Backyard ice rink tip - keeping your hose thawed
I came up with a nice, easy way of storing my hose for the ice rink season. My first year doing this I learned the hard way that you should never leave your hose outside in the winter. It will freeze and take forever to thaw out. I started keeping the hose in a rubbermaid to cart in and out and stored it in the basement next to the furnace.
This year I decided to use a big red bucket that we use for ice and drinks during parties in the summer. The trick is to coil the hose in the bucket starting with the end you attach to the faucet. Leave enough hose sticking out so it will reach the faucet. Coil it all in neat so you get no kinks and voila, a much neater and more management hose storage. I just hook it up to the faucet and pull out however much hose I need to reach the rink. The handles on the bucket are useful for keeping the ends in the bucket so I don’t drip on the floor when I bring the whole thing inside. A warm hose makes your ice resurfacing go much quicker.
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Posted by: John on December 6th, 2007 under DIY Projects, Tips and Tricks.
Comments: 6
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Comments
Pingback from My Family Loves It » DIY Backyard ice rink
Time: December 10, 2007, 8:59 am
[...] Update 12/6/2007 - Here’s a tip for keeping your garden hose from freezing [...]
Comment from pt
Time: December 25, 2007, 12:56 pm
anyone know how to treat and eliminate the air pockets form under the ice surface when I resurface the backyard ice rink?
Comment from John
Time: January 3, 2008, 12:24 am
PT - If the hole is near the surface you can break a hole down to the pocket, packet it tight with snow, then add a little water. Enough to soak the snow, but not melt it. Let that freeze solid and then resurface your rink. If you ever watch an NHL game thats what the refs are doing when they scrape some ice with their skate, push it into a bad spot on the ice and then hit it with water from a gatorade bottle.
Comment from Peter
Time: January 6, 2008, 8:41 am
Thank you! Thank you! This is our first year making a rink. We have done well and have been skating on it twice. I have some thin-soft spots where our skates have dug in. Today I’m off to buy the parts to make a rink rake, Up to now I’ve been hand spraying and using a lawn sprinkler. Thanks again.
Comment from Dan, Sylvan Lake, AB
Time: January 23, 2008, 5:17 am
I built our 55′ by 110′ last year and the learning curve has been enourmous. As far as keeping the hose from freezing, I have a long hose and it is very bulky taking in and out of the house so up until now I have been draining over the top of my 8 foot high back boards. This sometimes still leaves water in some spots. I plan this year to mount a small air compressor next to the faucet and blow the hose out. We put in a hot tub last summer, and dunking the hose in there for 10 minutes works probably better than anything. I could get a little messy, so I haven’t told my wife.
Pingback from META-DAD » DIY Backyard Ice Rink
Time: January 28, 2008, 6:33 pm
[...] are complete with tips on how to keep that hose from freezing and how to make a Rink Rake for under $20 bucks using PVC and some PVC cement and primer, sweet! [...]
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