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

It may be too cold to remedy it for now. Try to flood when it's in the 20's and see if that helps.

Joe - I'm confused with all of this, b/c I was hot water rink raking in January with awesome results. It was almost too easy. It was pretty cold in January here on Long Island too.

Am I using TOO much hot water? Should I try using the rake with cold water or cold water flooding it? The results last night with the hot water flood were better, but I still had some flaking. I broke it up while it was starting to flake and dumped a bucket of hot water in the area - that definitely helped.

The more water you use the more likely you are to get shell ice.

Definitely too much water. Walk faster with the rink rake and don't doddle in one area too long. My rink is 32'x75'; it takes me 8 passes and about 10-15 minutes to resurface the rink. In and out as fast as possible, lay down just enough water to cover the old ice.

Guys, I don't have a rink rake yet, so just resurface with open end of hose. I figure I'm using about. 50% of the flow rate. Too much?? Should I go less. My results have been pretty good, but hearing less is more makes me wonder...

I've also hot water washed with a mop bucket of hot water using a window washing head...kinda acts like the homeboni.

Thoughts?

I don't use a towel either.