Outside pipe insulation

[novocaine]

someone already gave you the best of the best idea.

heat tracing. an electrical heating element wrapped round the pipe. then insulate that.

but that's the ultimate approach. just flow it routinely with insulation, you aren't on a water meter are you? so run it for 4 minutes every 4 hours to put hot water through the pipe and warm the insulation back up. you'll only need to do it when it's sub zero and lets be honest here, thats every few years.

we hold fire water mains at 7bar with a jockey pump, to stop them freezing they are buried if possible or insulated and traced above ground (only traced if the location requires it) then flow it every few hours. one of our sites has a constant feed, there is a hose off the above ground bit that runs back to the firewater pond. we saw 10" of snow last week at that site, firewater system stayed live.

 

[novocaine]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/190991431011?c ... 0222146461

cheaper than I thought. that then insulate.

 

[Duncan A]

Another option, depending on your garage construction, is to use your boiler to heat the pipe. As the boiler cycles in cold weather to safeguard against freezing, it will warm up the air adjacent to it, which could be bled out to a drainpipe or wooden box placed around the water pipe. Insulate the outside of the pipe or box and it should stay nice and toasty within.
Duncan

 

[TFrench]

I'm a lagger, so this is my area of expertise (as much as it can be called expertise!) We've had several burst pipes to deal with in the last week. - funny how so many engineers forget it gets cold in the winter... How much room do have between the pipe and wall of the house? That's normally the killer for getting a decent thickness of insulation on. Armaflex tubing is similar to the grey climaflex stuff but it actually works. As everyone else has said though, unless its got flow its going to freeze eventually. We fit thermon BSX-3 trace heating for frost protection - normally about a tenner a metre. In your case I'd be tempted to stick a trace on and just have it on a 3-pin plug and turn it on when its going to get cold. Not worth putting a stat on it for that amount of pipe. I could make one up and post to you - PM me if you're interested.

 

[transatlantic]

I'm a lagger, so this is my area of expertise (as much as it can be called expertise!) We've had several burst pipes to deal with in the last week. - funny how so many engineers forget it gets cold in the winter... How much room do have between the pipe and wall of the house? That's normally the killer for getting a decent thickness of insulation on. Armaflex tubing is similar to the grey climaflex stuff but it actually works. As everyone else has said though, unless its got flow its going to freeze eventually. We fit thermon BSX-3 trace heating for frost protection - normally about a tenner a metre. In your case I'd be tempted to stick a trace on and just have it on a 3-pin plug and turn it on when its going to get cold. Not worth putting a stat on it for that amount of pipe. I could make one up and post to you - PM me if you're interested.

I'm going to pull everything out and have a good look tonight, but I looks like I can get about a 25mm thickness insulation in there.

If I go the tracer route, something like this, would I still need the Armaflex? or can I then go with the standard grey insulation?

 

[TFrench]

It'll be fine with the grey stuff if its got a trace on it I'd have thought. Just make sure you tape the insulation on properly - most of the climaflex stuff I see is half hanging off and not doing a lot...

 

[powertools]

This is a simple problem with a simple solution that I suggested many posts ago.
It matters not how much insulation you have got of any quality in your situation unless you introduce some low level heat under it given the wrong set of circumstances that can happen anytime between November and March your pipes could freeze.

 

[jimmy_s]

Black class o armaflex is probably your best bet - as thick as you can find - at least the stuff can be glued/ taped together (with armaflex tape) and its waterproof. If your boiler is in the garage then think about fitting a pipe frost stat to enable the boiler to keep the water temp above freezing in winter.