Frozen bulk tanks

[steve J]

After all this sever cold I have two bulk tanks that are frozen solid with sap both about 1/2 full. I am glad I pulled my pumps out as they be frozen in otherwise. But the drains at the bottom are frozen solid also. Any ideas how to thaw these drains out?

[BSD]

After all this sever cold I have two bulk tanks that are frozen solid with sap both about 1/2 full. I am glad I pulled my pumps out as they be frozen in otherwise. But the drains at the bottom are frozen solid also. Any ideas how to thaw these drains out? heat gun. not a blow-torch. or run hot water on them

[Sunday Rock Maple]

I had this happen several years ago and we drilled down through about 2 feet of ice using a steam of water from a hose to clear the drain. The ice stayed in the tank for about 2 weeks after that though.

[maple flats]

I just thawed my permeate tank today to get flow and I thawed two bulk tank lines to get the sap to the R.O. Those 2 lines have a heat tape on them, I plugged it in and about 30 minutes later I had flow. My heat tape is 7 watts/foot, about double what the big box stores sell. The lines are in 3/4" wall pipe insulation and at the point where the drain comes out of the tank I wrapped the heat tape around the pipe, tight to the tank. I then had flow, but there was about 2" of ice in the tank, that will just cool the next sap going in because the releaser feeds those tanks thru the same point. I could remove the ice, but I'd rather have the refrigeration, the RO will get rid of the extra water once the ice thaws.
While it got up to 36F today, the only sap flow I had was from 2 lines in 3/16 with 49 taps between them that were added yesterday and last Wednesday.

[EBG18T]

Like maple flats I have heat tape on my lines between the head tank & evaporator. I will be putting a heat element in the bottom of my head tank fir next season. Just in case this happens again.


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