Winterizing - Extreme cold winters
So, I am ready to winterize my trailer's water system. I have a nice full brass fitting, an air compressor that can be adjusted for 30psi, and an air line. Now, I know some of you know how to do th...
Forum Discussion
Flapper wrote:
BTW - most bursting of pipes is due to air trapped between areas freezing water (or water and closed valves), not the ice itself. As the ice expands, the trapped air rises in pressure, to the point where the pipe or fittings give way.
I'm no expert, but wouldn't it be more likely to be trapped liquid water than trapped air? The change in volume required to compress air to a pressure that would burst the pipe would have to be quite large; it would have to be squeezed into something like an eighth of the volume to increase the pressure from atmospheric pressure (ca. 14 psi) to 100 psi over atmospheric pressure and so apply a 100 psi force to the plumbing. (This is a pretty straightforward application of the ideal gas law.)
Liquid water, on the other hand, is essentially incompressible.
