To Fill Or Not To Fill

[Alearner]

Thanks in advance for anybody's input. I live in the Seacoast area of New Hampshire, and it looks like we finally have some consistently cold weather coming in, but having not done this before, I am concerned that I might be jumping the gun a bit.

My rink frame is built (35X36), liner bought, and think that I am ready to fill. Starting this Sunday the forecast looks as follows:

sun 32/19, mon 31/21, tues 31/19, wed33/33, thurs 44/28 (with rain), fri 35/23, sat 32/19

Does this look good enough to go ahead and try to fill and freeze? I appreciate any guidance as this is my first go at this.

Also, does anybody know of a water delivery service in my area?

Thanks so much all the forum contributors--your information and enthusiasm have been hugely helpful and contagious.

Adam

[Joe]

Hey Adam,

I also own a backyard rink company out of Bedford, NH. We just filled a rink in Hampton about four hours ago, in advance of what looks like a nice cold snap. I filled my own rink last week, but only because I had about 16 rinks to fill and wanted to get it out of the way.

I have a water guy in Londonderry (Fortin), and another in MA (Lawrence Tank), but I think the closest to you is going to be Buxton in Epping. I've never used them, but most of their prices are similar.

Good luck!

[Alearner]

Thanks Joe, I appreciate your input. I have Buxton scheduled to deliver later today.

I am posting another question as a second topic, and would love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers,

Adam

[zondu]

We utilized the potential of roof run-off to fill a large rink for free instead of using well water, or worse yet, buying water! We had a rink that was 50' x 65' (3,250 ft2) by 6" deep (approximate volume of 12,155 gallons), and we filled it quickly for free by simply using our roof run-off.

We did this by connecting some of our roof's downspouts to pvc pipes (using elbows at the bottom to connect to horizontal pvc pipes lying on or partly buried in the ground) which connect into each other at the corner of the house. We then built what we called the "Alaskan pipeline" of several pvcs pipes (using bricks and scrap wood to support them) across the yard to the closest edge of the ice rink. We used a level to make it to slope just slightly downhill across the entire length (to prevent freezing blocakges) because the level of the lowest downspout and the level of the rink were about a 1 inch difference.

Our house is a modestly sized rancher, and when we did the math, we realized that we could get thousands of gallons off the roof in a very short amount of time. With just one day of steady, moderate rain, the rink was completely filled and ready for freezing. We disconnected and reconnected the last section of pipe on the pipeline to control topping up or resurfacing if we needed to adjust things.

We used old pvc pipes that we had lying around (many were cracked or had holes, so we put the cracks and holes to the top so that the bottom few inches were solid to allow water to flow without leaking). If one doesn't have pvc pices, it's a good investment to buy them and avoid paying a few hundred dollars each year to fill up an ice rink. They quickly pay for themselves.

In the summer, we use the downspouts to collect and store roof run-off in large barrels to water the garden.

[kevmac]

That's awesome. I have thought about doing this many times, especially since the rink is 10' from the house. Maybe this fall I'll finally figure out how to get the water to run 'uphill' or bore a hole in the boards to house the PVC pipe.

Kevin

[zondu]

If the bottom of the downspout is just above the top of the ice, but below the top of the boards and you don't want to bore a large hole for the pvc pipeline, you could bore a smaller hole have a few short pieces of pvc in the last 1-2' of pipeline which "step down" in size, or connect a short piece of standard garden hose to the end of the pipeline using a funnel (or something similar). You could consider also shortening the downspout or adding a connector/valve to redirect the water from the downspout to the pvc pipeline when needed. We raised the bottom of one of our downspouts to get the levels right, but we only had to shorten it about 8-12" to make it slightly higher than the rink, so it was an easy fix. Of course, if the rink is too uphill, one could always have the pipeline end at a kiddie pool or large bin next to the rink and use a fountain/aquarium pump to get the water up and over the boards (keeping the electrical stuff protected from the rain, of course).

In our experience, once the pipeline system is in place, it's easy to just reconnect it each year. The hard part was the first time we tried it and had to figure everything out and not know how well or even if it was going work. ;)

[kevmac]

I have 4' boards so unless I chop the downspout; something else would have to give. :-)