Interested in keeping ice off your pond???

[steve/gridnot]

I don't get many Winters where I worry about ice depth, but along time ago (sounds like Star Wars), I lost a pond due to ice. Now I use methods that are simple and some not so simple(I have a Bosch Distributorship,LOL) It just depends on application.

I keep up on the latest applications, and thought I would see if there is any interest? opinions? Do it yourself people?

I have one heater I made with $5 worth of black tubing and a coiler. It is 30 years old and still does its job.

 

[Dave 54]

I don't get many Winters where I worry about ice depth, but along time ago (sounds like Star Wars), I lost a pond due to ice. Now I use methods that are simple and some not so simple(I have a Bosch Distributorship,LOL) It just depends on application.

I keep up on the latest applications, and thought I would see if there is any interest? opinions? Do it yourself people?

I have one heater I made with $5 worth of black tubing and a coiler. It is 30 years old and still does its job.

Interesting way of doing things Steve, we went for insulation around the pond 22mm polystyrene silver sided bubble wrap and re-cycled plastiicloft insulation around the pond, all the pipes are lagged and the filter housing is insulated with 22mm polystyrene , the housing is topped with Policarbonate roofing sheets of a quad thickness and the pond iself is covered by double thickness pplicarbonate roofing sheets .
The temperature of our pond even at -15c didn't get bellow 7.5c minimum 9c maximum last winter with all the koi being happy and snug the entire winter months

Dave

 

[addy1]

I don't get many Winters where I worry about ice depth, but along time ago (sounds like Star Wars), I lost a pond due to ice. Now I use methods that are simple and some not so simple(I have a Bosch Distributorship,LOL) It just depends on application.

I keep up on the latest applications, and thought I would see if there is any interest? opinions? Do it yourself people?

I have one heater I made with $5 worth of black tubing and a coiler. It is 30 years old and still does its job.

Why don't you make a how to do it post in the DIY section? Winter is coming and there is always a bunch of how do we do this ??'s this time of year.

I like bosch stuff btw.

 

[steve/gridnot]

Hi Dave,
My engineer would probably say,If you have a fly swatter use it instead of using a howitzer.
I did an outdoor experiment about 4 years ago using a 4000 gallon pond with a geothermal teabag heat exchanger attached to a water based geothermal heater/air conditioner. In the winter I had a bank of glass faced collectors to control the heat loss when I ran it in heating mode. For fun I raised a bunch of tropical fish all winter.
It was pretty strange to see the steam coming up in the cold mornings. It looked like a volcano.

 

[steve/gridnot]

Thanks for the point ADDY1,
Bosch always makes a top shelf product; I use a lot of their products but most people don't like the price and force me to use other choices for a solution.

 

[Dave 54]

Can you show us how to make one of these please Steve my other secret weapon if we get a prolonged cold spell is hidden in the filter housing , its quite simply an oil heated radiator tucked away in the top corner of the housing , weve used it once so far .
It heats up the air in the housing which because oof the insulation and policarbonate roofing sheets cannot get out the oil heats up the radiator switches off and cools to the setting we have it on , then switches on again etc .
The rad is 800 watt well bellow the inline heaters 1kw thus we save money

Dave

 

[steve/gridnot]

Here you are Dave. Front and back; about 1 meter tall and weighs less than 10 kilos.
Use spacers for whatever volume of water you want to flow. In this case I used medium wall 3/4 inch poly pipe. Press the roll of poly from the outside to the center. Put the unit on a black board or a mirror. Be careful not to signal helicopters Put a tee on your line with a brass valve to control flow or a temp control solenoid.

Sometimes I use a heated eco antifreeze tube to wrap pipes using this solar coil with a variable speed chemical pump.