We have an outside toilet, outside in so far it is an un heated environment. Supply has been turned off and cistern emptied by last flush. There is still an inch or two of water on the bottom of the cistern, Should I be concerned about thus ? In a previous cold snap the water in the full cistern froze and cracked the cistern. I would like to avoid a repeat. ISTR a recommendation to place a rubber ball in the water the theory being that the water epansion would be taken care of with the ball being crushed. Is this just an old wives tale or would it be effective?
The store has two kinds of antifreeze - automotive antifreeze and cottage antifreeze.
The cottage antifreeze can be plastic-safe or plastic/metal safe.
Read the back panel of the jug for details.
This is better shopped for the first time, by visiting the store and reading the backs of the jugs. As the info copy/pasted on the website is frequently wrong. What is on the label should be correct.
Plastic or plastic/metal ? Flammable ? Septic-safe ?
The people who own summer cottages here, prep them for freezing winter, the same every year. And that includes buying jugs of pink or purple fluid for various purposes. You would lift the lid on the toilet, and find a coloured fluid in place of normal water.
And the valves in the household (the main valve), must be drip free. Or water will attempt to dilute the fix you have put in place. Depending on the source (switch off lekky to well pump), this may be easy to do.
Using the product details, you may be able to get an MSDS to assess what the stuff is. Flammable is ethanol or a percentage of ethanol. Ethanol does not normally appear in automotive antifreeze.
In a properly run summer cottage, there is a checklist the owner prints out and pins to the wall. And that has all the steps in it, necessary to winterize. If the owner is not present, the list serves as tutorage on what to do. For example, the pump in the laundry room, that pumps back up to septic level, needs some antifreeze too. Alternately, you could just take the fittings apart to keep the various bits dry.
Well, I cannot see 1 or 2 inches being a problem. When using rubber balls, you would need to be sure that it too, does not end up brittle in the cold though, some very much are. Brian
Thanks or all the suggestuins. Salt sounds like an idea as does the cottage antifreeze. It was a very severe frost (-15c) lasting over a week that caused the problem initially and it froze all the water in the cistern as I discovered when I removed it. One big solid lump
One thing you have to remember about those, is they don't last.
In Calgary, it can be -31C one day, and when a chinook comes through, it can be +3C. But on the days it is cold, it's no joke.
Right now, Iqaluit is -3C, Whitehorse in Yukon is -34C. Calgary (south of those) is -23C right now. The people in Iqaluit will be out in their short sleeve shirts.
From visiting Calgary and Banff some years ago, the cold was a dry cold. Minus 25°C felt similar to slightly above 0°C in the UK. I was happily walking around with shirt and tie and no coat. The main thing was remembering not to grab the metal doorhandle in the carpark without a glove!
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