Great site and hope to get on the ice soon! We haven't touched the ice with blades yet this season.

I've built a rink almost every year since 2001 and every year I've added a few things. This last year I leveled the yard and increased the size (68' x 40') as my 7yo is now looking to do more than just skate in a circle and wants to shoot the puck and stick handle like his favorite player - Seguin.

I have already noticed some challenges with the increased size - it is taking longer to freeze and hold a safety strength. Some other smaller local BY rinks have had a couple afternoons of skating already. Some issues that may be contributing to this:
- it is out in the open and sees a fair amount of direct sunlight
- I use river water to fill it (MWRA water rates are killer and prohibitively expensive) which gives it the color of a used toilet bowl. The discoloration in the water may make it more difficult to freeze, possibly because the darker color is warmed by the sun??
- it is deeper this year and this may have been a mistake. In the past the depth ranged from <4" to 12"+. After leveling the lot this fall the differential is no greater than a couple inches. I probably could have had a fairly consistent height at around 6" but instead I filled it to around 12". I'm afraid a heavy snowfall may sink the ice mass and water will come up from underneath and make snow blowing impossible.
- of course this weather isn't helping. There is nothing that would help more than single digits overnight for a stretch.

See picture below of 2011/2012 version waiting for the temp to drop.

Anyway, enough of the details, I will be sure to post on different topics as I learn or need some input.
Hope everyone's season is a good one.

Mike

That is a nice looking rink! I wish mine looked that nice! I had the heavy snow today (NH) sink a corner of my rink just like you mentioned...hopefully it freezes over this weekend when the high temp for the whole weekend is in the low 20s! and the lows are single digits to 0!! YAY ICE!

I agree - that is a nice looking rink!

The colour (I'll add the u since I'm Canadian) of the water shouldn't matter - mine was pretty brown at the beginning from the leftover dirt on my tarp but the majority of it settled and it's solid ice now. I think the mistake made was the amount of water put in. 12" is going to take a long time to freeze. Any chance you might siphon some of it out to give it a better chance of freezing?

kevmac - thanks for the input. I tend to agree the depth is going to an issue to get it to freeze.

It would be easy enough to drop a pump in and lower the water level but I constructed in a way that if the level drops just a couple inches it will be below the kickplates that protect the liner. My last liner lasted 5 years and hope to get at least that much out of this one.

I've already changed the design for next year for a 6" level but I think I may just live with what I have for this year. Crossing fingers that we'll be able to use it on Monday after the cold temps arriving tonight. If it doesn't freeze enough, maybe i'll lower the level then.

Mike,

Understand the dilemma of the kickplates - nothing like having the shovel rip through your tarp. Possible addendum to my original suggestion... could you pump some of the water out of the rink to a more manageable freezing level and then once your base is frozen slowly add more water to the top in order to build back up to your kickplates?

Would rather see you skating on the ice instead of spending the whole winter waiting for it to freeze. :-)