any plumbers here?

[ADAM]

how would you keep a toilet from freezing over in the winter in a building that has its heat shut off when people are not there?

i know you can use heat trace wires for the pipes and insulation...but what about the toilet?

also what about the pipes coming from the well?

any ideas?

[ctheo]

I installed faucets with a spring loaded resevoir that will accept the expansion of the ice.

That's the back-up protection in case I don't drain the pipes before the first freeze. The valves inside the house have a small opening that you can blow compressed air into to clear the majority of the water.

They're avalible at Plumbing Mart and other places you expect to find plumbers pants. (Except for the Solo 1 paddock, there's a lot of plumbers pants going on there and not a broken toilet in sight)

[andrew1984]

well, the easy way is this..

flush out all the water, and replace it with a special "enviromentally friendly" anti-freeze available at home depot or canadian tire.

[J.C.]

I would think you have an aircompressor in your shop. I do not know what cfm you have but hopefully its enough. Force the majority of the water out with forced air after the system is shut down. For the remained of the water inthe toilets there is a product sold at home depot for just such a thing (I forget what its called) and its enviromentally friendly. How deep is the piping coming from the well?

[ADAM]

yeah BUT...i want to be able to use the water system when people come to use the shop..thats the problem..

its easy to blow the lines out...

[J.C.]

Sorry to say you will need some sort of heating. The exposed plumbing should be atleast 4 feet deep to avoid frost. See if there is anyway to have all plumbing fixtures located in one room so heating can be added to that room.

[DirtyLude]

One word.

Outhouse.

[northern911]

There's a product called "retro-line" which gets pushed through the plumbing to the well, and keeps the temp up in the line. Pretty simple stuff. Only comes on when it detects the temp falling. Check with any plumber..... As for the toilet, it's insulated, but I've used antifreeze for RV toilets..... And just plugging in a lightbulb and putting it close to whatever you wanna keep heated does quite a bit.... Good luck.