Belly Releaser

[MilesTeg]

I have one of the white upright belly releaser like the ones leader sells. We bought it second hand for a hell of a deal. We use this to pump from our pump house to our sugar shack which is 500 ft away and about 70 ft up hill. My question is the line that pumps it up the hill keeps freezing on us. We've been draining it for deep freezes but then we have to haul the 10 gal up the hill on a sled which is no fun in 2' deep snow. Now that the big runs are about to hit our area I'd like to run our system trough the night with now worries about the pump line freezing. Any input or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[maplecrest]

well one is bury the pump line, or add a second line so if one froze the other is empty.so as the empty one is used hopfully the frozen line will thaw out. for the spare.

[venus_amos]

Ask to Leader, I think they sell Airablo system. I know that Airablo has already made a system with an air compressor running after water pump stop. It is used to drain the line to the sugar house like you wish.

[MilesTeg]

Ok thanks for the input well have to look at that for next year I was hoping a cheap and easy solution.

[bobbyjake]

the only reasonable way that comes to mind that will keep it thawed is to bury it.

You could double line it inside another pipe with insulation which might keep it from freezing as long as the belly pump actually kicked on every so often and moved it around, but inevitably you'd have some night(s) where it would get colder than you thought it would and it would still freeze and it might take a while to thaw once it was insulated.

There are some other things that come to mind, but the length you are talking about would make them cost prohibited, that really good insulated double pipe insulated systems people use for outside boilers (big $$$$/foot) or heat tape for example.

Why are you carrying the 10 gallons out at night (unless you really want to)? Can't you just run a short piece of line off the belly releaser with a valve and just leave the 10 gallons in the belly releaser room over night? Next day when you start the system, turn the valve on and suck it back into the releaser and up the line. Save your back on lugging the pails up every night.