Hi Guys - Rink Rookie here. My first freeze turned out great. No problems at all. This isn't so hard is it? Well, yeah, it's been getting interesting the last couple of weeks. We had a really odd snowstorm with VERY heavy wet snow which I thought ruined the rink (or I did, whichever) and then it was saved by a freezing rain storm two days later. To make a long story short, since the freezing rain storm, I've been having more and more of a problem with shell ice. I can't seem to kick it. It pops up everywhere - I'll use my rink rake, go inside to clean up, come back out and shell ice starts forming.
I follow all of the directions you guys have provided and yet I still get shell ice. I just broke up all of it, swept it away and then hot water flooded the entire rink. Sure enough, where I didn't have shell ice before, I now have shell ice. It's about 15 degrees here and I'm flooding with hot water. Should I be flooding with cold? Why does this keep happening and how do I prevent it from continuing to happen. I am watching the ice shell right in front of my eyes and it's driving me nuts. It's making the rink almost unskateable. I even tried some bucket dumps this afternoon, but that only worked in a few spots. This is becoming a full time job!
Any and all help/ideas would be great. Thanks!
-Matt