As long as it's a temporary thing, I don't see it doing damage. But I doubt it's going to do much good either, unless the frozen part is right there in the sump. If it's frozen 6 feet away, how's the CC going to get there? If it gets there, then some water must be flowing and once water is flowing it will clear itself. If any water is flowing, hot water would work faster and better.
At 200' you will be lucky to get 1 to work and even then it will need to have a pretty good pitch to it.
I don't see why it's such a problem. Sure, it needs proper pitch, but sewer pipes for example are 4" and support not only clear water but solids too. Also it's not about the number of downspouts, it's the roof footprint that they cover. There are probably some online resources that tell you how much water a given roof will generate during a heavy downpour. It's not the roof plane area, it's the flat area of ground that the roof covers. If in doubt, given all the work involved, I'd consider running a 6" line. Probably be a good idea to have a clean out come to the surface every 50 ft or so too.
The 200' is the problem. Look at the friction loss (head) in 200' of pipe. When it comes off the roof it will have plenty of velocity but that will go away pretty fast in a near horizontal run.
How do typical sewers work then, running down the street? They go a lot further than 200 ft.
They are a whole lot bigger than 4" and in most places there are lift pumps unless you are talking about a city on a hill. Water still moves pretty slow in a sewer or a storm drain.
Hey if he wants to try it, go for it but I doubt he will ever serve more than one downspout and even then, in a heavy rain, water will back up in that 4" pipe unless he has a whole lot of slope on the line. (1/2" per foot or more). This is just based on what my neighbor found running about 40' of 4". It could also be it rains harder here I suppose.
I have 6 downspouts going into a 4 inch pvc pipe,the total length at furthest point is about 225 feet..just finished it a couple days ago..will see how it works..I hope I don’t have to dig it all back up.
I dont' think it matters how many downspouts you have. What matters is what roof area they drain.
How many square ft of roof are draining into that 4 inch pipe? How much drop to "daylight"? 1000 squre feet would overflow that pipe in a good rainstorm here.
And the question we never asked you. What is the pitch of that 4" pipe?
I was going to post about that in another thread. It was wicked hot here for a while but I finally found the far end of the 4" corrugated pipe. I cleared some medium sized rocks from it and some dirt that was making a lake where it emptied and I think I'm in good shape now.
Although I'll check again when the water table is higher and the sump pump puts out more.
Also, the pipe went under the "easement" the path outside my fence, beside or behind all the houses, and the foot traffic, mostly me and one other guy, and only occasionally when he moved the lawn mower from his back yard to his front yard and back, wore away the dirt over about 4"W x 8"L of pipe and then further stepping on it made 4 small holes. When it was clggoed at the end, there were 4 thin streams spurting out, one 2 or 3 feet long.
I don't think that will be as much of a problem, but just today I used some Flexseal (?? The one where he tapes the boat back together) and then buried it with an inch of dirt. We'll see if the path continues to be wet after the sump pump runs. (If it is, it's not so terrible. The new dirt is more important because no more footsteps right on the pipe.)
I'm going to find a flat rock to make a roof over where the pipe ends, but it lasted 42 years the first time, even without that. .
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