inland.

If you worried about your water butt freezing, then a fish tank heater might be enough to stop the water getting that cold. You could also cover it with an old duvet to reduce heat loss.